What a match made in heaven.  I read the Art of War many years ago and was impressed with how simple yet how deep it was.  Sun Tzu’s ability to step away from it all and find the basic, obvious truths that we miss is absolutely amazing.  At the time I thought it was a neat read and told myself to read it again some day.

I finally got around to the Art of War again and I must say that reading it all over again as a poker player was like reading a completely different book.  The Art of War and poker were made for each other.

For example, one of the first quotes from the book is:

“All warfare is based on deception.”

If we read that as “all poker is based on deception” it couldn’t get any truer or more basic than that.  Poker is all about deception.  We win if our opponents incorrectly fold when we are weak and incorrectly call when we are strong.  That’s all there is to it.  All of the odds we calculate, the big bluffs we make, big calls, big folds…it’s all about deception - us making correct plays while inducing our opponent to make incorrect plays.

David Sklansky's Fundamental Theorem of Poker is amazingly similar:

“Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponents' cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose. Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose.”

See?  All we want is to deceive our opponents into making the incorrect play.  Every time they do that, we make money.  Another line from the art of war is as follows:

“Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”

Yep, more deception.  The more astray we can lead the enemy (opponent) the better position we are in to take him for everything he has.  Humans love deception and that’s why poker appeals to so many people.  It’s fun to get the upper hand on someone and be rewarded for it.

How about this line?

“Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.”

Even more deception!  How about a nice little check as bait and then when he bets, we crush him with a huge raise!

A couple more:

“If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.”

“Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.”

I think these are both pretty obvious.  It’s all about deception.  Ok, I’m done beating that horse.

Here is another interesting quote from The Art of War:

“If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him.”

If we read this as poker players, it means look out for skilled opponents.  Be prepared for their nasty little tricks and surprises.  If you believe an opponent is better than you, avoid him.  It’s so obvious but how often do we like to admit to ourselves that an opponent is better than we are?  Not very.  Even if you must sit at the same table as a superior opponent, it's possible to stay out of his way and adjust your play around that opponent.  Remember, war (poker) is all about winning, not beating your opponent fair and square on a level playing field.

In Chapter 2, there are a couple of interesting quotes that apply nicely to poker:

“When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.”

“Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.”

These quotes make so much sense to me because I have gone against this wisdom countless times and paid the price.  If you have been playing a long session or a particularly tough losing session, your weapons will grow dull and the consequence is that your play will suffer. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, it happens to us all.  The poker player who can swallow his pride and pull himself away from the tables when he is taking a beating will have a large advantage over a player of equal skill who can’t stop himself when his play is suffering.

The last quote I would like to discuss today is what Sun Tzu called the five essentials for victory:

1. He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
2. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
3. He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
4. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
5. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.

These points can be translated as follows:

1. You will do better in poker if you know when to play and who to play and when to not play and who to not play.
2. You will learn to play when dealt superior cards in good position and when dealt weak cards out of position.  This means folding when it is appropriate, taking advantage of position when it is appropriate, and basically making the most money (or losing the least) in all situations.
3. You will win in poker if your mentality is in good condition.  This means not playing when you are upset by outside forces, when dwelling upon a bad beat, or when worried about the rent money, etc.
4. You will win in poker if you use the deception we were talking about earlier.
5. You will win if you are free to play a perfect game of poker without outside worries, thoughts, annoyances bothering you.  This is very similar to number three.

I hope I have shown how appropriate a read The Art of War is for a poker player.  I recommend you all give this book a good read.  The most interesting thing of all is that the more you develop as a poker player, the more this book will apply to you.  Little things you didn’t notice as a beginning poker player will stick out like sore thumbs to you as a veteran.

You can get this book for free here or from Amazon.com.  I prefer to have a hard copy of it on my shelf but use whatever resource suits you the best.  Read through it and make your own inferences. No two poker players will read this book exactly the same. That is the timeless magic of this classic.