This article is about a powerful persuasion strategy that almost guarantees success, how I practiced it and how I managed to lose the game as a result.
My last article was about accidentally making a young woman completely infatuated with me. The article before that was, even though ten minutes earlier she was completely resistant, about how I managed to get someone to completely obey my commands. In this article I will show you how I made several people around a table follow my commands and how that led to my total demise.
All of this has come about because I have been going through Dark Side 2, Kenrick Cleveland’s new persuasion skills programme. One of the things that makes the Dark Side 2 such a great persuasion skills programme is that it is not just about a bunch of patterns, although they are all there. It is about being strategic and understanding how these pattern works so you can use them in ways that suit you and get you most leverage in any situation.
For a limited time the Dark Side 2 shopping cart is open. Here is the link where you can find out and buy the course now.
Last Friday I was listening to one of the Dark Side audios where Kenrick outlined a simple but really powerful strategy. My version that I took away was in any given situation ask yourself the question, “What is the one thing my target can believe that will make them do what I want? From there you can find many different ways to presuppose that belief.
When I heard this the way Kenrick describe it I was desperate to just try it. The thing is that this is an incredibly powerful idea. Instead of trying to get someone to do what you want you are installing the beliefs that let them come to that conclusion naturally. Just as one idea, if you could install a belief in the need for your product you would not have to sell it, people would just come to buy. It would not be fair to use Kenrick’s examples so let me explain how I used the idea as a way of illustration.
The first things I needed was an environment to practice in. I decided that I would play poker that evening. Poker is a game of people played with cards. A novice player is concerned about the value of the cards they are holding. An intermediary player is concerned about the value of the cards their opponent is holding. A good poker player is concerned about the value of the cards they can get their opponent to believe they are holding. This is a perfect environment to practice your new persuasion techniques.
I started by thinking through what I wanted the other players to do. Quite simply it was to fold when I wanted them to fold and to bet when I wanted them to bet. I then asked myself what do they have to believe for them to act that way. I came to the realisation that if they thought they knew what was in my hand they would bet the way I wanted them to bet.
I then went through what I would have to do get them to believe that. So armed with that information I went down to my local casino to see what would happen. The first half of the game I was playing wildly different to my normal style, and everything was geared to showing myself to be very predictable. I even anchored big bets to a knowing look, which is another strategy Kenrick talks about. You could almost see the sharks on the table calculating how they would play me.
It cost me a lot of chips to set this up because I had to fold lots of hands that I might normally have played. Also whenever I had a big hand instead of disguising it I put in unfeasibly big bets, everyone would fold and I would show the hand, but of course it doesn’t win as much. But an hour or so into the game I had the rest of the table nicely sensitized to a big bet and a knowing look from me meant a winning hand and anything else meant a losing hand. Now it was time to open up.
As we approached the middle game I found myself in a pot with rubbish cards and several players with a lot of chips in the middle of the table. I pushed all my chips in with my knowing look and everyone folded. A few minutes later another opportunity presented itself and I took it with my rubbish cards and an increasing stack of chips.
I was getting the feeling that people were reaching the limits of their beliefs, so I sat quiet for a few hands. Then as luck would have it I had a great starting hand and several people had put lots of chips in the middle. This time my knowing look and large pile of chips pushed into the middle of the table wasn’t enough I got called. But this time I really did have a monster staring hand and I won. The net result is I have just reinforced that belief again. We are now up and running to play the bluff another two or three times and that is exactly what I did.
Another opportunity opened up and I excitedly pushed all my chips into the middle. As predicted the other players started folding except one. He hesitated and you could see him thinking things through. I realised my mistake as soon as I saw him hesitate, he didn’t have many chips left and was soon going to be leaving the game unless he took a risk to gain some chips back. He pushed all his chips in fully expecting to lose to my supposed bigger hand.
The thing is I had been bluffing, as I had with all the other big hands. My opponent had a better starting hand and duly won the pot as you would expect. My problem though, the belief I had spent so long installing was totally exposed and I couldn’t find a way of recovering from that. Sadly I left the table a short while later without making it into the money.
But I am very happy with the result because for a substantial period on that table I completely controlled the betting. This had nothing to do with fancy play, clever language patterns or anything particularly difficult. All it required was a strategic overview and some thought before play. This was such an easy way to learn some powerful strategies and now I have some new stuff to think through ready for the next game. Now I am happy with the concept I just need to integrate the strategy with the rest of my play.
For a limited time the Dark Side 2 shopping cart is open. Here is the link where you can find out and buy the course now.
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Tags: Case Studies, Leadership, Poker