Playing Poker Inside Your Own Head
If everyone knew how to play poker properly then the real good players would have no fish left to feed on. You know the story if you can’t spot the sucker at the table.. then its YOU! Playing poker in the casino or online is vastly different to your home game played with a mandatory game of beer pong first. If you want to really study the game then its best to study those that play it well, forget listening to the table talk from the local poker schooler who tells everyone the mistakes they are making etc. The real winner at the table is the guy smiling and quietly taking in all the chips. If you spot someone making a mistake at the table don’t ever tell them so unless they are your truest best friend in the world, because in poker you will make the most amount of money from the mistakes of others.
If you watch the highest stakes players in the larger games you will see they vary their play widly from one hand to the next, sometimes it can seem completely wrong but there is method to their madness… at least most of the time. Poker is called a game of chance but overall skill will reign through, at least most of the time. Variance can be a real killer in the game of poker, especially tournament poker.. you’ve seen it where you’ve run hotter than the sun for 6 hours to get down to the final table of a game only to bust out in 9th place. Don’t let it annoy you it happens to the best of us, it can be frustrating always seeming to come up short but your time will come if you keep playing well.
Poker is more than just a game of cards, someone said “Poker is a game of psychology played with cards” and thats 100% true, there is rarely a straight forward optimal play of a hand when the stacks are more than 20 blinds deep. You have a lot to think about, your position in the hand, your table image, the image of the players around you, are they tilting? are you?, can you manipulate the other players at the table into bluffing off their stack?
At the table players usually play how they are in real life, loud boisterous people will generally play loose and aggressive while the local libarian will play fewer hands than a village mouse. Reads vary and are the most important factor in the game, forget the cards you have in your hand.. play your opponents and you will be well on your way to stardom. Just don’t over do it or table every bluff you run and you will be feared on the table. And fear is a good thing.
Playing online offers the largest table selection imaginable, you can choose who to play with out of hundreds of thousands of players. Who should you choose from? Don’t let bravado run to your head, you should always choose to play against the weakest players at the highest stakes you can afford… that’s what brings home the bacon.
Online there is a wide variety of strategies and poker schools to choose from, cardrunners, stox, deucescracked are well known names in the training circuits.. they have a large amount of pro’s just busting to give away their secrets on how to beat the toughest games. It’s money and time well spent even if you only sign up for a trial at one of these sites. There are a number of free books around as well so be sure to search the net for a few instead of sitting on myspace the next time you logon.
Poker is hugely popular on television, the WSOP is a regular feature each year with over 50 events televised at some point through out the year. Late night poker and high stakes poker are two other well known shows, be sure to stay away from any of the celebrity poker shows though… they are painful to watch and even worse they may negatively effect your game.
Texas holdem is still the most popular game but other variants are slowing gaining momentum, a few games of Omaha or even Badugi can revitalise your poker gut if you ever feel a bit bored of just playing two cards at a time.
Anyway I have to go, all this talk of poker has left my itching for a bad beat… See you on the tables!