The secret to winning any competitive activity is choosing opponents who are worse than you.

As the action ensued, Joey started his plan. His goal was to narrow down his targets to just one or two players from all of the opponents at his table. This would not only help with his mental stamina, but also allow him to adjust to the table faster since he would have fewer competitors to decipher.

'Who's it going to be?' This was a vital decision. Joey looked around the table. He recognized a few players from the last tournament but he either didn't play with them or was too exhausted to capture any important information. 'Looks like I'm starting from scratch. Alright then, let's consider what kind of target I want.' Joey had already thought about what factors should influence his choice of targets.

First of all, the purpose of choosing targets was so that he could study them and develop reliable reads. This meant it was preferable if it was a player that was more readable. What did more readable mean? To Joey, it meant the opponent gave off tells often, they were very noticeable, his interpretations of the tells were consistently accurate, and the information he gained could influence his decisions.

These factors determined the quality of the tells. If he could pick a readable target with high quality tells, he would not only get actionable information, but also more of it, which would build his mental profile of the target faster.

Second, it was preferable if the target played in many hands with him. That way, he would have more opportunities to acquire information, as well as more chances to use the information to exploit that target. So he preferred loose players who generally entered many hands.

He also preferred players sitting in the seats to his direct left and right because players tended to play more hands against those closest to them. This was a statistical fact he observed which happened because once players folded preflop, there would be fewer players remaining to potentially play the hand. This meant that if you played in that situation, you would only have a few possible opponents behind you and they would be the ones closest to you.

People also tended to play more hands in such spots because they were near the button and could steal. In other words, each player had many more opportunities to play hands against nearby opponents, which made those competitors more relevant.

Third, and probably the most important factor, he wanted to target fish. In poker, most of the money is made from bad players. A great player might only have a small profit vs a decent player, but even a decent player could gain a large profit from a bad player. Bad players are the gold mines. In cash games, fish reveal themselves eventually once they play enough hands. However, in tournaments, you don't always get enough time to identify them, so you have to look for other indicators.

'Let's make some educated guesses.' Even without playing a hand, Joey had figured out how he could find information to identify potential fish simply from their appearances and manners.

'This guy to my right, his chip stack is much sloppier and unorganized than the others, he's probably loose and plays a lot of hands, which is good for me. The guy to my left has a neat stack and is probably a tight player, not a good target.'

'The woman sitting opposite me is wearing very flashy clothes and jewelry which suggests she doesn't care much about money, she's also loud and extroverted; She's likely a loose player. The man two seats to my left seems very conservative and careful both in appearance and manner; He's likely tight and passive.'

'I saw the guy two seats to my right chatting with Andrew and a couple of others from the higher stakes games. He's likely a regular here. If he's played a long time and hasn't gone broke, he can't be that bad and there's a good chance he's at least a solid player.'

Joey continued on like this, analyzing everyone at the table. It only took a minute for him to select several suitable preliminary targets. He knew these early reads were just estimates and could be wrong, so if information surfaced that contradicted them, he would simply change his reads and pick new targets. Though he was likely correct, it was important to stay flexible.

'Now the second step, I need to disarm the other players.' Once the first hand was dealt, Joey's ability already went into active mode. Even though he knew who to focus on now, the issue remained that his ability worked on everyone at the table as a default. He needed to filter it so it would only work on his targets and he'd already thought of a method. Joey looked at all of the non-targets, or extras as he decided to call them, and closed his eyes.

Half a minute later, he opened his eyes again. He no longer saw a table full of players. There were two players, and the others...an assortment of strange objects and animals.

*Quack Quack*

To his left was a loud duck. Moving left again, a big red rooster. Then a stapler...a basketball...a panda...there was even a Mickey Mouse. Yes, Joey had no shame in using other people's copyrighted work in his visualizations.

'It works!' He could feel his mental strain easing. By visualizing the extras as funny objects and animals, he was able to subconsciously remove them as threats. He had full confidence in beating a stapler in poker, so his active empathy completely ignored staplerhead.

Joey was in a hand. The player he was playing against now--a toilet head. Every time he spoke, the toilet lid popped up. Joey revealed his cards at showdown. "Flush you..."

"What?" The player looked at Joey's hand and was confused. There was no flush on the board.

*Cough* "Sorry, two pair." As he was scooping the pot, a staff member came over and told him it was time to move tables. Although Joey wished he could stay there longer, he was satisfied. His brain wasn't exhausted, he had accumulated a decent chip stack, and he believed he could do a similar thing again.

At the new table, Joey sat down and used the same startup routine. A few minutes later, he found that he was sitting at a poker table next to various breeds of dogs. He paused.

'I feel like I recognize this scene from somewhere...'