Competing
at Poker
The more you play, the more you will enjoy
the challenge of poker, and find that it's the 'skilled'
rather then the 'lucky' that are most often rewarded.
Talk to winners of championship tournaments and they
will tell you that their skills played a major role
in their winning, and that conversely, the lack of skills
of their opponents made their winning that much easier.
From time to time, they will also tell you that luck
played a role in their winning the tournament, but mostly
poker is a game of skill.
Probably a good description of a skilled
poker player is a person who has mastered the critical
concepts of the game, and with that in mind, there are
four skill concepts that a poker player must possess
in order to become a master of the game.
Math skills
- Good poker players know the poker percentages.
They know that you have about 1 in 8 chance of hitting
a set when holding a pocket pair, and that you have
about a 1 in 3 chance of completing a flush draw at
the flop.
- They know the importance of 'outs.'
Outs are simply the number of cards that will improve
your hand. Count your outs, multiply them by two, and
add one, and that's roughly the percentage shot you
have at hitting (Outs x 2 + 1 = % of filling your anticipated
hand).
- Math skills are the most basic knowledge
of poker; it's Poker 101. Anyone who doesn't understand
these concepts should not play real money poker games
until they do.
Discipline
- Good poker players demand an advantage.
What separates a pro (winning poker player) from an
rookie (average player) is that the typical player does
not expect to win, while a strong player does.
- Good poker players understand that different
games require different disciplines. A disciplined no
limit player can be a foolish limit player and vice
versa. A disciplined limit player is always very tight
preflop (remember this, and it will save you a lot of
money later on). He or she will not play too many hands,
only the ones that have very good odds of winning.
Psychological Skills
- A good player is not a self-centered,
or a conceited player, and always tries to have an answer
to these three questions:
- Knowing the answer to these questions
is the first step, manipulating the answers is the second
and more important step. A skilled poker player manipulates
these questions by slow playing, fast playing, and bluffing
in order to throw his opponent off.
Understanding Risk vs Reward
- Pot odds and demanding an advantage
fall into this category. Skilled poker players are willing
to take a long shot risk if the reward is high enough,
but only if the expected return is worth it.
- More importantly, they understand the
Risk vs Reward nature of the game outside of the actual
poker room. They know how much bankroll they need to
play, and how much money they need in reserve to cover
other expenses in life.
- Good poker players are fundamentally
slightly risk-averse. If you cannot afford to lose the
entire amount of money you bring to a poker game, you
should not be playing with that much money. In essence
it’s much better to risk what you can afford to
lose, not what you don’t have to lose; and that
separates the winners from the losers.
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