I'm going to present a couple of cases which can easily be explained without psychic abilities, and some which made me wonder about the psychic abilities of myself or others. Some of them can quite reasonably be explained by the power of the mind, processing ordinary sensory data. Other cases have left me quite certain that something funny was going on.

You can read the previous two posts here:
Psychic Poker - do cardplayers use ESP to gain an advantage? Part 1
Psychic Poker - do cardplayers use ESP to gain an advantage? Part 2 - Response to comments and criticism

"Rational explanations"

Of course, I know that many people will dismiss my interpretations of events as delusions, or selective memory, or data spat out from some deep part of my mind. It's always possible that I could be wrong - I'm only human - but the weight of my own experiences leads me to believe that psychic effects exist, and that I would surely be making the greater error by trying to ignore or dismiss what I've seen and felt - at and away from the card table. Not everybody has seen the same things as me, so doubt is only natural, and even healthy.

Many people will explain certain events by starting "A rational explanation is..." or when they're puzzled "There must be a rational explanation..." To me, this is nothing more than a subtle form of "poisoning the well". The arguer begins by telling us that his explanation is rational, and from that we assume that any explanation involving psychic powers is not rational or not sane - that only loonies or woo-woo people believe in it. There's nothing in the essence of an idea that involves an unseen mental sense that makes it irrational, any more than the idea that radios, televisions and computers communicate using unseen electric waves to talk to each other. Of course, that doesn't mean it should be the first explanation we jump to - but nor does it mean that it should be ruled out when the facts are there.

Simple tells - reading body language

(Nice stock image Kurt, they're actually playing blackjack)

Many times, cardplayers can "read the minds" of others, simply by looking at their actions, and there is nothing psychic about it.

I remember when I was learning to play cards, and I was frustrated with how well my friend Ilya was able to read me. He could tell when I was weak and when I was strong, and it seemed like I could do nothing to escape him. He later pointed out that I had placed my large chips on the right, and my small chips on the left, so he just had to follow my eyes to see what I was thinking.

For some other examples, when an average player stares at you after checking on the turn, they're trying to scare you so they can get a free river card. When an average online player checks immediately on the river, that means that they've probably given up on the hand.

Can I get a feeling? - Empathetic response

I remember my long-time poker buddy Steph asking me many times why I called in a particular hand on the river. Commonly my response was, "I smelt the fear," which I guess was a somewhat elusive and annoying answer, but the thing was, I picked up on the emotions of the villain, and knew what he felt.

Now, one explanation for this is the ability of the brain to mimic the the body language of another, and recreate their emotions - the sections of the brain known as "mirror neurons". By having the fellow in my field of vision, hearing the sounds he was making, and perhaps even smelling the chemicals being released from his body, my brain could produce a picture of what he was feeling.

But then, I've also had similar experiences when playing online. Many times, I have had the distinct impression that, along with the sound effect of the villain checking, or the sound that signalled that it was my turn to act, I have also received some emotional information - that the player was scared, or excited, that he wants me to bet, or wants me to check. This is more difficult to explain using mirror neurons, as the only info I can get is the amount of seconds that he waits before checking.

Stay tuned...

I still have some more interesting cases to bring up for discussion. Please press follow for more interesting stories and ideas, and have a great day.

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About me

My name is Kurt Robinson. I grew up in Australia, but now I live in Guadalajara, Jalisco. I write interesting things about voluntaryism, futurism, science fiction, travelling Latin America, and psychedelics. Remember to press follow so you can stay up to date with all the cool shit I post, and follow our podcast where we talk about crazy ideas for open-minded people, here: @paradise-paradox, and like us on Facebook here - The Paradise Paradox

Some other cool posts

Here are some other posts of mine to check out:

A Mexican Independence Day trip - ¡Viva México! - Day 1: San Miguel de Allende

Psychic Poker - do cardplayers use ESP to gain an advantage? Part 1

Psychic Poker - do cardplayers use ESP to gain an advantage? Part 2 - Response to comments and criticism