Poker blog

I've been playing poker for years now, and I've developed a style that's brought me a fairly decent win rate. I've learned the game the hard way, by sitting down, making mistakes, leaking chips, and slowly patching those leaks through experience. It's been a long grind, and one that's relied more on instinct and trial-and-error than on theoretical study.

But lately, I feel like I've hit some kind of plateau.

The games are getting tougher. The player pool is smaller, and there are fewer poker rooms than before. The competition that remains is sharper. And if I want to continue winning, to eventually sit in bigger games and hold my own against stronger opponents, something has to change.

And I've noticed is this ...

I have a really hard time visualizing poker ranges.

Sure, I know them to an extent. I can tell you what a standard opening range looks like from various positions, or which hands someone might 3-bet in a certain spot. But I don't really see them. I don't have that mental picture some players talk about, where they visualize how a range evolves, street by street, from preflop to river. For me, it's all vague. More like a feeling, or a foggy guess, than a clear framework. It's like trying to find my way through a dark room.

Then I stumbled upon an interesting condition: Aphantasia.

It's the inability to visualize images in your mind, what's often called the mind's eye. Some people can close their eyes and see an apple. I close mine, and there's just... nothing. No apple. No anything.

So how much has this affected the way I process poker hands?

I don't know... I don't construct ranges in my mind street by street. Instead, I just sort of feel them, shaped by years of trial, and error. I often know when something feels off, when a bluff might get through, or when to fold a strong hand. But I'm not thinking in terms of combos like, He has 12 value hands and 6 bluffs. I'm just reacting based on instinct.

And on the early streets, that's mostly fine. But as the hand progresses, to the turn or river, when ranges narrow and decisions get more nuanced, I start to feel lost. I don't have a clear map of what hands my opponent could or should have. My decisions become guesses. Sometimes good ones, but guesses all the same.

It's worked well enough to turn a profit. But I fear it won't carry me further. If I want to keep progressing, I need to evolve, but in a way that suits how I think.

What I need are concepts, systems, heuristics, and frameworks. I need to train my intuition not just through volume and repetition, but through intentional, structured study. I need to build a process that helps me effectively read hands and apply theory at the table, in live poker games.