I am a bad driver. My record sucks. No matter what I do, I will still get 1-2 tickets a year. I went 2 years without a ticket but for years I had at least 2 per year. I just don't pay attention.

Now let's relate this to poker (or any game). We all have certain personalities which dictate (in both good and bad ways) how we play the game. Some of us are more prone to tilt. Some of us take more high variance lines. Some of us are not afraid of loosing. Etc.

I am wondering if this can be changed. Can a LAG become a NIT or vice versea?

And how do we achieve this change if desired?

OR are we pretty much stuck with our personality?

Well... we are who we are, but that doesn't completely encompass how we play. I started out as a nit and prefer low variance scenarios, but have learned to never back down from a +EV line even if its highly volatile. I'm not sure a LAG could ever be a nit or why they'd even want to since its not an optimal way to play. However, a bad LAG can certainly become a good one. That's more about study and dedication though, which can't be taught. I believe few players actually play for the money. Most just play for a rush, to pass time, to socialize, etc. Such players don't have any real motivation to do what it takes to be profitable, and I doubt they can one day force themselves to care

Our style is the extension of our personality. A person can change their personality to fit a situation or change a situation in life or poker. It actually comes from changing from an introvert to an extrovert to be more outgoing in personality. Changing one personality mask for another to become another type of personality would be closer than style change because of what the change actually represents from a psychological perspective.

. The definition of an introvert; is someone who re-energizes through solitude, thought and reflection. They have an active inner life; they are most fulfilled when they are allowed time to tap into its riches. Five traits of success for an introvert, be yourself, recharge, think different, be bold, and be patient.

The definition of extrovert is "the act, state, or habit of being predominantly concerned with obtaining gratification from what is outside the self". Extroverts tend to enjoy human interactions and to be enthusiastic, talkative, assertive, and gregarious. Extroverts are energized and thrive off of being around other people. They take pleasure in activities that involve large social gatherings, such as parties, community activities, public demonstrations, and business or political groups. They also tend to work well in groups an extroverted person is likely to enjoy time spent with people and find less reward in time spent alone. They tend to be energized when around other people, and they are more prone to boredom when they are by themselves.

Behaviors, personalities, changes in personalities and in behaviors come from both introverts, extroverts. For example, I am an introvert but can change to an extrovert especially in poker and in real life as well. My patient default style comes from the truest part of myself that is an introvert, but will become aggressive, will show behavior change in betting, actions, chat will reveal my extrovert which changes my personality when I see it will benefit me more against my competition. Change is only based upon what I read about my opponents. My opponents play will influence me to change, I never have to impose my change on them; they welcome the change by their actions, emotions, bad or good decisions. The results of the change are not based on my style or my opponent’s style but rather their actions that will allow me to read the needed change. I am not changing my style it just appears this way to my opponents because they understand style of play rather than a change of thinking. This allows me to interrupt their thinking; this will change their routines that the brain now sees as a skewed difference in their approach against me; after I have changed my personality to fit their actions as one example.


From philosophy comes another understanding of personalities. Esthetic, ethical, and religious; ethical is the introvert and the other two have to answer to the play and personality of the ethical. Ethical is “Clark Kent”, and part of “Clark Kent” is esthetic also. The religious is “Superman” and all three of these come from being an introvert and the information has three different distinct games and personalities. However, they mesh together and play as one but can branch off with different abilities and reasons.

The esthetic, ethical, and religious have three different personalities that can become extroverted; these changes have the same abilities and reasons but have different names to separate themselves from the introverts. I have played sports my whole life and love to talk smack, this is where the wrestling entertainment people thrive off the audience good or bad characters. For example, “Clark Kent” when being an extrovert then would be more like “Hollywood Hogan” that are both ethical, esthetic. The religious would be Lex Luther. All of this aligns itself with the extrovert and the positive actions of the extrovert.

I am energized by how emotional the chat becomes, I will become passive-aggressive in the chat with sarcasm, I know I am energized, why I am energized, I thrive knowing they are paying attention to emotion rather than my play. Just like the baseball star that is being booed by the rival fans on the road, the media could ask how do you handle this? Actually they are energized by this because you will hear them say, they do not boo nobodies. Larry Bird told anyone who did something to antagonize him how he was going to score on them, told them about it the whole game.

When I change my personality I want the target, the rooting against me, talk smack back at me, be emotional try to give me their best because when I beat them I will tell them about it. I am motivated from the fear of losing, not my opponent’s; this emotion allows me to have the proper focus to make the proper decisions in this distinct personality change. I use music to motivate the extrovert and knowing this personality gets an emotional reaction from my opponents, it then motivates me even further to continue this line of play.

I also understand my personality is not an extrovert, I do not become the person at the table away from the table; it is just for entertainment purposes, strategy, and to goat my opponents into an emotional state of mind to create a psychological edge if possible. Otherwise, it could become unhealthy mentally. I do not change my morals just my personality, I just mesh introvert and extrovert, change my behavior to align itself with what would give me the best chance of success, I am still esthetic, ethical and religious in the same way, I can and will adjust my introvert and extrovert success traits.

In conclusion, advanced play can come from being an introvert but mostly it is ABC to fit the competition, the introvert will not chat or does nothing to draw attention to themselves, just like a shy person. Advanced play from an extrovert, from the emotional play then becomes ABC because of the emotional play of my opponents. Either way I do not change my style, play, I just change my thinking, personality, to adjust to my competition. This keeps what I am doing simple no matter if I am being an introvert or extrovert.

Because no matter what I am doing my competition is not fixated on what I am doing they are just being esthetic about what they are doing. This lets the brain focus on the skewed differences in play, emotion, and chat if there are any of my opponents; all of this response is still based on my reads of my opponents. Psychology, philosophy, just helps to understand and know things that are different than my opponents approach. Understanding, knowing, applying different information, will let me more creative, confident, this helps me to see how too consistently play against the grain with my opponents. This was just a fancy way of saying; you are not stuck with one personality.

The human brain is the most malleable tool we have. Even most forgetful people can memorize things when they're important. Your own admission that you went 2 years without a ticket proves that you're able to, but choose not to.

GJ you seem to have quite a few threads on the go always, why not look into getting a psychologist, or sports psychologist to run some of these ideas by? I think you'd surely get value from them.

STL FAN, any good books you'd recommend? You seem to know your stuff.

Interesting topic but have to disagree that our playing style is an extension of our personality. Well maybe in the beginning, but as more knowledge is gained I believe that our playing "style" is shaped more by our knowledge and understanding of the game rather then our personality.

I do believe that behaviour modification is possible, however for some it may be easier and for others more difficult (depends on the behaviour also).

How? Hard constant work. Determination, perseverance and persistence. Basically the undesirable behaviour has to always be on your mind until it is corrected. I think Mental Game of poker book covers this a bit with the "Adult Learning" model?

This is exactly what I was thinking.

I would also add in general I also think most beginners play too many hands, then when they realize tight poker wins money they nit it up.

Then in the final stages of mastery (when they have their opponents hand ranges nailed and are no longer flustered by variance) they will ultimately play in the slight loose aggressive spectrum.

Sacrifice who you are for who you want to be