Poker Advice For Fools

There seems to be a lot of people who think they suck at poker. How do I know this? Because of how often the phrase “Why Do I Suck at Poker” is searched on the Internet. You know all the basics and still get beat. Check out some of these simple tips that might get you beyond playing you cards.

In Part one I talked about the importance of trying something different. That is still my number one tip on how to stop sucking at poker. My next tip is checking out how your opponents are playing.

I have a friend who is a very tight player. This works for her because most people are overly aggressive now a days. When I first started, everyone was reading Super System and became over aggressive, now they watch the WSOP and this has the same effect. We can go into the WSOP and talk about how learning from TV can ruin you game, but for now, let’s go back to my friends. Like I said she plays very tight.

The problem with here game is when she plays with other tight, or semi-tight players, she does awful. Why? Because she has not learned to change her game for the way the other players are playing. If everyone at the table is tight, you MUST get aggressive, even if it is against your nature. You must adapt to you surroundings. If everyone at the table is folding to any raise unless they have pocket kings or aces, you should keep raising with almost every hand, ever 7-2! I can’t tell you how many games I’ve watched with min-raises and checking down to the river. “Oh look, my three’s held up!”

Here is an example of me not knowing my opponents. I once had Q-J of hearts and raised 3X preflop. An Ace and 5 of hearts came up on the flop along with an unrelated card. I raised with my flush draw and got all but one older lady to fold. She thought forever before she called. I knew she had nothing. The turn was a 10, but not a heart. Again I raised with my straight and flush draw, a very large bet, committing over half my stack to the pot. She thought forever and again called. “Damn” I thought, figuring she had an Ace. River missed and I pushed my whole stack in, hoping for a fold on her part. She thought and called. I waited for her to show her Ace-rag that she couldn’t fold. I can accept not letting go with a pair of ace. Nope. She had King-Six off. She beat me with a king high.

Bad players chase. I have since learned that with inexperienced players, I play tight until I get the monster and then clean up. I remember once I was at a table of new players and I never raised preflop at all. These players would call anything and my cards were garbage. I called a lot. Finally I get pocket aces and raised huge, like 5x. I get 2 callers. After a harmless flop, I pushed and one of the two called me. He had Jack-6 suited and had hit his 6. When asked why I played it so aggressively, I said that I was confident these players would call. Even with the fact I this was my first pre-flop raise all night, they still called with garbage.

Once more example: I remember a guy being to my right who, if he was the first to bet, he would put in a 10x raise or bigger, no matter what cards he had. I was getting garbage but I couldn’t let him keep pushing me around. After a little while, everything he raised, I went all-in. He stopped that very quickly. And what would happed if he called me? He might have won, sure, but I wasn’t going to win being blinded away.

So, if you want to start sucking at poker, you need to see how your opponents are playing and adjust you game accordingly. These is just a simple, basic way of looking at poker

So I’m at the final table with 5 people left and starting to get short stacked. On the the button, I get K-10, both diamonds. I call the BB. The SB called as well and the BB checked.Maybe I should have pushed but I don’t like my hand all that much.

The Flop comes, K,3,4, rainbow.The three is a diamond.

Both other players chech, so I figure they missed. Seems safe since they didn’t raise preflop. I put in a pot size raise hoping to take it down. The SB folds but the BB things for a bit and calls. Turn is 7 of diamonds. The BB checks again.I’m thinking that he has something like a K-rag and just wants to check it down. I push!

He yells, call. (not what I wanted to hear). He has 5-6 and hit is straight. He called a huge bet with a open-ender and hit. Hummm.

The river, Ace of diamonds. I hit my flush!

I go on to win the tournament.

Somethings it is just one hand that you can point to as your key to winning.  I had a little under a 25% chance of double up of missing the money and I hit. That my friends is the difference between a good night and a bad night.

You really want to know why you suck at poker? I don’t think you do because it’s obvious and deep inside, you already know. You just don’t want to admit it.

Change is hard.

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein

If you are always losing at Texas Hold’em, you must do something different. Do what? It doesn’t matter. Just try something different.

Here is a simple one. When the decision is to call or fold, don’t do either. Raise huge or push all you chips in the pot. I don’t care what you hand is. Let’s see. You think there is a 50% chance your opponent is bluffing. You by calling, you’ve got a 50 percent chance of having the best hand. But what if you push? Maybe there is a 25 percent chance he folds, even with a better hand. You’ve just increased you chanced to win the pot? And what if you get called by a better hand? You never win anyways, so what’s the difference? You tried something different.

Do you read books by Doyle, Phil or Daniel? DO you actually try to play the way they tell you to? Or do you do into a game and play like you ordinary self? Be honest!

Look, instead of walking into a poker game, hoping you get the breaks and win, treat it as a experiment. Try things just to see what will happen. What’s the worse that will happen?

Maybe the biggest problem is intimidation by the other players. Everyone tries to act like they belong and the World Poker Tour and they love to rip into another players “bad” play. If that is what your worried about, give it up. You must learn, and sometimes learning is painful.

“It is better to be a fool than to be dead.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

He who lives without folly isn’t so wise as he thinks.” – François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld

“Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

- Sun Tzu (III. Attack by Stratagem, #18)

.

Many poker players read Sun Tzu on the Art of War and they say it helps in their poker game, so I am going to post quotes from the book. This is from Chapter 2 : Waging War, Part 7.

It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.

.