Bless him he was right, Poker is an on-going organic thing, but while you can improve yourself quite quickly, perfection takes a little longer. When I was a little older and got bloodied for the first time at the table, I turned and asked the sixth former (it was at school) who was counting the coins that had until recently been mine, (and at the time I thought was the greatest player of the all), “What’s the trick?” “What trick” he asked the “Trick with Poker?” I squeaked. Kid he said, being all of 18months older than me, “Poker is like sex.”
Wow! This blew my socks off not only was I talking poker with a card shark I was now talking S-E-X with someone who may actually have seen a real woman naked, what a man I was at 14! I tried to nod sagely as if this explained everything, but I must have looked like the penniless virgin I was, because he looked me straight in the face and said “The basics are simple, but the finer points stretch out until the crack of doom.” Turns out he was being force-read Macbeth at the time.

The moral of the story, is that Poker is an impossible pony to break, you can saddle him and you can ride him 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year including holidays. But one day for no reason he will show you a trick that you never knew and you will get thrown on your ass. At that point your next job is to work out just how that happened, before getting back on gripping with your spurs and try to avoid the next throw, that poker is waiting to give you. Learn all you can, practice all you can but above all respect cards and respect fate.

Years later I heard this quote from Dutch Boyd “Poker is a lot like sex, everyone thinks they are the best, but most don’t have a clue what they are doing!” It seems that wise old sixth former was right all along.

Humm!!! Think twice before going all In

Most card players think there are only two ways to play a hand, all in or nothing…then they graduate from kindergarten and learn that every game of poker doesn’t have to be like the scene from that film where the guy wins that money… Little kids go all in because they don’t know how to groom a pot, or how to let raises do the work. All ins have a tendency to scare people off or cost you the lot. So should an adult consider going all in at all?

The all gets the most attention because it distils the win/loss moment to a single action (but please remember that when people lose on an all-in, they really lost their seat at the table a few hands back, and are all in-ing out of desperation). All In has been a popular staple of big poker tournaments ever since the ESPN cameras entwined themselves with the sport. There are plenty of tactical reasons for an all in, but the truth is that bet is exciting, the emotions are exposed and the big money is in the frame, THAT’s entertainment.

These days young players have seen this happen on TV for years, and have accepted it as part and parcel of the game, compared to the (good) old days when going all in was a lot less common. The ALL In was less frequent because (at the risk of sounding like a purist) took too much skill away from the game and put too much emphasis on luck. Going All In when you haven’t even seen the flop (let alone the river) leaves your fortunes up to…fortune.

Nothing demonstrates the arbitrariness of the all in like the fable of the tortoise and the hare. Once up on a time (2008) there was a wise old tortoise called Max Greenwood sitting at the final of Event #44 in the WSOP. He played the All In gambit holding a pair of fives, when across the table a hare had Ace Jack. Now this old tortoise was sitting pretty and in the lead before the cards flopped but it all went somewhat south when the flop (or the god of chance) gave out an Ace. AA against 55, what a good call Mr Hare… and Tortoise Greenwood had nowhere to fold, so just had to sit tight. But the gods of chance are mean and like a laugh, the power shifted again when a (huge) five landed on the board with the river. Three fives took the hot…That Greenwood what a smart tortoise (as if)!

And the moral of the story is…you never can tell when you go all in, so just sit back and try to enjoy the entertainment you’ve lain on.

Jennifer Tilly

There’s a danger out there that sitting down at an online poker table you’ll come up against a decent sized fish, or some form of shark.

You may think that the odds of coming across someone like Aramilllo Slim, Stu Ungar, Jennifer Tilly, Peter Eastgate or Jamie Gold are pretty high. But pro players can’t always find their usual action, or don’t feel like heading out, or feel like sharpening their basics or maybe just fancy being anonymous at a table for a change.

If they do and you happen to be online at the time you’re gonna come a cropper!

An even if it’s not on of the big four (still alive) mentioned above you could come across a player waaaayyy out of your comfort zone.

But please, please, PLEASE don’t let me scare you away from the online tables.

There are some tips hints and rules to consider that will allow you to play on MacDuff!

For starters, and due to the nature of the game and the nature of online Texas hold’em poker sites, If you are a reasonably regular online Texas Hold ‘em player, you’re likely to face a mix of opponents, some less skilled than you, some on level pegging and some perhaps a bit more.

Nothing to worry about there, in fact the only way to really improve is to play against someone better than you.

But times may arise when you are left facing a much tougher player than you are used to. Maybe you’ve moved up in limits at your local poker sites or maybe the only table that is available is the one filled with pros.

He who runs away lives to play another day….is a bland truisms, but you must remember that He who keeps running away should tale up something a little less interesting than poker.

Instead of having an early night, and going to bed to read a look about players who don’t run away, you may want to adjust your playing strategy and join the fun.

Tip one, if you shouldn’t be here…ignore what I’ve just said and go have that early bath.

If you know you can hold our own, have confidence in your ability. Many poker pros become pros simply because they can continue to play a very tight, aggressive, professional style of play, and play it a lot. Maybe this test is your first step to their world…

Pros are mortal, just because someone doesn’t have a proper job and makes a living at the tables doesn’t mean they are going raise you out of each and every bluff, or fold when they smell a half decent hand, or just KNOW what you’re holding.

Beating a pro involves the same tactics as beating your cousin Billy.

A pro is simply someone who makes fewer mistakes and has a higher level of consistent good play. If you actually ARE a good player and you bring your top game, and go easy on the power drinks or bourbon there’s no reason you shouldn’t win.

And while, if you spend an overly long time facing eth same pro, they will beat you (hey it’s their job) you should be able to win plenty of hands at least in the short term. Because it doesn’t always rain in Scotland, pros don’t win all the time!

The first thing that you have to consider is variance.  By playing so many tables, you actually increase your chances of making a profit.  It may sound a little crazy, but it is true.  Have you ever sat at one table and got killed in a very short period of time?  Then you go the next table and don’t seem to be able to miss a hand and want to know where this luck was earlier when you actually had money.  By playing multiple tables, you are all but guaranteed that these single losses will be offset by the big win tables.

If you are playing on 8 tables, more than likely you will find that you have one table that you are not doing very well, another table that you are absolutely crushing people on and then the rest of them will be floating right around even.  The moment that one table goes bad, you remain in action on the other tables and eliminate the bad table.  You are now tilting the odds back in your favor.  Simply go to another table and start playing there.  Because of something we are about to discuss, you don’t need to make a lot of money on the table to be profitable; you just need to make sure you don’t take any heavy losses.

The next thing to consider is rakeback.  This is percentage of the money that you contribute to the rake that gets returned to you at the end of the month.  This alone is the reason why so many online pros make so much money when they play.  Consider the fact that if you are sitting at 6 man tables where $60,000 in rake has been collected over the course of the month, 1/6th of that would be considered your contribution to the rake, or $10,000.  Most rakeback sites will offer their players anywhere from 25-30% back on their rake.  Worst case scenario here, you would be getting back $2,500 at the end of the month for doing nothing!  This is as much as some people make at real jobs and you are getting it as a refund just for playing poker.

Whether you would consider this a good thing or bad is up to you, but the guesswork of playing is totally eliminated when you are playing this way.  Every decision you makes comes down to pure odds.  If they are there, you make the call.  If they aren’t you fold your hand.  Even with tracking software, you are not going to have the time to evaluate the players or figure out if they are making moves.  You are going to have far too much going on.  However, this is where most amateur poker players make the most mistakes.  They are trying to be the next Doyle Brunson and end up outplaying themselves with foolish moves.  Leave it up to the numbers and you will be surprised at how often it works out in your favor.

Playing this many table is never an easy thing and you are going to have to work your way up to it.  I would also recommend that you do this at much lower levels than you play on playing at permanently.  This is going to allow you to absorb those inevitable mistakes that will happen as you are learning to juggle 8 tables at the same time.

I have never understood what good can come from an explosion of emotions, in any direction, let alone negative. If you play this game to win money, there really is no room for emotion in your game. I have watched hundred of players blow through their bankrolls because their emotions got the better of them. Now, most people understand that going on tilt can have a very adverse affect on your game, but let’s look at how the flood of other emotions can affect your play.

One common scenario that is evident online, in live play and in some of the top games is the berating of opposition players. Whether the victim of the tirade has just delivered a huge suckout or was just out played for a massive pot, our berating poker player is hurting his game. What good comes from insulting a player for playing badly? I guess the opposing player could begin to play better poker, but why would we want that?

Not only does this tirade force our opposition to play better, as no one wants to be the subject of poor play, but our opponents will begin to tighten up their calling restrictions in many situations. As we discussed earlier in the week in “Table Image,” we want our competitors to call us down lightly. We want them chasing draws and calling down with middle pair. Sometimes we are going to catch a bad beat, but we will make up for it in the action received.

Psychologically poker players want to be accepted, they do not want to be singled out for bad play or berated at the table. This argument has taken place amongst many of the great poker minds as to why online games are often most looser and aggressive, as players do not have to face their peers face to face and be held accountable for their play. But that’s a debate for a different day.

I have always loved the demeanor of poker players such as Allen Cunningham, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius. These players have the ability to control their emotions, along with their game and to a large extent their opponents. They understand that luck plays a role in this game in the short term. Most players know the percentages and the fact that 2 out of 10 times, AA will lose to a smaller pair, but these players seem to take it in stride, just as they do when they win.

For the large part, pros seem to handle the swings of the game in stride compared to the average player. I believe this comes from the mentality and understanding of the long-term goals in poker. They know that if they keep making the right play, that over time the luck will even out and they will be long-term winners.

Poker is a series of decisions that add up to a long-term profit or loss. If you are making profitable decisions each day then over time you will be a winning player. You may go days, even weeks, when luck goes against you, but in the long-term the statistics don’t lie. You will win or lose based on your skill and decisions.

With all the decisions that take place in each hand at the table, emotion just doesn’t have a place at the poker table. Next time you find yourself itching to go on a tirade and fuming from a bad beat, remind yourself that this is part of the game and the statistics will even out in the long-term. Separate your emotions from the table and you are on your way to becoming a much stronger player. Until next time, get your money in with the best of it!