But, what about actually applying this information and utilizing it? It seems like an incredibly complex and difficult concept to undertake, and it is; a lot of these spots are feel based more than anything. But, by beginning to see spots such as these in tournaments and cash games, you can find incredibly profitable spots that are completely and utterly non-existent to most players.

One such example came a few days ago in a small field rebuy tournament I was playing in on PokerStars. We were down to 7 players at our table, and had been for a few orbits. I had been playing with the players at our table for a considerable time, and had recognized most of them to be pretty tight, but competent players. We were all M7+, so everyone had some play left in their stacks. A peculiar thing had been happening with the pot sizes though that piqued my interest. There would be about 4 or 5 raise and take it type hands, then a slightly bigger pot, a few more raise and take it hands, then a big confrontation for a lot of chips. Immediately after that, it went back to “first in wins” for a few hands. After recognizing the pattern and getting some chips to use, I decided to test out the theory after a small blind/big blind battle that ended in AK getting cracked by 1010.

The next hand, I was in the hi-jack with 26o, and I opened to 2.5x, and got 4 of the quickest folds you’ve ever seen in an online tournament. The next hand, UTG+1, I was dealt 56s, and again opened 2.5x, and again, the entire table quickly folded. Now UTG, I was dealt K5o, and opened for a third consecutive hand, again to 2.5x.

Again, everyone folded, and in three hands, I had picked up a nice chunk of chips to my stack with 3 hands that I would normally never open with. The patterns of the table and the tempo shift of the all-in confrontation, combined with the end of the tournament looming, made it a lot easier to be willing to open up and pounce on the table, especially given that the two players involved in the all-in pot were very likely to stay out of significant action for awhile. The cards that I held didn’t matter; the chips that were out there were meant to be stolen, given the tempo of the table.

You can use tempo against specific players, too. A lot of tempo has to do with staying one step ahead of the rest of the field when it comes to shifts in tempo. If someone has been opening light, you 3-bet light. If they recognize that and start 4-betting you light, you 5-bet light, and so on. A lot of people, however, will just continue to ramp up the aggression without rhyme or reason once the 4-betting light begins, without realizing that, a significant portion of the time, it’s the player that sees the big jump in the hand range of the opener and tightens back up that wins the monster pot when he gets A9s to 5 bet shove into his KK. You can off-balance a lot of players by simply keeping track of your aggression level towards that player and dialing it up and down before he can figure out what’s going on.

This is a wonderful concept live, as players are a lot more likely to show you, verbally or otherwise, their frustration with your constant aggression. At a $2/$5 game in Glasgow, KY, I was able to control the player on my right, a complete psycho and super aggro player, by leveling up and down to directly shift his own aggression. He liked opening to $25 (a 5x open) from almost any position. I waited until I had the button or cutoff on him, and when he opened the pot first, I 3 bet him big ($90-$120), with position, with a wider range than normal; any pair, suited connected, etc, and watched him generally fold to my big raise.

I pulled this off about 3 or 4 times before I attempted it again with 89h and got immediately 4-bet to $400, with a stern, frustrated look on his face. I hemmed and hawed for a few seconds, then said, “Man, I don’t know if I can lay down nines here, you gonna show?” He didn’t say anything, and I flashed a single nine before folding. He then quickly turned over his QJs and raked the pot, saying nothing. Th table got a few chuckles, but I knew he had ramped up his aggression level, and all I had to do now is pick up a premium hand, and expect to get all-in with him. I had shown I was willing to 3-bet/fold, which had to register in his mind as a tempo shift for me; he’s now expecting me to flat hands like that and just 3-bet with monster hands, since he had just squashed my aggression level.

Or so he thought.

The next time he opened, I again 3-bet, but I changed the amount down to $70, a raise of only $45 more. When it got back to him, he paused for a bit, then folded, and asked to see my hand. I flashed him an ace and mucked the suited 4 that went with it, letting him reaffirm himself that I’m only popping him with monsters while keeping my level of tempo the same. He now “has my tempo” in his head, while I’m really completely the opposite in where I’m going. A few hands later, I finally got to set the trap. It folded to him on the button, and he opened to $30. I flatted with QQ and a stack of about $600 behind, and the big blind folded. I flopped a safe board of 4h5c9d and quickly checked to Mr. Aggro, who bet $80. I continued with the trap, flatting the bet from him, and checking the 4d on the turn. Mr. Aggro studied me for a bit, then slid $200 into the pot in two towers. A lot of players would simply put their last $320 in the pot here, but I knew this guy wanted to make the last bet, and I knew he thought my raises were strong and my calls were weak, so I tank-called the $200. Another 4 peeled off on the river, and after a brief tank, I checked to Mr. Aggro again. He immediately flicked 4 black $100 chips in the pot, and I couldn’t have beat him in the pot any faster. He turned over a pair of sixes, and I had successfully taken 120 BB’s off of my opponent by allowing him to think the tempo of the game was set to his aggression, not my deception.

If I had shoved the turn, Mr. Aggro would’ve read that as strength (like earlier, when I 3-bet and showed the ace) and could’ve gotten away from the hand there. My tempo shift earned me an extra $320.

These are just two examples of tempo shifting in hold’em; just look for spots where the chips are stagnating or shifting wildly, or players that are particularly aggressive or tight, and use the tempo of the game to keep yourself one step ahead of them.

Session motivation is a massive force that resonates throughout every aspect of the session that follows. It defines your attitude, shapes the plays you are and aren’t willing to make (and also when you’re willing to make them), helps to set your tolerance for suck outs, your ability to stay calm in tough spots – in fact, there isn’t a single element of a poker session that isn’t touched by the motivation behind that session.

The majority of players who are nodding their heads at the above, however, aren’t likely to give their motivation a second thought when they sit down to play poker. This is problematic for players because, simply, there are great reasons for wanting to play poker, and there are terrible ones. Most self-observant players know that the sessions that start for terrible reasons are essentially DOA – unless you run like Cada, things aren’t going to work out well.

Five Terrible Reasons to Play Poker

The following five mistakes are listed, roughly, in order of their terribleness (from least to worst). It’s also worth noting that many of the below can (and often do) play a partial role in your motivation to play poker, and that’s fine – it’s only when they start to become the dominant reason you play that problems arise.

Playing Poker for Revenge
I’m a little ambivalent about this one. For some people, revenge is an excellent motivator – it gets them paying attention, thinking creatively, and really engages them presently in the game. Others, however, allow revenge to distort their game, resulting in a really myopic focus that prefers all information and situations that allow them to tangle with the target of their revenge, an approach that observant opponents will notice and exploit quickly.

On balance, poker playing motivated by revenge is going to be -EV. Playing poker well means placing the highest value on – actually, placing value exclusively on – winning chips. Revenge will often tempt you to make decisions where the value isn’t in winning chips, but rather in embarrassing your opponent, bolstering your own ego, threatening their stack specifically, and so on. Those decisions may sometimes result in you playing optimal poker – they’re not mutually exclusive – but since they’re not decisions driven exclusively by maximizing your profit, they’re (drumroll) … not always going to result in your maximizing your profit.

Playing Poker to Cure Boredom
Idle hands are the devil’s workshop, and they also do a pretty good number on otherwise healthy bankrolls. While it may share several characteristics with its arcade brethren, online poker is not a video game. It should not be, as a matter of habit, something you do to pass or kill the time.

Boredom is usually born of a certain mental sluggishness. The reason you’re bored in the first place is because you can’t think of anything to do. You’re not always like that (probably not, anyhow) – you can probably look back over the last few months and identify several times that you came up with something to do. The difference between then and now? Now you’re lazy, uninspired, mentally dull and physically lethargic (all to varying degrees).

Sounds like an excellent time to make precise, demanding decisions for large sums of money!

If you like to blow off a break in your work or a couple dozen hands on the sofa when you’re waiting for a show to start, no big deal. Just be aware that making a habit out of starting sessions when you’re at both a mental and physical low point is a pretty sure path to earning less money than you’re capable of.

Playing Poker To Impress Others
Let’s keep up the aphorism trend: Pride goeth before a fall. People who play poker know that some sessions are awesome, activity-laden, action-raging experiences, some are simply catatonic, and most are in-between.

However, when you’re playing poker to impress your friends (whether they be real or virtual), you’re going to feel some pressure to ramp up the highlight-maker. People don’t watch poker to see a lot of folding – that’s why the WPT just shows the final table – and they’re either expecting you to bust out some nifty tricks or you’re expecting them to be expecting you to. Either way, you run into value-creep again – you’re now making decisions based on a value derived from other people’s approval, instead of swearing full and deserved allegiance to the one thing that matters when you play poker – making the most possible money in a given situation.

Exacerbating the situation is that fancy plays tend to be expensive – sometimes very expensive. A buy in is a pretty tough thing to win, and all it takes is one super-bluff or hero call you never would have made in a normal session to blow one off. It’s just not worth wasting hours of work to prove to others how good you are (which attempting to do will generally ensure failure to achieve said goal anyhow).

Avoid situations where you’re asked to put on a show, or – at the very least – temper people’s expectations upfront.

Did You Know That Most People Don’t Know How To Control Their Own Emotions?

I’ve been asked to write a strategy article on poker but felt the necessity to focus on the psychological and emotional elements of the game. With so many articles, training sites, forums and ebooks out there on poker strategies, anyone could find decent information on how to play a certain hand. But one of the least understood aspects of Poker (also one of the most important) is Emotional Control.

It’s amazing how we enroll in all sorts of classes in high school and college, and yet never been taught how to control our own emotions. You may have once found your own emotions running so wild that it seems as if you’ve lost control of yourself. We have a specific word for this in poker: tilt.

Isn’t that what tilt is? A lack of emotional control?

By learning how to better control our emotions, we can play our A game more often than others, win more money than others, and take more risks than we previously could (which results in even more profits). So before we can learn how to do this, let’s look at how emotions are created.

The following diagram is based on the 3-Stage Theory of Emotions by Dr. Daniel Rutley from his excellent book, “Escaping Emotional Entrapment:”

The basic idea is:

Trigger Event ——-> What I Think —–> What I Feel

A trigger can be anything. It can be encountering a snake, studying for tomorrow’s final, being in a car accident, or knowing that their flight has been delayed. Most people believe that the trigger directly causes how we feel. This is not the case. According to the diagram above, it’s how we interpret the trigger event that will ultimately affect how we feel.

- Steve Irwin did not freak out when he faced one of the most venomous snakes in the world–a 14-foot long King Cobra. On the contrary, he stated “if I was ever going to touch a King Cobra on the head, I have to do it now.” He did just that. Most would either freeze in fear or run the opposite direction (understandably so).

- A student who has a college final the next day tells himself, “After tomorrow, I’m free!” Others are pulling their hair while downing Starbucks and Monster drinks in the school library.

– A driver who gets his car totaled might say to himself “Wow…thank God I’m okay.” Others are cursing why it had to happen to them.

- One time, my flight was delayed for 4 hours. While everyone else sat with their arms folded and their heads down, I was laughing and shooting the sh*t with a new friend I just met. She was 20 years my senior and from another part of the world.

I think you get the idea now. The trigger itself does not result in how we feel. What matters is how we CHOOSE to interpret the event. So now we know that we can control our emotions by simply changing our perception of the situation. Let’s apply it to poker. This happened when I was still learning the game and my emotional control was basically non-existent.

I called an all-in bet on the river against a decent player with 99 on 3Q9TJ. I was obviously beat but I haven’t hit a hand against him for the past few hours. So I called and stacked off against his KT. What followed was something like this.

“OMFG! I RUN SOOOO BAD! OUT OF ALL CARDS IN THE DECK, IT HAD TO BE A JACK!?”

So of course, I tilted off a few more buy-ins after that until finally quitting him. Not the most optimal way to handle the situation. Now let’s rewind back and see what would have happened had I changed my thought process after making that bad call.

What if I told myself:

“Even though I lost, he still has about 5% to hit his straight on the river. This just happens to be one of those times. There’s nothing to be mad about. I’ll just keep playing my A game and I’m sure to win.”

In theory, that’s the best thing you can say to yourself. You maintain a positive and healthy state of mind. However, most of us would never say that because we just don’t talk like that. In any case, simply reword it to your own taste.

“Well that sucks. Meh. It’s just a stack. I’ll win it back.”

Repeat it to yourself. It may sound awkward if you haven’t done this before, but that’s okay. You’ll get used to it. We all do.

Another thing to remember is that just like eating food–you can’t do it once and forget about it. Do it every time you get the chance to. The hardest part about doing anything is to simply start doing it. Once the ball gets rolling, it gets much easier and you’ll get better as well.

So how can you apply this to your game?

1) Be aware of your thoughts and

2) Change it if it’s in any way detrimental to yourself.

Understand that most of our thoughts are in complete sentences. In the example above, I didn’t think, “Jack. Bad. Tilt!” So listen for that little voice going on inside your head. Pay attention to what it’s saying and you’ll have the control you want. The more you do it, you more observant you’ll become and the more control you’ll have over your own emotions.

Finally, some of you may find yourself struggling with this new concept. That’s fine. Just don’t criticize yourself. That does not help your case in any way and can even impede your progress. You would not put your best friend down if he’s struggling and trying to improve himself, so why do it to yourself?

I hope you’ve learned something useful by now. Next time you face a bad beat, I guarantee there will be some thoughts going on in your head. Whether good or bad, that’s up to you to decide.

PS: I would also like to thank Chris for giving me the opportunity to contribute to PartTimePoker.

Read our Review of the Poker Blueprint

We’ll start with an example from a live tournament I played at recently. My look at the table is a study in contrasts; the prototypical hoodie, witty poker shirt that only 40% of the people you play with get, (“But they were suited? Well, duh, they ARE suited. Dumb kid.”) ipod, and so on. But, I also sport some pretty wild hair (orange/black) and a lip ring, and I’m incredibly talkative before a tournament. I chatted up my table, and a few people started talking about the weather, but I also caught two players in the corner eying me over, and talking to themselves. They labeled me “one of those internet punks” and started chuckling to themselves. I noted that observation in my mind at the start of play.

In the second level, I opened A8o on the CO, and got flatted by a weak-tight player in the SB. I flopped air, continuation bet a funky number ($875, all in $25 chips) and got called. The turn put a blank out, my opponent checked, and I fired a second barrel of $2,025 into the pot, this time by flicking a pink $5,000 chip in and announcing the precise bet of $2,025. My opponent studied for a bit and folded, and as I raked in the pot, one of the two guys who had been watching me earlier grunted, “Is that how you kids always bluff?” I obliged him by turning over my ace high and meekly asking, “Best hand, yeah?” Weak-tight guy shuddered, the table got a bit of information on me, but most importantly, I confirmed the watcher’s suspicions that, indeed, I was simply an internet kid that fires annoying numbers and bluffs constantly and is just itching to irritate the crap out of you.

Later in the level, I was dealt AQh in middle position. I opened for a slightly above standard raise to $475 (blinds $50/$100) in all green chips. Observant guy called in the SB, as did a player in the BB. The flop was As2c4s, giving me top pair, good kicker. The blinds checked, and I bet $975, in a black/green tower. Observant guy thought for a moment and called, and the BB folded. The turn was the 4c, putting a second flush draw out there. My opponent quickly checked, and I thought for a moment. I was pretty convinced that he didn’t have the flush draw; I expected him to make some sort of play, whether it be leading the flop or check-raising the flop, if he actually liked his hand, especially against me. He could possibly have a four, but if I check the turn, he would easily bet the river with this hand. I pegged him for a weak ace or a pocket pair, with the slim possibility of a four in there. I then decided to simply check the turn, and allow him to fire the river with a four, or check everything else, which I could then value bet if a safe card hit.

The river was the ugly 5d, putting four to a straight on the board. My opponent checked, then began watching me like a hawk, eyes fixated on my stack. I immediately recognized this as “bluff watching,” where an opponent attempts to stare you into checking the river when they have a hand that can’t stand a bet, but could possibly be best. Sensing that my opponent was waiting for me to bluff, I decided to oblige him, throwing two yellow $1,000 chips in the pot and announcing a tiny number, $1,125, as my bet. As soon as the chips hit the pot, my opponent, who had not shifted his gaze, announced raise and quickly threw a $5,000 chip into the pot along with the $1,125. I smirked and said call as fast as he bet. “I’m dumb, sir. I’ll pay you off for that straight.” He shook his head, muttering, and exposed two sevens, and I raked a nice pot. Against an unknown, I’m content to simply value bet a standard amount on that river, something like $2,000, and probably get a fold from those sevens. BY using my image as a wild, bluffy internet kid,I induced a hopeless check-raise on the river from a player that did not seem familiar with the concept at all.

Another form of image manipulation can be via your play style. People love to jump to conclusions about play styles very early in sessions, before any true assessment can actually be made about the style of play you may actually be utilizing. I recently attended my first limit live ace to five lowball game around here, and bought in for the table minimum, $400. My actual image was much more subdued this time; just a plain shirt, no ipod, hat over my hair, no lip ring. I said hello to everyone, and they started playing a incredibly wild game, with $25 straddles of the $5 button, people capping before the first draw then drawing 4, and people patting two pair and trips to run bluffs. I, on the other hand, held snug my first three orbits, playing zero hands. Two players immediately started heckling me for being tighter than anyone they’d ever played with, and started habitually straddling my button. After making a wheel a winning a decent pot, I played a larger pot with one of the players trying to run me over.

Ron, a solid, very aggressive regular in the game, straddled for $25. I made it $30 with A26xx, and the button, “Jack,” who was significantly stuck and steaming called, as did Ron. Jack drew two, Ron drew 3, and I drew 2. The bet moved to Ron, who mucked, and looked down at a 4 and a K. I bet $10, and Jack called. We both pitched one, and I picked up another 4. Jack bet his $15 dark, and I decided to raise to $30. I had a few factors going for me on this raise; Jack’s an intelligent, solid player when he’s not stuck. When stuck, he tends to make big mistakes and rely too much on his observational abilities. I had been playing ultra snug, had shown no bluffs or plays, and had made it $30 predraw, making it look solidly like I had a monster draw that got there. I didn’t expect Jack to fold now, but I thought by making the raise here and then patting and leading $20 after the final draw, Jack may throw away hands as strong as A2349 or 34568 for the single $20. Jack called the $15 more, and I set $20 more on the table, indicating my pat hand and my desire to bet. Jack drew 1, muttered, and slammed A3458 on the table, folding and saying, “No way you have worse than a 6 there.” I showed him everything but the paired 4, mucking my hand and raking in a solid pot.

Be keen on players that are noticing aspects of your game, both physical and mental. By staying one step ahead of them and reacting to their tendencies, you can find spots to extract value from some players that simply don’t exist the majority of the time.

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It wasn’t long after I sat down that I found myself in a tough spot. I had a hard 15 and the dealer was showing a 6. Though I didn’t care what the dealer’s up card was, I did know that hitting a hard 15 meant that I was likely going to be watching my dollar bet sliding into the dealer’s tray. A couple seats next to me was Paul Burke, our junior catcher and one of the team captains. He was a great player who would later go on to sign a professional contract with the Atlanta Braves and a person that all the freshmen looked up to. When Paul noticed my hesitation, he said, “Yelly- you have to expect that the dealer has a 10 for his down card, since there are more 10-valued cards than anything else in the deck.” His basic credibility combined with some quick common sense told me that he was right. After thinking for a few seconds I decided to do something that I would never have done before- stand on 15 so that the dealer would bust. To make a long story short, the dealer did just that, I felt like a genius, and thus began what would surely become a very profitable career as a professional blackjack player. Of course, this would have been lovely, except for the fact that it never happened. Intermittently over the next 5 years, my little bit of “helpful” knowledge was enough to get me to keep going back for more at our local riverboat casino and bled me to the tune of about $80 a session, which was my average daily take as a waiter at Applebee’s. How strange, I thought. Why don’t I ever win when I am as good as I am?

In the stores of every casino lobby, for $1.99 you can purchase a small card that contains the correct basic strategy for blackjack. Ask yourself why a casino would sell such a useful item at such a low cost. Surely the players would play worse without it, leading to a greater short-term profit for the casino, but is allowing them to do this better than earning their long-term business? Does this card actually accomplish anything? Yes. It allows the owner to feel that he is smarter than his fellow tablemates, even though he is certainly not going to follow the instructions on the card 100% of the time (he’s psychic, too- don’t forget that). This concept is not lost on the casino. They understand full well the value of making that player comfortable within the game while still possessing an unbeatable, albeit smaller edge. They would rather keep the golden goose alive and hatching than to slaughter it for its meat.

But what about the complete novice poker player? Is he any different? Does offering this player (read: potential customer) a bit of sound advice or perhaps recommending a good book really hurt your bottomline? Should we really take the fly-by-night mortgage broker approach and punish them as harshly as possible on the first confrontation for merely being ignorant? Much as getting a hot stock tip hardly makes you a solid day trader, no green poker player has ever immediately started crushing the games after being taught that 92o sucks. Though Paul had no idea what he was doing when he gave me my first good tip about blackjack, he was definitely on to something…

Clearly, helping the semi-competent player who regularly wins the annual perfect attendance award at your local cardroom hardly makes any sense, but creating a long-term customer out of the curious gentleman who strayed a little too far from his regular craps game is sheer brilliance. Though his motivations for wandering into the unknown might not be entirely clear, two things are for certain: he wants to enjoy himself and he doesn’t want to look like a complete fool. Obviously, berating this man’s bad play is such a horrendous breach of good business policy that it warrants no further discussion. Likewise, being courteous and sportsmanlike should be so obvious that it also need not be mentioned further as well. But how about the heretical example of offering up a quick tip about something as remedial as pot odds or schooling him about the long odds of drawing to an inside straight and ask yourself which of the following it is more likely to accomplish: creating a dangerous adversary or potentially igniting a long-term interest into a game that on the surface seems so simple but is actually highly complex? How about recommending a good introductory read such as Winning Low Limit Hold’em by Lee Jones or Getting Started in Hold’em by Ed Miller? Will this man immediately stop donating to the Average Joe Poker Pro Fund or will this game instantly become more interesting than its upstairs 3-card variant on the blackjack felt?

From where I stand, I can only see the upsides to taking this approach. After all, these novice players getting their feet wet in the game for the first time can never usurp your knowledge when you are the source of that knowledge. You now know what they know, but they will never be able to grasp the depth of what you know and what it took for you to get where you are. The next time they come wandering through and there are several open seats around, don’t be surprised if they choose to sit with you for being the helpful and kind soul that you are. That tiny bit of knowledge that you drop on them will probably never be particularly helpful, but like Paul’s little blackjack tip, it might get them to keep coming back for many years to come. After all, as we all know, you can shear a sheep many times, but you can only skin him once.

Like the article? Read more from Lorin at his blog here.

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This is one chapter of a 170+ page book. Read our review of The Poker Blueprint here; visit DailyVariance.com to purchase and view other books by Tri.

Knowing When to Move Up

Bankroll management is different for everyone. The number of buy-ins required for a stake before moving up depends on your ability to rebuild and your age. If you are young (18 years old) and have no problem moving down when you lose a few buy-ins at your shot-taking, I would try to move up as quickly as possible.

In fact, if I were to start over again, I would implement the 30 buy-in (50 for PLO) rule for whatever stake I am playing and move down if I lose five buy-ins at that stake. I would only play four tables so I could focus more on both my and my opponent’s play. I would take notes religiously and try to move up as quickly as possible. This is because how much you can win is highly disproportional to your poker skill. For example, a 1/2NL regular can make $100K/year and a 2/4NL regular can make $200k/year even though the 2/4NL regular isn’t that much better. In some instances, their skill level is the same.

Another reason why you should try to move up as soon as possible is that as you grow older, your willingness to gamble and take risk decreases tremendously. You have worked hard to get to where you are; the risk of losing it all is disheartening and at times, scary. You don’t want to deal with an enormous amount of stress anymore.
When you’re young, you don’t know any better, and that’s a good thing. You have a lot of hope and aspiration to be the best. You have that gamble in your blood. You want to play because you truly love the game. It’s exciting. The high when you win is comparable to the low when you lose. During this phase in your poker career, you should be as aggressive as you can with your bankroll. You have time and age by your side. If things go wrong, you can always rebuild. After all, it’s easier to rebuild a $1,000 bankroll than a $100,000 bankroll.

It’s not uncommon for nosebleeders to admit their reluctance to play super under-rolled as they grow older. These are the same nosebleeders who definitely wouldn’t hesitate to gamble when they were younger. In fact, they probably wouldn’t think twice. But now that they are older and are content with what they have, the idea of playing stakes that can ruin them isn’t appealing anymore.

So, whoever said you’re only young once was right. Considering that your earnings improve exponentially relative to your skill level, you should try to be as aggressive as possible with your bankroll.

You’re Young Only Once
Imagine for a minute that you are working at a corporate job and there are ten rankings on the company ladder. The CEO is at the top and the cashier is at the bottom. You were a cashier last quarter and got promoted to a higher position this quarter. You love your field. You are willing to work hard and hope that one day you will be at the top. It doesn’t matter why you want to be at the top (pay, status, power, etc.); the key is that you want to be at the top and you will try your best to get there.

How come some people don’t act the same when it comes to poker?

Why is it that in every job when we are at the bottom, we want to get to the top? But in poker, some players are satisfied with grinding out a decent living. There’s nothing wrong with being satisfied where you are. The problem is being satisfied with where you are without taking a shot at the top. In poker, it is extremely profitable to be the best player at your stakes. Other regulars stay out of your way. When you create tables, you get to play fish heads-up for a while before other regulars join. You also improve a lot because you’re playing heads-up. Most important of all, your earning potential increases dramatically.

The best strategy when becoming a poker player is to be as aggressive as you can regarding your bankroll when you are first starting out. You want to move up as soon as possible.

100 Buy-in Rule
I have never been a fan of X buy-ins rules. My philosophy is that if you are running good and playing well, you can afford a few buy-ins to take a shot at the next level. After all, with living expenses and variance in poker, your bankroll might never reach 100 buy-ins until a half-year later. By that time, your game might be stagnant because you are playing against the same types of regulars over and over again without learning anything new. You might risk playing down to your opponents. Or worse, everyone is improving so you keep staying at one stake and it’s tougher to move up.

Of course, when using an aggressive approach to bankroll management, you have to be honest with yourself and ask if you can grind lower games if taking shots doesn’t work. If you get tilted easily by taking a shot and losing, then approach the situation cautiously. Take all the time you want. Though, like my man Mike McDermont once said, “If you’re too careful, your life can be a fucking grind.”

One thing I want to be clear about is that I’m not advocating that you take shots in tough games full of regulars. I’m talking about the situations where you feel the timing is right and you’re feeling good about your game and luck. If that is the case, go for it. You eventually have to defeat them. Why not start now when everything is going your way?

Taking shots is one of the most important things you can do to improve as a player. First, it gives you a reality check—you might not be as good as you think. Second, you might realize that the players playing one stake higher than you aren’t that good and that you can beat them. Third, you can run good and never look back again.

So, when you feel good about your game and there’s a softer game at a higher level, take a shot. Give yourself three buy-ins and move down if you lose them. I don’t care why you lost. Move down. Once you start to lose an amount of money that seems big to you, you will play badly. And you will play scared. You will feel that you’re not. But trust me, you are and you will.

Move down. Reload. Try again.

Many people drop out of college or university simply because they have lost interest in the subject that they are studying. Quite often this is the result of students not fully understanding themselves and failing to pick the course that is appropriate to their true interests. Many people are quick to analyze and judge others, but tend to be rather reticent about turning the magnifying glass on themselves.

This article could just as easily apply to bricks and mortar play as it does to online poker or any other field of endeavor for that matter. But its importance cannot be understated because if you do not totally understand yourself then you will not succeed in poker or any other profession for that matter. There is a very famous saying that goes,

“True wisdom is to know the extent of one’s own ignorance”

As we go through life we tend to constantly make assessments not only about other people but also about ourselves. Human nature being what it is, we tend to over estimate our own abilities and under estimate those of other people and especially in areas where we perceive ourselves to be good. This is especially the case where no cast iron tests of a person’s ability in a given field exist. Experienced drivers do not take tests to ascertain their driving skill for instance. There are no tests that will indicate just how good a father you are to your children or how good you are in bed for that matter.

Yet these are all areas where most people never ever get to find out the real truth about themselves. Outsiders tend to have a much better picture of us than we do but most keep their views and opinions of us to themselves and especially if they feel that their views may be offensive or could hurt our feelings in some way.

As you go through life, irrespective of just what activity you happen to be doing, one thing is almost a cast iron certainty…..you are not as good at it as you think you are! This principle applies perfectly to poker because no firm guidelines exist that notify us when the time has arrived that we are now good enough to earn money at it.

We instinctively know that we need to be a good or even a very good player to succeed at poker but at what point do we become good and who out there is going to let us know that we have reached that stage. You can see the complexity of the problem. In poker knowing your strengths will enable you to earn money but knowing your weaknesses is just as important as it is this that enables you to save money.

If I can use myself as an example for one minute. I tend to suffer from lapses in concentration after about three to four hours of playing. It is for this reason that I do not play poker tournaments. This form of poker does not allow you the flexibility to start and stop playing whenever you want. I will always stop playing after four hours at the very most and especially if I am playing online because the sensory input is nowhere near as great in that poker arena.

I am fairly certain that I would have wasted my time playing poker tournaments where my edge would be minimal at best. The fact that I have recognised this weakness in my character has enabled me to be very successful in cash games because this is where I concentrate my efforts.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson can also be seen on his blog at www.pokersharkpool.com.

The basic premise of this advice is simple: a lot of poker players know they should pay attention to their opponents, but they don’t know what they’re looking for. Without a focused goal, they get distracted, tired, and eventually slip into autopilot. That’s why we suggest focusing on answering a few simple questions about your opponents. Some of the questions below you’ll be able to answer just by looking at people; others you’ll be able to guess at by listening to them talk or watching them play a few hands. Some will require you to see a few showdowns to really feel confident in your answer. Regardless, the point is the same – pay attention to your opponents from the minute you sit down at the table with an eye toward answering these questions and you’ll be able to make better decisions, plain and simple.

Can They Make Thin Value Bets?
Some people only bet the nuts or close to it on the river, and some will bet any time they think there’s a decent chance you can call with worse. Knowing the difference between the two allows you more accurately assess your opponent’s strength when you’re facing a river bet. It also allows you to know when you can profitably attempt a check raise on the river, and when you should choose to lead instead.

This is a fairly easy question to answer, but it usually requires that you see a showdown or that you have a neighbor who’s willing to let you sweat their hand now and again. If you’re not seeing showdowns, you can make a pretty informed guess based on frequency – if your opponent is betting the river with a high percentage, then they’re value betting thin. When you’re taking mental notes on this question, you’re also accumulating information that will help you answer the next question….

Do They Bet Their Hand?
What we mean by ‘bet their hand’ is this: do your opponents scale their bet-sizing relative to the strength of their hand? It’s a lot more common in live poker games than it is in online poker games, and if you can nail someone down as having this bet sizing tell, your ability to play profitably against them will increase dramatically.

Here’s a common example: Let’s say four people limp into a hand in a 2/5 game, including UTG, the button and the blinds. The flop comes KT4 rainbow. Everyone checks to the button, who bets $15. Two players call. The turn is a 6. Both players check to the button, who bets $20. One player calls. The river is a Q; it checks to the button, who bets $20 again.

What’s he have? Probably K8s or something along those lines. When people make these bets in position, they tend to be weak value bets. When they make them out of position they can mean the same thing, but also may be blocking bets with some sort of draw. Either way, when you see this sort of betting pattern that really deviates from the standard half pot to pot range, make a note and do everything you can to see the hand.

Can They Tilt?
Everyone can tilt, of course, but some players are far more prone to it than others, and during the window where they do tilt, they become a far worse player for it. While that window is open, you have a chance to get value out of a player that you normally wouldn’t, so understanding the answer to this question is a critical one.

Pay attention to how a person behaves after taking a loss – not immediately afterward, but for the next few hands. How are they handling their chips? Are they playing a lot of hands? Are they mumbling to themselves? You can generally get a pretty good idea of whether or not they’ve shrugged off the loss. If they have, then don’t change anything about how you play them.

If they haven’t, the next step is to note how it seems to be impacting their game. Do they seem impatient to get back into the action? Are they acting more rapidly than usual? These are all hints that they’re itching to win quick to erase the stink of the loss they just took, and are therefore prime to run a big bluff or make a big call – information that can improve your read on them immeasurably.

Can They Fold?
This is arguably the most important thing to know about an opponent, and acting without this knowledge is, generally speaking, one of the largest leaks in a typical live player’s game. The nature of live poker is that it attracts far more calling stations than online poker, bottom line. Running bluffs against calling stations (or not extracting thin value) can cost you tons of bets a session.

You can generally get a good idea of the answer to this question by observing frequency and attitude. If a person tends to fold very reluctantly, with a grimace, that person is more likely to be a station than the player who flicks their cards into the muck without a second thought. If the person utters phrases like “I know you’ve got me, but I have to pay you”, then they’re not going to fold when you want them to. Ever.

A player in Vegas told me once that if he wrote a poker book, it wold be one sentence on one page: ‘Never bluff a donkey’. He was right, and being able to separate those you can bluff from those you can’t will save you frustration and cash time and time again.

There are obviously tons of other observations you can make about players, but the above is a great starting point, especially if you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of the information live poker has to offer. Focus your energy on answering those four questions and you’ll quickly find your time better spent and your bankroll bumping up.

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Live poker is becoming an increasingly popular option for poker players. Once shunned by the internet-poker set, live poker’s current popularity is largely attributable to the increasing toughness of online games and the relative softness (and deepness) of the live poker alternative.

If you’re newer to live, or even if you’ve got a good amount of experience, here are five mistakes that you’re likely to be making.

IGNORING GAME SELECTION
Game selection is more important live than online, given that you can only play one table at a time, but live players often sit down in a game and glue themselves to that chair regardless of the quality of the game.

That’s a huge leak, and it’s easily corrected. Play an orbit at your table and if you don’t see an opportunity, ask the floor for a table change or consider getting on the list for a different game entirely. In live poker, the table next to you can be an insanely more profitable opportunity than your current table, so it’s worth the effort.

PLAYING TOO MANY HANDS
This one’s a huge leak for a ton of players, and it’s no secret why. Live poker can be terrifically boring. You average about 30 hands per hour playing live, so over the course of a long session – let’s say 10 hours – you’ll see 300 hands. If you’re playing a 20% VPIP, that means you’ll likely see somewhere between 60-80 flops over the course of 10 hours.

Yawn, right? Well, opening up, especially if you just call more instead of raising more, is possibly more exciting in the moment, but a real drag at the end of the session when you lose a bit or break even and realize that just by cutting out a couple of hands an hour, you could have made a profit.

In a 2-5 game, if you folded to a preflop raise with a marginal hand just once an hour (think of all the times you’ve called 69o from the SB just because there was a raise and four callers in front) and ditch one hand in EP that you should be folding anyway (think KJ), that’s $25 or so an hour, or easily a couple hundred bucks in a typical session.

So what went wrong? It’s really not much of a mystery. In these situations, there’s some emotional need we have – whether it be curiosity, entitlement, frustration, or some other irrational desire – that manages to wrestle away control, however momentarily, from the cool, commonsensical character we’d prefer be in the cognitive driver’s seat. The real mystery for many players isn’t why this happens. Rather, it’s how to prevent it from happening. In this article we’re going to outline some strategies, some simple and some surprising, for mitigating the ability of irrational needs to overwhelm your better judgment when the pressure’s on.

Take More Time
I used to play 40/80 limit at the Venetian with this guy who talked non-stop. Before he made any decision, he would always chat a bit first. He was one of those guys who was funny if you were in a good mood and really annoying if you weren’t. Anyhow, one of the things he used to say incessantly when it was his action before making a decision was “Coach always said you should sit on your hands.” Annoying or no, it’s good advice. Impulsive decisions rely on you temporarily suspending your better judgment for a moment, so logically if you can prolong the amount of time you take to make a decision as a matter of habit, you run a better chance of regaining your sense before you can do any real damage.

Some players build a little system of checks into their action routine – maybe a simple set of questions that you answer before every action (Why am i doing this? What am i hoping to accomplish?) will give you enough time for the impulse to pass and perhaps improve your rational decision-making to boot.

Reward Yourself
In simple terms, impulsive decisions are generally just manifestations of some irrational need. Maybe you feel like you ‘deserve’ to win a pot so you decide to play a hand you shouldn’t. Maybe you’re jealous of the guy scooping all of the big pots so you get involved in bad spots. Whatever the irrational need, it’s possible that you can satisfy it in some other way. When you find yourself in a spot where you feel an impulsive decision coming on, give yourself some kind of reward instead in an attempt to placate those needs.

It doesn’t have to be much – a bite of candy, a couple bucks thrown in a jar that you eventually spend on a video game you’ve been wanting, a glance at some porn (hey, we’re not here to judge. Whatever works for you) – the theory is that emotional needs are pretty blunt and just want some kind of satisfaction, and they’re not picky about where it comes from.

Punish Yourself
It’s not pretty and its not pleasant, but negative reinforcement works. You would think that the negative reinforcement that comes from losing the pot (as you generally do when you make an impulsive decision) would do the trick, but it’s generally after the fact and there’s usually just enough times that you win to muddy the waters. Some people I know stop their session as soon as they make a decision like that. Others have elaborate systems where they deprive themselves of some reward whenever they make an impulsive play.

Whatever it is, remember – if you were a lab rat, you’d be getting a shock each time you pushed this level. Shocking yourself is probably a bit over the edge (although it would probably work pretty well), but the core principal is solid – if you associate negative consequences consistently and immediately with a behavior, chances are you’ll cut down on or eliminate that behavior.

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