by Al Sousa (site owner)
Knowing what hands to play and how to play them is not enough in
poker. You need to keep your cool and not go on tilt when bad beats
happen. A poor players weapon is luck and only luck, yours is psychology
and mathematics. Below are good habits that will help in your game.
Doyle Brunsen mentions many of these
good habits in his book. Every little edge you can gain on your
opponents increases your profit.
Attention: Stay focused on your game. If you are
serious about poker don't watch TV, surf the web, read a book, talk
to people behind you. One distraction can make you fold a winning
hand or miss an important tell on another player.
Attention is especially important if you play more than one table.
Taking notes on 36 other players while playing 4 online tables requires
concentration and not distraction.
Multi-tabling Comfort Level (Online Play): Play as many tables
as your brain can comfortably handle. Some players can handle 8
tables, some 1 table. Playing too many tables will lead to a large
mistake (folding by accident, bet a hand you shouldn't, misread
a flop, tilt). Playing multiple tables takes time and practice.
Limit Selection: Play the limit you feel comfortable
and do best at. When you find that you are beating your limit all
the time you can try moving up. Before moving up be sure you have
the proper bankroll to test the
waters, usually 300 big bets. When you first move up in limits you
will find other players using tactics that you have not seen before.
Usually you will lose you first few sessions or at least struggle.
If you lose too much go back down to your previous limit. You will find that even. Build up your bankroll and try the higher limit
again later. Eventually you will find that you can handle the new
limit. Repeat process to keep going up in limits.
Mental State: Don't play mad, worried, depressed,
stressed, or with something on your mind. Each of these will distract
you, create bad plays, and may put you on tilt easier.
Physical State: Don't play sleepy, hungry, in
pain, with a headache. Each of these are distractions that affect
your game.
Tilt: Going on a bad losing streak or a poor run
of cards makes players start playing mad or poorly. Take a break,
go get some food, a drink, watch TV for a little while. Distract
your mind. Another good idea is to move tables to somewhere else.
Good Table Image: This is an important aspect
of poker at any level. If other players feel that you are lucky,
always have a hand, are always winning then that creates two ideal
things, fear and predictability. Fear will allow you to make bluffs
at the other players picking up pots here and there. Fear will allow
you to steal the blinds more. Predictability makes your opponents
bluff less and only raise when they have a real hand. If they play
predictable it allows you to know where they stand in a hand. You
will find that when you are winning at a table, you keep winning.
Poor Table Image: This happens when you get beat
pot after pot or you fold too many hands (cold run of cards in your
already tight play). When you constantly get beat players will try
to bluff at you more and stay longer in pots they shouldn't. Also
you won't be able to make as many bluffs at players because they
call you down more. It makes them harder to read and they start
acting differently due to your "bad luck". The other players
become less predictable. You will find that usually when you start
losing badly you keep losing and its difficult to recover. In these
times you need to tighten up a bit more playing only premium hands
to gain back your confidence. Also if you start winning with these
premium hands the other players will believe that's all your playing.
When that happens you can open up more. Personally I like to switch
tables. There are plenty of easy tables out there, why waste your
energy on one where it will take time to build that image back.
Game Selection: Find tables that have loose passive
players. Look for tables where almost all the players are below
the minimum level of bankroll allowed at the table. Play tables
that have an average pot size in the middle of the list.
Bankroll: This is a very important part of poker.
300 big bets is about right for the limit you play at. This allows
for the variance of poker (bad streaks).
Notes (Online Play):
Keep records on other players. Since players switch tables so often
and there are so many players online you can't mentally keep track
of them. Notes allows you to adjust strategy on players based on
their previous actions. A 3 second note can earn you a lot of money
in the long run. Also for online play keep a list of the really
bad players so you can find them later.
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