I don't think I ever read any articles about this subject, so I can only rely on my own observations. Also, because the topic is not mathematical, but more subjective, many poker authorities might just say it is not "scientific" enough. However I do think the phenomenon exists and it is worth talking about.

So far I can't explain why or how this works, but I will keep trying to understand it and find reasons for why sometimes your timing is perfect and sometimes it is just so off you can't help.

I am talking about the timing of your moves in a poker tournament. I had some great and some very bad tournaments recently. I played at the WSOP $1500 event yesterday where no matter what I did, my timing was always the worst possible. For example I had a table where people liked limping with mediocre hands from up front and middle positions. I knew it was a great opportunity to raise them and to get some easy chips, but when I should have done it, I didn't, and when I did, I ran into a monster hand behind me on the big blind. Had I done it just one hand earlier it would have worked out perfectly, but instead I lost a lot of chips in both hands.

This was not the only move where my timing was completely off, I could just never get it right in that tournament, except once, where I managed to sqeeze several limpers with an all-in and increase my stack by 50% without a showdown. But that was the only exception.

On the other hand I played a $1000 satellite to the Main Event in the Rio that same night where I just couldn't make a mistake with the timing. Anything I did worked out perfectly. I know I made mistakes, I used the worst possible type of hand for an all-in sqeeze, but it didn't matter as I didn't get called. I should have used the previous hand, 89s, but for some reason I didn't do it in that hand, maybe that was actually a good thing and I would have run into something then. There was a very loose raiser and he got called when I found 89s in the big blind. I just didn't feel good about it, so I folded. The very next hand he raised again, he got called in two spots and I made my move. I shouln't have done it with that hand, it was a huge mistake, I would have been drawing very slim if I got called.

Anyway, the point is, that no matter if I made mistakes or not, they all worked out and I made the money, and got $6200 after a 10-way chop (there was $75,000 in the prize pool). It also happened to me in an online tournament recently, that I just could not get it wrong. Sometimes I folded my fairly strong hands preflop in short-handed play and I was right to do so, sometimes I reraised the loose raiser with garbage and I was also right. I got it right almost all the time (with 1-2 rare exceptions).

I have been thinking about this phenomenon of timing for quite a while - how is it that sometimes you get it all wrong and sometimes you are spot on with the vast majority of your moves. I am always very careful with picking my spots. I always have a tight image so I can get away with most of my moves. I think it largely depends on how concentrated you are - your observation of situations and players. When I had the " bad feeling" about my 89s, I might have had a very good reason to believe it would have been bad timing, I just can't explain which one of my observations suggested so. But my subconstious probably had the perfect explanation.

This makes me think that you physical fitness and concentration is much more important in this issue that you would think. In a poker tournament you make thousands of observations during several hours of play. Both constious and subconstious. You need to use this information in the hours ahead of you and most of the time it is not enough to use the constious observations. Using your subconstious might make the difference between your best and worst tournaments. Your poker skills are not going to change overnight. You know the same in your morning tournament as in your evening tournament. But if you can get your timing right by concentration and observation, it might just be the difference you need to make it.