I’m still in Europe and no poker for several days. It has been a great vacation but I still look forward to the games in Las Vegas when I return.

Was Irving Berlin a poker player? The lyrics of the song “Doin’ What Comes Naturally” have been going through my mind lately, perhaps because of their relevance to poker. Let’s look at this verse:

Folks are dumb where I come from,
They ain’t had any learnin’
But they’re happy as can be,
Doin’ what comes naturally.

Doin’ what comes naturally (DWCN) seems to be the way many poker players approach the game. They fold, bet, raise and call when they feel like it. They have little ore no math behind their plays, little or no plan of approach and limited reads on their opponents. They may raise with good hands and fold a few bad ones, but they also call with some god ones and play (or raise) with bad ones if it feels like the right time.

They will make an inspired play on one hand, and a series of foolish ones later. They ignore the fact that poker is a game of a) odds, b) discipline and c) planning. They try to make it a game of guessing and mystery. “Nobody ever knows what I’m holding…I sometimes don’t know myself,” is their favorite poker motto.

These folks will have wins, especially at limit poker. But in the long run they have to lose, as they ignore the odds in favor of DWCN. I know that “feel” players are out there and do well, and I am not referring to them. They do rely on feel, but they also know and understand pot odds and strategy. The “feel” is used to adjust the odds, not ignore them.

Sometimes, disciplined decent players suddenly go into DWCN mode, typically because they are tired, bored or steaming. Once you start during a session, it is hard to recover.

Look for DWCN players, and look to yourself to see if, even on occasion, you are one.