It turns out that not only do the later Star Trek series frequently involve poker scenes (usually involving illegal or silly game rules, but don't get me started, that's a whole 'nother story), but the traits that characterize many of the alien races would, if combined into one person, make that person a practically perfect poker player.
So let's take a look at those alien races and their attributes, and then see how you might be able to learn from these far-off folk to improve your own poker game.
Alien race #1: The Klingons. Even people who don't like Star Trek have heard of the Klingons, those ferocious warriors whose foreheads grew considerably lumpier in the interim between the original Star Trek show and Next Generation.
The Klingons represent the ultimate in aggression and courage, two traits that grow more and more important to success the higher you go up the poker ladder (that is, as the opposition grows tougher or the stakes get higher). The Klingon saying, "Today is a good day to die," doesn't mean they have a death wish. It means that they aren't going to let the fear of death interfere with their best efforts as a warrior.
As a poker player, you're constantly faced with situations that generate fear: surprises, famous opponents, the huge payoffs that get close as you advance far into a big tournament, and more. How you face that fear will have a lot to say about how successful you become. You can't play poker scared. You can't be worried that your opponent always has the best possible hand, or that a Famous Player is so much better than you that you have no chance.
One of the easier ways to avoid fear is to be the player generating fear in others, rather than the player who is reacting to it. That's where the Klingon aggression comes in. If you are the player doing the raising, rather than the player sitting there wondering what a raise here means, your profits will increase (or losses will decrease).
Alien race #2: The Vulcans. Mr. Spock's clan is often misunderstood by casual or non-Star Trek fans, who tend to think that Vulcans have no emotions. Actually, Vulcans have plenty of powerful emotions: they've just developed mental techniques that allow them to control these emotions.
If you can't think of how that might be useful to a poker player, you've never lost a huge pot to a player who hit an unbelievably lucky card on the river (in other words, you haven't played much poker). Such incidents are part of poker, but they still put a great many players on tilt, and I'd rather face a great player who is on tilt than a good player who is playing under control any day.
Vulcans are also famous for their frequent use of logic to defuse emotional situations (and simply to analyze problems), and while poker is more of a people game than a card game, logical analysis is an important part of making reads and making decisions about whom to raise (or fold to). Remembering earlier betting sequences allows you to draw logical conclusions about what a player is likely to hold (e.g., a player who only called before the flop is unlikely to hold A-A or A-K, hands that your excellent Vulcan memory tells you he always raises with before the flop).
Vulcans are highly intelligent, and while you can't do much to increase your raw intelligence, you can take steps to ensure you don't decrease it, e.g., don't play when you've been drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, or using any other sort of drug. Actually, Vulcans don't use mind altering escape drugs at any time, another trait a good poker player would do well to emulate.
It sounds like a Vulcan would be an ideal poker player, but in Mr. Spock's (or was it Mr. Tuvok?) own words, "Vulcans never bluff."
Alien race #3: The Romulans. Romulans look a lot like Vulcans (they share a common ancestry), but where the Vulcans are logical tacticians, the Romulans are sneaky tacticians, and they would bluff anytime they felt it was to their advantage to do so. The Romulans are very deceitful: they look and act like they are doing one thing while actually they are doing another, and they are always scheming and plotting.
At the poker table, if your style is predictable, you probably can't win unless you are playing for low stakes against weak players, who won't bother to remember how you have played previously. You need deception as part of your arsenal, and you need to make moves that make it difficult for other players to know what you are doing or thinking. That means shifting gears, making dissimilar plays with similar hands, setting traps, and in general being as sneaky as you can while remaining within both the letter AND the spirit of the rules.
The Romulans carry their deceit too far: their word can't be trusted. In your dealings with players away from the table, your word should be your bond. At the table, most kinds of "fibs" are acceptable, although there are lines (learning exactly where to draw them takes some time) you shouldn't cross. A poker playing Romulan would probably be an angle-shooter, one of the more detestable forms of poker life.
You would do well to emulate that "always" scheming and plotting Romulan characteristic. Most players waste valuable time when they are not involved in a hand: they watch TV, eat, tell jokes, whatever. A Romulan would be spending this time studying his foes, looking for weaknesses to exploit later, and so should you.
Alien race #4: The Ferengi. And you thought Vulcans had big ears! The Ferengi are known for their relentless pursuit of profit. That's all they can think about: money, money, money. IF winning money is the main reason you play poker (for many players, the social aspect of the experience is more important), you would do well to emulate the Ferengi by realizing that a penny saved is a penny earned.
A Ferengi would be terrific at saving bets on the end (this is, not calling for curiosity reasons when he knows he is beaten). Ferengi would also study traits that are unprofitable and avoid them. Ferengi would not play too many starting hands, wouldn't play dubious hands in early position, and in stud wouldn't play if the cards in their hands weren't live.
Alien race #5: The Betazoids. Deanna Troi's race can read minds (Deanna, only half Betazoid, can only read emotions). Clearly, this trait comes closer to being a kind of "super power" that a poker player can't really develop, but there are things you can study, like body language, that aren't bad pinch-hitters for an actual ability to read minds or emotions. While you cannot literally mimic this ability, you would be surprised how close you can come via paying attention to what is happening – to clues and facts both subtle and obvious. Improving in this one area alone could turn many losing players into winners.
Alien race #6: The Borg. No, I'm not suggesting you get cybernetic implants like those spooky "Resistance is Futile" guys. However, the Borg do possess a few traits that would serve you well in poker. Perhaps the most important is that they gain knowledge and progress towards their goal of perfection by assimilating the knowledge of other races.
You don't have to inject Borg nanoprobes into your opponents' bloodstreams to assimilate what they know. If you study your opponents carefully, you will pick up moves that you can add to your own arsenal. Although they don't want to be, your opponents can be your best teachers, if you study them carefully enough.
The Borg also excel at adapting to new circumstances. If someone hits them with a new weapon, they use their collective knowledge to seek out alternative ways to defend against it, rather than stubbornly sticking with tactics that clearly aren't working against a particular foe. If you have more than one style you can employ, and can adapt or adjust your game to circumstances, you'll be a far more dangerous opponent.
I don't know about you, but if I learned about a game I could get into where my opponents were ferociously aggressive, fearless, logical, brilliant, able to control their emotions, schemed constantly, valued money enough to not throw away bets on the end, could read my body language ably, and were constantly seeking to improve their games by studying opponents, I'd go looking for another game to play in. As an enterprising lad, I might stick around to watch, because I'd learn a lot, but risk my money in it? No self respecting Ferengi would do that!
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We can't emphasize enough the importance of keeping a poker face while betting, and not giving any clues about how good or bad your hand is. The whole point of the game is to make sure that they have NO clues, other than the bets you make.
