Sun Tzu Art of Poker Faults

Sun Tzu defined a series of faults that he believed could be found amongst all generals who had suffered defeat. “When an army is overthrown and it’s leaders slain, the cause will surely be found among these faults.”

Recklessness

            There are countless stories of reckless players who have skyrocketed into the chip lead in a poker tournament. In almost all cases, their recklessness eventually led to their downfall.
This will usually occur because a player neglects to make adjustments as their opponents are realizing how aggressive they are playing. Once you have obtained the image of an aggressive player, it is hard to change the table’s perception of you. This can make bluffing very difficult, and these players tend to lose their ability to bluff during the most important stages of the tournament.

Cowardess

            A player that openly displays their weaknesses at the table is playing at a disadvantage when they are amongst skilled opponents. The optimal opponent for an aggressive player is one that will signify when they are prepared to give up on a hand. These players may finish in the money on occasion, but they will seldomly be seen playing in the late stages of a poker tournament.

A Hasty Temper

One of the characteristics that is common among the world’s most successful poker players, is the ability to remain mild tempered despite back luck at the poker table. Any player that intends on playing a significant number of hands can expect to get unlucky on occasion. This is something that poker players must learn to accept.
A player that cannot perform well during downswings will have a hard time becoming successful in the poker world. A player can easily negate all of their profits with a few poor decisions. In a tournament this will usually just lead to a player being knocked out of the event. However, in a cash game this can cause a player to lose their entire bankroll.
Bad luck will often cause a player to make poor decisions. This in-turn causes the player to lose more money, which will make them play even worse. This creates a scenario where a bad temper can cost a player a lot of money.

A Delicacy of Honor

        There are times in poker when a player’s emotions can prevent them from making the proper decision. This is often the case when a player is ecstatic about the strength of their hand, and it doesn’t occur to them that their opponent can still outdraw them on occasion.
Many players seem to always believe that their opponent is bluffing rather than believe that their opponent has the hand that they are representing.
This is often the case when a player flops a flush or a straight. The player will begin planning out how they are going to get all of their opponent’s chips. Emotionally, they become attached and committed to their hand. When it eventually becomes obvious that their opponent has outdrawn them, these players will find themselves unable to fold their hand.
There are some very unfortunate implications that come with this sense of attachment. In these hands, the pot is generally pretty large by the time that the players get to the river. This means that the bet or raise in question will be proportionally large. This means that a player who is unable to fold certain hands when they have been outdrawn, will be making a mistake at the most crucial point in the hand.
A mistake at any other point in the hand would not have such great consequences, but to refuse to fold a hand in this scenario will usually cause a player to lose all of their chips.
To put this idea into perspective, a player could outwit their opponents time and time again throughout the smaller hands, but making this mistake once could negate all of that player’s profits. Thus, a player who has the ability to fold big hands when they are outdrawn can show higher profits than a player who is superior, but does not have the ability to fold these hands.