Quick Poker Tips
29 June 200810 Quick Poker Tips
Here are some tips to help your poker game, they aren’t tips on how to play a specific hand, but a list of quick tips that you should keep in mind when ever you play poker
1) Know why you take each action - Too many people play poker by rote, without really thinking about why they do each thing they do in the hand. If you want to consistently win, you need to understand why you are taking each action. If you bet, think to yourself, am I betting because I’m ahead, am I trying to push the other person off the pot, am I trying to get information on the other persons hand? If you call a bet, are you trapping them for a later bet? Are you drawing to a hand you think will win? Are you setting them up for a steal attempt if a scare card comes out? If you know why you take each action in a hand, you’ll save yourself money in hands that you can’t win, and make more money in hands that you’re ahead.
2) Take control of your emotions - Poker is a thinking game. It is best played when you are cool, calm, and collected. If you are angry, or sad, or in a generally bad mood, then don’t play right then. If you aren’t on top of your game, then you are just throwing money away, and losing money sure isn’t going to make your mood improve. If you need to, leave the table for some time to get in the right frame of mind. Alternatively, come back to play another day.
3) Know your poker skills - Take the time to rate where your strengths and weaknesses are. Are you really good at calculating the odds, but not very good at reading tells? Are you good at calling bluffs but not good at value betting winning hands? You need to know what your strengths are and play to them at the table. At the same time, learn your weaknesses and try to improve them. If you aren’t good at tells, try Caro’s book of Tells. Not good at odds? Practice with a poker calculator.
4) Guess the skills of other people at the table - When you sit down, you should be watching the other people at the table. Try to figure out how good they are, and what they are good at. Try and judge to see who is watching the other players, and looking for tells, and who is simply playing their own cards. Look for who is ahead, who is behind, who is playing loose, and who is playing tight. Try to identify the person at the table who is winning and the person who is steaming. Once you peg a person with a label, be prepared to change the label when the mood changes.
5) Play to your bankroll - Don’t play in games that you can’t afford to play in. If you are taking a shot in a game that has too high of stakes, you will likely be playing with scared money. You will be worried about losing the money, and not focusing on your ‘A’ game. Make sure you can afford the game your playing in. At the same time, make sure that you aren’t playing too low, at stakes that bore you. You need enough of a risk to stay focused on the game.
6) Be Aggressive & Steal Pots - Whenever you go against a single opponent, the odds of him hitting the flop are 2-1 against. That means that almost 66% of the time, with two players, there is a pot sitting in the middle of the table begging for someone to be bold enough to grab it. Even if your opponent thinks that you missed the pot, he will know that he missed it. Unless he is very bold as well, (and you should know that from observing his play) he will not want to play back at you.
7) Dump the loser hands - If you have a hand, and you think that it is a loser, then it probably is. Don’t get married to hands that you don’t think will win. Don’t pay people off at the river just “To keep them honest” With the average take for poker professionals around 1-2 big bets per hour, you can’t afford to throw away any money that you don’t think has a good chance of coming back to you. Whether you have two aces, or you have a straight when a flush comes, you are never owed anything. The other players want to take your money, don’t make it easy for them.
8.) Pay attention to position - Paying attention to position is a huge step in most people’s games. It is usually enough to advance some-one’s game from beginner to intermediate. Position by itself isn’t enough to make you win, but if you don’t pay any attention to position, you are almost sure to lose.
9) Vary your play - Change your playing style whenever you think people have begun to figure you out. If you have you pegged as being very tight, then take advantage and steal some pots. If they think of you as being loose and bluffing, slow down and trap them. This only works if the people are paying enough attention to notice however. If you are with beginners, or with players who only play their own cards and not the players, then stick with ABC poker and take their money.
10) Track your results - Whether you use poker tracker, or a notebook, keep track of your results from each session. You need to know when you where playing, what stakes you were playing at, how much you won, and what hands you played well / screwed up. You need to be able to analyze your game to fix weaknesses. Tracking you results and going over them is one of the best ways to do it. (Another is to ask a poker friend what they honestly think of your game)
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