On Poker
If you're looking for a poetic quality to poker it might be this. A competition among finely tuned senses pursuing, gathering,
and applying information that's honed into knowledge and comes
to fruition as know-how at the poker table. And it's all accomplished
in seconds.
Every poker writer worth his salt has made the observation that
the lessons of poker are the lessons of life…The reverse
is true too. The very skills that make some people so successful
in life can be applied to poker just as easily. After all,
the vast majority of players have a life away form the poker
table, and if better poker skills make you a better performer
in the real world, so much the better.
Although the basics are clear for all to see, poker excellence can
be elusive, and much more an art than a science at it's highest
levels.
 Everyone knows that selective and aggressive play
is one of the keys to winning poker. Credible experts always recommend this
style of play, and in truth, it’s nearly impossible to argue against it.
After all, if you think selective play isn’t such a good idea, just play every
hand and see how long your money lasts. Passive play makes free or inexpensive
cards available to opponents who otherwise might not have continued to draw if
they had to call a bet or a raise. Aggressive play drives up the cost of getting
lucky, and gets more money in the pot when you are the favorite. Moreover, there’s
only one way for passive players to win; they have to show down the best hand.
Some pundits
say that poker builds character. We’re not so sure of
that but we’re absolutely certain of this:
Poker reveals character.Poker is a game of money played with cards;
it is not a game of pots played with money. It is also a game
of skill, not of chance, and players who go at it solely by
the seat of their pants stand no more chance of winning at
poker than they do at roulette.
In poker, good players win and poor players lose.
Poker excellence can be elusive, and much more an art than a science
at its highest levels. Everyone is adjusting to one another -- like dancers in motion, the
flow of a hockey game, or a winning strategy for a child’s game of musical chairs that’s
been raised a few orders of magnitude in complexity. If you’re looking for a poetic
quality to poker it might be this. A competition among finely tuned senses pursuing,
gathering, and applying information that’s honed into knowledge and comes to fruition
as know-how at the poker table. And it’s all accomplished in seconds.
In poker, as in life, intuition can be a valuable attribute, but temper
it with thought and logic. And don't follow it blindly. If
you persist in doing so, magicians will fool you, con men
will swindle you, and good poker players will take your money.
Poker, like life itself, is flexible, supple, elastic, constantly
in a state of change, and nearly organic. It’s always shifting, however slight and imperceptive
that shift may be, until it morphs into something you would probably not recognize if you stayed
away from it for a while.
Most of the money you'll win at poker comes not from the brilliance
of your own play, but from the ineptitude of your opponents.
I believe there is a sufficiency of technique that needs to be
learned in poker before a player can comfortably and confidently deviate from the book play.
Just as a painter must master brush technique and a musician needs to practice scales before
improvisation and creativity allows them to bend the rules they have been taught, so does a
grounding in generally accepted poker theory make it easier for a newcomer to quickly come
up to speed. Only when familiar patterns begin to repeat themselves can one comfortably make
adjustments for skewed and anomalous situations. That’s the art of poker, and the reason so
much of strategy -- or to be more precise, tactical decisions -- comes down to an “…it depends”
kind of answer.
On Poker and the American Dream
Poker is a microcosm of all we admire and disdain about capitalism
and democracy. It can be rough-hewn or polished, warm or cold,
charitable and caring, or hard and impersonal, fickle and
elusive, but ultimately it is fair, and right, and just.
There's opportunity in poker…If Horace Greeley were alive today,
his advice wouldn't be "Go West, young man, and grow
up with the country." Instead, he'd point to that deck
of cards on table and say, "Shuffle up and deal."
Not only is poker good for you, it's the American way - where winners
play fair, have the right stuff, and nothing else matters
- except, perhaps, a bit of luck every now and then.
I believe in poker the way I believe in the American Dream. Poker is
good for you. It enriches the soul, sharpens the intellect,
heals the spirit, and - when played well, nourishes the wallet.
Learning is a never-ending process, and it’s seldom that a single
book will teach a reader all he or she needs to know to conquer
any field of endeavor, including poker.
On Poker and Gambling
I'm a poker player. Some might call me a gambler, but I draw a distinction.
A gambler plays when the odds are immutable and against him.
I don't. That's why there is a large coterie of professional
poker players, but not a single, solitary, professional roulette
or craps player. In poker, good players win and poor players
lose.
Anyone can win pots, but winning money is the aim of the game. Pots
are only incidental. If your goal is to win the most pots,
that’s easy. Just play every hand and call every bet
until the bitter end, and you’ll win every pot you possibly
can. But you’ll lose a ton of money in the process.
The very best players engage in few hands, but when they get
involved they’re usually aggressive – they maximize
the amount they win when the odds favor them.
If you play long enough you will have protracted losing streaks,
times when nothing you do goes right, and a crisis of confidence
that’s almost sure to follow. This is the time to go
back to basics. Play big hands and play them strongly; fold
weak ones and get away from potentially big hands that are
reduced to rubble by a bad flop. Play correctly, stay the
course, and at the end of the day you’ll find that your
results will approximate your expectation.
Winning is wonderful. Losing hurts. And although every credible expert
tells you to just make good decisions and forget about the
results – they’ll take care of themselves in the
long run – every credible expert experiences the same
elation and the same pain you do. We just don’t give
into it. Or we try not to.
A professional poker player should realize that every dollar he wins will
not be added to his bankroll. After all, he has to pay rent
and buy groceries just like anyone else. Reducing one's bankroll
converts capital into income - and the distinction is an important
one. Change too much capital into income and you've eaten
your seed corn.
Limit poker is like a job. As long as you're a winning player, the
more hours you put in, the more money you'll earn.
On Commitment, Dedication and Self-Deception
Even the best players struggled, went through hard times, and periodically lost all their money.
But they also got up when they were knocked down. That alone differentiates them from so many other
wannabees who take a hit and quit without fighting, even before they've given themselves a fair shot
at determining whether they have the stuff required to succeed at this game.
If you know what you ought to be doing but you're just not able to do it, you've got a much tougher row
to hoe one that usually means making behavioral changes while ridding yourself of learned habits and old
paradigms. If you have the knowledge but just can't seem to hit the target when you pull the trigger,
you've got a know-how problem, and preparation is
often the key to unlocking this door. Knowledge plus preparation equals know-how, and that equation
provides the deft and nimble skill it takes to win at poker.
If you play poorly today, there's no need to dwell on it. Just correct it tomorrow and move on.
Keep moving forward. The saying: "Ninety percent of success is just showing up" suggests that you
must sustain to succeed. Keep playing, keep practicing, and keep building small successes. Each
time you reach one of your goals, savor the moment, but only briefly. Then set new goals. If you
do not consistently move forward with your own game, you are probably moving backwards in relation
to your opponents. The best poker books will teach you how to talk the talk. You'll have to learn
to walk the walk on your own!
Some 250 years ago, Jonathan Swift said, "Satire is a sort of
glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's
face but their own." The analogy also holds true for
losing poker players. They see flaws in everyone's play but
their own.
You will succumb to all your flaws as a poker player during the period
you are struggling, growing, and reaching for a higher level
of skill. Just because you've read all the books by all the
experts, don't deceive yourself into believing that you're
going to play as well as they do. The best poker books will
teach you how to talk the talk. You'll have to learn to walk
the walk on your own!
Knowledge without discipline is wasted, and talent without knowledge
is merely unrealized potential.Learn from better players.
Model their behavior.
Learn their secrets and determine how they keep from going on tilt.
If the shoe fits, steal it!
The key to excellence is making a commitment. Wishing is not enough.
Neither is mere involvement. There's a difference between
involvement and commitment. It's like ham and eggs. The chicken
is involved; the ham is committed!
You have it in your power to turn a bad-beat around simply by realizing
this simple truth: The more bad beats you encounter, the luckier
you are. It's a sign that you are playing against opponents
who continually take the worst of it, and if you can't beat
someone who always takes the worst of it, you can't beat anyone.
Whenever you make poker decisions on tilt, you’re in trouble.
At that point you should take a break until you’re able
to play your usual solid, disciplined game. In poker, as in
life itself, you are the master of your fate.
You will succumb to all your flaws as a poker player during the period
you are struggling, growing and reaching for a higher level
of skill. Just because you've read all the books by all the
experts, don't deceive yourself into believing that you're
going to play as well as they do.The best poker books will
teach you how to talk the talk. You'll have to learn to walk
the walk on your own!
On Bankrolls and Money
Most poker players see days as long and weeks as eternities.
The mathematical parameters surrounding poker see things differently. Winning and
losing streaks can last for weeks and months -- and these streaks are not
unexpected anomalies. They are to be expected, and figure to occur time
after time in any player’s career.
Stop loss limits, and quitting once you've won a predetermined amount
of money, will neither stop your losses if you are a losing
player nor protect your profits if you're ahead.
If you are not a winning player, your bankroll will never be large
enough. To completely eliminate the possibilities of ever
going broke, losing players need a big enough bankroll to
outlast their life expectancy.
A professional poker player should realize that every dollar he wins will
not be added to his bankroll. After all, he has to pay rent
and buy groceries just like anyone else. Reducing one's bankroll
converts capital into income - and the distinction is an important
one. Change too much capital into income and you've eaten
your seed corn.
Limit poker is like a job. As long as you're a winning player, the
more hours you put in, the more money you'll earn.
Forget about money management. Forget about quitting when you're
ahead or quitting once you've lost some predetermined amount
of money. If the game is good and you're ahead, why not keep
playing? Chances are you'll win even more money. If you're
losing, but haven't let your losses get the better of your
emotions and you're still making good decisions at the table,
there is absolutely no reason to quit. On the other hand,
if the game is bad you should quit or look for a softer game
regardless of whether you're winning or losing.
On Tips For Winning
The very best players never stop learning. They read, talk to one
another, and communicate through RGP, and attend every poker seminar they can. Winning poker,
just like most acquired skills, demands continuous improvement. The minute you rest on your
laurels, you’ll find the game passing you by.
Poker players don't
have to play every hand, or even most of them. They have the luxury of deciding
which hands to play, and because of that it's brains before desire, judgment before will,
and knowledge before power.
While the random nature of how cards fall is beyond your
control -- or anyone else’s for that matter -- there’s only one person accountable
for how well you play. And that’s you, big guy. You are responsible for yourself.
I’m not, the dealer isn’t, and neither are any of your opponents. The buck stops
right in front of you, and when it comes to your decisions at the poker table, you da man.
It's often said that poker is a game of incomplete information, but it's also a
game of incomplete control too.
You can't always dominate your opponents simply because you're a better player
than they are, or by virtue of the fact that your desire to win exceeds theirs.
Cards can turn a lesser opponent into a formidable one, as if one's pasteboards
can magically morph a metaphorical 97-pound weakling into a fire-breathing monster.
When Oscar Wilde wrote, “The truth is rarely pure, and never simple,” he was
probably not thinking about a poker game, but his words hold true nonetheless. …
The fact remains that the relationship between pot odds, implied odds, the odds
against making your hand, and money that’s already in the pot will go a long
way toward answering that age-old poker conundrum: Shall I fold, bet, call, or raise?
Most of the money you'll win at poker comes not from the brilliance
of your own play, but from the ineptitude of your opponents.
In poker, position means power. It is always advantageous to act after
you've had the benefit of seeing what your opponents do.
I believe the single most important decision in any form of poker is
game selection; determining which cards to enter a hand with
runs a close second.
Whenever you're inclined to call a bet, ask yourself this: Instead
of calling, is it better to raise, or would folding be the
best decision? Many players look for reasons to call. While
calling can be almost automatic in certain situations, raising
or folding is frequently a better choice.
When the cards have evened out in the long run, the true measure of
any player's skill is the quality of decisions he made. Make
better decisions and you'll win money...It's that simple.
Hold'em - like life itself - has its defining moment. It's the flop.
When you see the flop, you're looking a 71 percent of your
hand, and the cost is only a single round of betting.
The first rule of analysis at the table is to gather as much information
as you can when you're not involved in a hand. During the
play of a hand you simply don't have time for complex analysis.
But if you have a substantial amount of game experience you
won't run into many situations that are entirely new. That's
why there is no substitute for real game experience coupled
with theoretical knowledge, and molded into practical know-how.
By avoiding marginal confrontations on the green felt battlefield that
require you to put additional money into the pot when it's
a close decision, you can play on a shorter bankroll. If you're
a winning player, you'll eventually win just as much money.
It will just take more hours of play to reach your goals.
You can bet on the end as long as you think you’ll have the
best hand if you’re called. That’s important.
If you bet and your opponent hasn’t improved his draw,
he’ll fold. Your bet on the river won’t garner
one additional cent. But if he calls, he’s got some
sort of hand. So you shouldn’t bet unless you believe
your hand will be the best most of the time it’s called.
In split pot games, like Omaha/8 and 7-stud/8, your goal is to win,
or "scoop" the entire pot, not just part
of it. Seek hands offering an opportunity to make the best
high hand and the best low. Don’t get trapped in situations
where you can win just half the pot, and then only if you
get lucky.
Selective and aggressive play separates winning players from consistent
losers. There’s not a single consistent winner who fails
to practice this principle.
Most of the time you are checkraised, your opponent has the better
hand. And most of the time he exhibits this betting pattern
you should do the smart thing. Throw your hand away. If you
do, you will have saved two bets. And money saved is equal
to money won.
You do not want to be the player who never calls with a losing hand
on the river. If you win each and every time you call a bet
on the river, you’re surely folding some hands that
would have won the pot, and whenever you fold a hand that
would have won the pot, that’s a major loss: the cost
is the entire pot. On the other hand, you don’t want
to be the guy who wins every bet he makes on the river either.
If that’s the case, it probably means you are checking
too many hands you might have bet for value. Obviously, in
a game of incomplete information, it’s usually necessary
to make an occasional error in judgment at both ends of the
spectrum to avoid those catastrophic mistakes that occur far
more frequently in the vast middle ground.
Forget about money management. Forget
about quitting when you're ahead or quitting once you've lost
some predetermined amount of money. If the game is good and
you're ahead, why not keep playing? Chances are you'll win
even more money. If you're losing, but haven't let your losses
get the better of your emotions and you're still making good
decisions at the table, there is absolutely no reason to quit.
On the other hand, if the game is bad you should quit or look
for a softer game regardless of whether you're winning or
losing.
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