Being Better than your Opponents
April 13, 2008 | Comments Off
If you been reading my previous articles, you should be at a point now to understand some of the things it takes to be better than your opponents in poker. You must keep youself focused at all times by remaining patient and playing under control by leaving your ego at home and not bringing in to the poker table.
If you become distracted, you will give up a big edge to the other poker players who are more focused. You must know more about the game, the odds, be more observant, and continue to improve your skills. Let the other poker players sit back smugly and think that they are better than you, you continue to learn and pay attention. Their mistakes = your profits. If you are more skilled, you are the favorite, just like your own private house-edge.
If you are the least skilled, you will have to get lucky to win.
Poker isn’t about luck, so make sure you are better than your opponents.
Leave your Ego at Home when Playing Poker
April 11, 2008 | Comments Off
The poker table is no place for your ego. Sure, it’s a good thing to be confident and play aggressive poker. You believe in your abilities at the poker tables but if you walk around with a big ego you will make big enemies and pride like this can cost lots of money.
Remember, poker is just a game you are playing. You’re playing this game to win but your whole sense of self shouldn’t be riding on it, it’s the first step to playing poker with self control.
Some things to consider about the dangers of playing with a big ego:
- Ego is cruel – it makes you play with emotion rather than logic and reason
- Ego makes bluffers continue a bluff that is futile
- Ego will make you make plays based on factors other than the realities of the poker game
- Ego makes an early bettor continue to bet even when he knows he’s beat
- Ego makes you stay in the game too long, even when you are losing
- Ego makes you lose big
Ego goes hand in hand with anger sometimes. Ego will cause you to reraise that jerk at the table because you think you are better than he is.
Keep your ego at home.
Playing Poker Under Control
April 9, 2008 | Comments Off
Imagine this scenario, it’s the game of your life. You flop a set and are betting like crazy. The pot is massive and then, on the river, some bozo catches two running clubs to beat you with a flush. What do you do?
In loser poker, you blow your stack and tear him apart for calling those bets with such a weak hand. Yeah sure, it would feel great to tell this whack-job exactly what you think of him and his card play but ultimately, that will cost you money.
Here’s why.
Poker is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. You need to keep this loose player at the table as long as you can. You want him sticking around and you certainly do not want to tip him off to the fact that he’s a poor card player.
So, what does the winning poker player do? You calmly muck you hand and get ready for the next hand. Do you bet like a wild man on the next hand? Of course not, you calmly sip your water and wait patiently for the next hand to be dealt. The odds of his flush hitting are 23-1 against a made set, you wait patiently for the next hand to beat him and get your chips (plus some) back.
Leaving Your Emotions at Home
Letting your emotions get the best of you is the worst things that you can do at the poker table and it’s the surest way to lose at poker. In poker, you stay in the hand because you feel you have the best odds of winning, not because you are angry, jealous, or want to defeat one particular player.
Emotions suck the rational and logical thoughts from your mind.
Here are some classic emotional poker blunders:
- Calling a bet on the river because you are afraid of being bluffed.
- Calling a bet on the river because you are afriad of looking bad.
- Calling with a drawing hand because the guy who is betting is a jerk.
- Taking it personally when someone raises you constantly, causing you to call with bad hands.
Whining, complaining, blaming rookies, or blaming the dealer for your losses shows weakness and lack of confidence and lack of confidence is one of the classic signs of a losing poker player. Good poker players are calm and in control, they take the good and the bad and never let the other poker players see them break a sweat.
The Patient Poker Player
April 8, 2008 | 1 Comment
In my last few strategy articles, I’ve discussed some of the more obvious traits of a successful poker player. For instance, you have to be intellectually smart to be a successful poker player, not just poker smart. I’ve also touched on some of the more external traits of a winning poker player like playing poker with an aggressive style or playing fearless at the poker tables. This next trait may not be as obvious to some but I consider it to be one of the most important traits of every successful poker player.
Playing Patient Poker
Consider this fact, you will be dealt way more bad hands than good hands. The odds are simply against you here. There are substantially more bad hand possibilities than good hands when being dealt cards. And then consider that not every “good hand” will be a winning hand. There will most certainly be times when you will have to wait an hour or even more before you a hand even worth calling one bet with, and then it’s quite possible that you will lose with that hand.
Not every poker hand is a winning poker hand
Hoping you get lucky is a sure-fire way to lose at poker. Trash hands may win every now and then but in the long run, you will just lose more money, faster.
The successful poker player has patience. The successful poker player has the discipline to sit for hours on end, constantly folding bad hands. The successful poker player remains patient during this time, they know their position and they know what hands they can and should play. You have to have the patience to stick to your game plan.
What does the winning poker player do when getting a streak of bad cards dealt to them? They study. They study their opponents play, make some mental notes, and they study how other poker players are perceiving his or her play. The winning poker player takes advantage of the situation and learns who is doing what at the poker table. You have to be the type of poker player that has the tenacity and patience to ride out the storm of bads cards and come through with more knowledge than anyone else at the table.
There is an interesting advantage to being a patient poker player and observing your opponents image of you. As soon as you sense the table believes you to be a super-tight poker player, you can use this opportunity to steal a pot or two.
The Aggressive Poker Player
April 7, 2008 | 1 Comment
In poker, aggression can be an effective winning strategy. This true mainly because if you bet often, no on can ever be sure what you have. Earlier, in my article “Playing Fearless at the Poker Tables“, I discussed letting go of your fears while at the poker table. In the case of the aggressive poker player, aggression and fear go hand in hand.
I’m not talking about YOUR fear, I’m talking about THEIR fear.
Having others fear you at the poker table is a major weapon. Hands down, the best way to win a pot is to just have someone give it to you without a fight.
Aggressive is NOT Reckless
Remember that line. It’s the most important thing to know about playing aggressive successfully. The kind of aggression I’m talking about is controlled aggression, not insane outlandish lunacy. Combine this aggression with courage, poker smarts, and instinct and you’ll take down more pots that you commit yourself to than before.
Aggression means making the most of your top hand, taking advantage of the cards given to you and pressing when you sense weakness in a player and their hand. It DOES NOT mean play every hand given to you. It DOES NOT mean playing garbage cards.
It does, however, mean bluffing, semibluffing, buying pots, and trying to dominate the table. The aggressive style of poker play gives you many ways to win and makes other poker players react to you. It makes those ohter players at the table try and guess and this gives them the opportunity to guess wrong.
It’s far better to take the fight to the enemy. Play aggressive poker.
Playing Fearless at the Poker Tables
April 6, 2008 | 3 Comments
Poker is nothing more than a test of courage. Not only are you potentially risking big money but you are (at times) putting yourself on the line. Sitting at that poker table, online or not, making a bet, folding, raising, getting beat and raking a pot will all make you feel butterflies in your stomach.
Mastering your fears and mastering your inner self is mastering poker. Consider the following:
What is the Fearless Poker Player?
- You must be willing to raise aggressively and rereaise when prompted.
- You can not fear that someone has the nuts just because he raised you.
- You have to stay strong when someone comes after you
- You can not be intimidated by experienced players
- You can’t be afraid of losing your money
- You can’t be foolhardy with your money
- You must not be afraid to fold a hold
- You must not be afraid to fold a hand that might be a winner
- You have to wait patiently for a playable hand
- You have to be willing to bluff
- You have to be willing to look that tough guy in the eyes when you do bluff
- You have to believe in yourself even during losing streaks
Poker Smarts
April 6, 2008 | 2 Comments
To win at a poker table, you have to be smart. I’m not just talking about smart play, such as aggressiveness, I’m talking about you, yourself. You have to be smart, you have to have a certain amount of intelligence. Poker is a difficult game to play well, you have to be sharp and stay sharp the whole time you are at the table.
Just one missed tell or one missed sign from another player all could be lost, especially with No-Limit Texas Holdem, but also in the limit games as well.
Lose your smarts in a No-Limit game and you can lose your chips, lose your smarts in a limit game and it could take you and extremely long time to get back and dig yourself out of a hole.
What Does it Takes to have Poker Smarts
It’s way more than just knowing what hands beat what or what the odds are of making a hand. It requires super fast decision making invloving multiple variables and no on at the table is going to wait around for you to make your decision. You have to be able to call up past experiences, read body language factored against playing style, and calculate pot odds all within a matter of seconds.
Poker is way more than odds, as you can see. You have to be able to tell what kind of person your opponent is by how he/she reacts in certain situations to calculate their possible hand based on their current reaction. Basically, you have to be a card player, a risk taker, mathematician, and a psychologist at the same time. You have to learn from every hand and to do this, you need a solid memory.
You need poker smarts.