Poker Advice For Fools

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)

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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.

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If you are they type that says this, shut the hell up!

Everytime I play poker, someone mentions that fact that they would have had a great hand if they wouldn’t have folded. I’ve even seen Doyle do this. But what really pisses me off if some asshole say, “Should Have, could Have, would Have,” with a freakin’ stupid grin on their face, like they actually said something profound. Fuck them! It’s stupid. And more than that, they are the same assholes who always cry over the hands they didn’t play!

So, if your a poker player and you way these words, you’re an asshole, but it’s not to late to change. Stop saying the stupid crap!

Sorry, had to get that off my chest!