Identifying and Attacking Risk Aversion
Are you too afraid of risk? Tips for analyzing your game and identifying your level of loss aversion.
Exploiting Opponent Patterns in No Limit Cash Games
Carl walks through the basics of identifying and then exploiting tendencies in your opponent’s play.
Empathy – the neglected skill
When I think about what qualities that are vital to becoming a good poker player a capacity for critical thinking, discipline, and creativity come to mind right away. But in talking to a lot of both good and great poker players over the past several years, I’ve noticed that one quality in particular that isn’t [...]
Assumptions you shouldn’t make when playing online poker
I think everyone is guilty of making assumptions to a certain extent when playing poker. Overcoming and dismissing some of the predetermined ideas you have in your head every time you sit at a table might be one of the biggest obstacles for some poker players.
The ideas I cover here are more applicable to online [...]
Control on the mound
A pitcher who can throw 103 mph is something to marvel. Big windups, big pitches, fastball screaming past batters. The type’s going to get a lot of strike outs and hype. Some poker players try to be a Nolan Ryan – blowing big bets past you, firing massive bets and raises whenever they sense weakness [...]
Dissecting a calling station
Why do calling stations, players that call way too much with second best hands, lose money in the long run? Part of the reason is their reluctance to protect their hands, but the biggest reason, the ‘smoking gun’ so to speak is their predictability.
The calling station is his own worst enemy. Rarely betting [...]
Prescribing a cure for Donk-Image
Thank you for choosing John Darr as your doctor today. Take a seat on that brown-cushioned table with a paper sheet, take off your sunglasses and hat, have a lollipop. It’s Red Bull flavored. Now tell me, what ails you.
Oh, I see. It was a no limit cash game. Um hmm.
You [...]
Untouchable Donkeys.
I know you’ve all been in this situation before: You are playing in a NL cash game when an Established Donkey (ED) sits down at the table. You’ve seen the guy play losing session after losing session and cannot wait to get into a pot with him and bust her/him. The only [...]
When the right read(s)(s)(s) go wrong
Picture a 2-5NL game, no max buy, a semi-gate around the table, 8-10 people always watching, a few have MP3 players, including yours truly. The only players wearing sunglasses and hats are on the low limit games, seriously. Buy-ins at this table are spread between $200 and $4,000. Typical stack comes in at $800. I’m [...]
Insights at the poker table
I’ve always thought it fortunate that you don’t have to be a genius to play winning hold ‘em. As complex and mystifying as the game can be, it’s not rocket science. You can go a long way in this game on the strength of common sense, experience, and a healthy dose of discipline. Though the [...]
