It's amazing how the most basic of human functions are able to control the conscious mind. Scientific experiments on mice and pigeons and more recently cuttlefish have shown that they can be taught to react to a specific sign with a specific behavior, much like Pavlov's dogs. Ring a bell and our animal friend will expect food. They become so conditioned to believing this through repetition that they always expect the same result.

Even more important, the study shows that once an individual is thoroughly conditioned to trust the sign, they will not search for other variations of possible occurrences similar, but a shade different, to the one in which they are so habituated to believe. So a mouse who has thoroughly got the message that a falling rock means food, and if that incident doesn't occur, there is no food, he will take it that all other signs except for the falling rock indicate no food. To him there are no other possibilities and he will not look for them.

There have been times I am sure that you have been made suddenly aware of a realization that never occurred to you before. Something like the CEO of Ford is one of the finest executives in the country. Is he? Or is he simply Henry Ford's great grandson?

It is not unusual that during an evening of poker, a few of the players take a break and chat about the game. During their discussion they zero in on player number four (not present in the break room). They go on about what a lousy player he is and how could he possibly still be in the game. The two players involved in the discussion leave the table to discuss their observations in almost whispering tones and swear each other to secrecy. By sharing their observations, they discover that each had noticed a completely different behavioral tidbit. The first noticed that whenever number four had a good hand, he would place his bet, clench his hands into fists and lay them on the table, never doing this under another situation. While the second one observed that number four, whenever he had a bad hand, would push his chips around noisily, never engaging in this behavior under any other circumstance.

So number four has two actions that betray him. The smug, secretive twosome who consider themselves to be good players, each picked up on only one. Their minds simply stopped discovering at one observation and never reached beyond for further insight.

A good player will not consider this realization trivial. He will take advantage of it by learning to be flexible in his observations and keep his mind active throughout play. By classifying other players habits and behaviors as to high and low importance, he is increasing his odds of winning.