Poker Advice For Fools

Lately I’ve been losing a lot by being sucked out on, but that is fine. I couple weeks ago I was dealt pocket queens. The guy to my right raised pre-flop with a sizable amount. I doubled that, more than a third of my stack, and a horrible player on the other side of the table went all-in, which was less than my raise. The guy to my right folded. Just what I wanted. The horrible player had pocket eights. Win this and I’m the chip leader. Nope, eight on the flop.

So this guy almost tripled up and a half hour later, he was watching.

This story has been happening to me too often lately.

I’ve seen this happen to others who don’t have the patiences to deal with it. They cry and whine and talk about giving up the game and I want to slip them upside the face with a dead fish and tell them to be a man! It fucking happens! And if you are going all in pre-flop, you’ve only seen two cards out of seven.

What to do when you are going through stretches like this? Remember, you are playing better poker and eventually, if you keep playing better poker, it will pay off.

There is another thing, and that it to learn.

Back to my story. So I went from possible chip leader to struggling a little. Three hands later, two guys with about half my stack went all-in. I had King-Jack off. I called. Once had Ace-Queen and the other I don’t remember. I lost and now was really hurting. At the time I thought, hey if I get lucky here, I’m right back in it. I was fucking stupid. Normally I would have never gone in with suck a god-awful marginal hand. Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Can you say Tilt?

So live and learn. The suck out was one thing and I could use that as an excuse, but the truth is, I’m to blame for not cashing that night,

I was playing in a small tournament last weekend. Early in the game, a girl at the end of the table (who had no idea what she was doing) did not raise pre-flop. She failed to raise after the flop. In fact she just called down to the river and lost to trip kings. One king had been flopped and one came up on the turn.  She, of course had pocket aces. The winning hand had King-three off-suit. Immediately everyone at the table started saying crap like, “Curse of the Pocket Aces” and “I hate pocket Aces” or “I always lose with Pocket Aces”!

I, of course, thought, this should be a good night!

And it was for a while, until all these bad players were gone and the final 12 were all competent players. I just didn’t get the breaks and finished 10 out of 40+. Yes, there were a few hands I could have played better, but WTF!

Back to the subject matter. Pocket Aces! Whenever I hear people talk about “The Curse of Pocket Aces” I see dead money.

While this is a great starting hand, and I want all players to remember this, THEY ARE JUST A PAIR! A very good pair, the best, but they are still just a pair. Most hands are won with something better than a pair. They do not mean you automatically win. And if you play them like shit, you are destine to lose. Remember, they are just two of the seven cards you get to play with!

If you are one of the people crying about always losing with this starting hand, first I doubt that is true. Here is the deal: Since you expect to always win with it, I mean it looks so great when you see them, that when you win, you don’t really think about it. When you lose, it pisses you off to no end, so those times stick in your head. When you think back, you only remember the times you didn’t win. And what is added to that memory skew if that usually you’ll win a small pot with aces or lose a huge one. I thin if you kept records, you will win more often than you lose.

And if that is not true, you are probably playing them horribly! If you don’t raise pre-flop and five or more others are seeing a flop with you, you will lose more than 50% of the time. And then you bitch “Pocket Aces  . . . cry cry cry”

If you are truly losing more than you are winning, you suck and need to learn how to play them. Maybe I’ll do my thoughts on how to play them in a few weeks.

Gus provides a detail of him elimation from The World Series of Poker 2008 at Card Player.

You can Read it here! 

or Calling Big River Bets – What a Bad Habit

I thought this article by Gus Hansen was interesting. It’s the story of how two misplayed hands cost him the EPT Grand Final.

Read it Here at Card Player

Video Clip Now Available on Card Player Pro

This week’s free poker training clip from Card Player Pro (powered by PokerSavvy Plus) is instructed by Evan “_Fisherman” Roberts. The video features heads up $2-$4 no-limit hold’em. This video clip, as well as additional free video clips by other instructors, is currently available on the Card Player Pro preview page.

Read the rest at Card Player