With the attention steroids is currently receiving in baseball, I’ve decided to do a column on the different ways poker players try to gain an advantage over their opponents: Whether it’s finding a gray area in the rules, or an outright disregard for the rules.
While I’m sure there are poker players using steroids --I’m not sure how they would affect performance, unless you had one of those ‘WSOP final table stacks’ you need to haul around—I decided on the steroids analogy because of how it ties into the baseball culture, which I feel has a close resemblance to the poker world.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Becoming A Better Poker Player: Record Keeping
Ah, paper work! No matter how often I explain it people always think the life of a poker player is all late nights and big pots. Truth be told, mundane tasks constitute a lot of a poker players “work” hours: For every hour spent at the poker tables, a really good player spends an additional hour away from the tables reviewing hands, collating notes, and charting their wins and losses –the latter is known as record keeping.
Winning players treat their records similar to a business that has been audited by the IRS in the past: In other words, they are meticulous! After all, if you are not sure how much you have won, how can you be certain that you have won at all?
Winning players treat their records similar to a business that has been audited by the IRS in the past: In other words, they are meticulous! After all, if you are not sure how much you have won, how can you be certain that you have won at all?
Monday, December 14, 2009
Are You A ‘5 tool’ Poker Player?
Baseball scouts use a system of 5 factors to classify potential prospects: These 5 factors are known as ‘the 5 tools’, which is why good all-around players are known as “5 tool players”.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
7 Ways To Improve Your Stud-8 Poker Game
1. Low hands can make a high hand; high hands cannot make a low
This is a very key concept in any high/low game. When you start with a good high hand, such as (KQ)K you have no chance to make a low hand: However, when you start with a good low hand, such as (A4)5 you have opportunities to back into a high hand like Aces-Up.
Additionally, when you have a powerhouse low hand you have excellent potential both ways.
This is a very key concept in any high/low game. When you start with a good high hand, such as (KQ)K you have no chance to make a low hand: However, when you start with a good low hand, such as (A4)5 you have opportunities to back into a high hand like Aces-Up.
Additionally, when you have a powerhouse low hand you have excellent potential both ways.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
4 Things You Don’t Understand About Poker
1. How good your opponents are is often times more important than how good you are
Unless you have risen to your failure point –which basically means you are able to beat numerous games, but are currently playing in a game where you are the fish—your opponents’ level of play is much more important than your own. The easiest way to explain this concept is this way: In poker your level of play is relative to your opponents. In poker you don’t have to be the best player at your table to win money; you simply need to be one of the better players at the table. Furthermore, if there is a truly horrendous player at the table you could be the second worst player and still come out a winner!
Unless you have risen to your failure point –which basically means you are able to beat numerous games, but are currently playing in a game where you are the fish—your opponents’ level of play is much more important than your own. The easiest way to explain this concept is this way: In poker your level of play is relative to your opponents. In poker you don’t have to be the best player at your table to win money; you simply need to be one of the better players at the table. Furthermore, if there is a truly horrendous player at the table you could be the second worst player and still come out a winner!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Why You Should Always Play Out Your Blind
How many times have you put in 500 hands online and decided enough was enough, you’re done? Well, if you are like many players you usually come to this decision somewhere other than when you will be the Big Blind. And if you do what many players do, and stand up, you are losing money! You lose money because poker success is measured in the long-term; every hand you are dealt is worth the same as any other hand.
Here’s how it works: Suppose your win-rate is $25/100 hands –or $.25/hand. Now, suppose you play an average of 200 sessions of poker each year, and on average leave the game three hands before you will be the Big Blind. That means you have missed 600 hands of FREE poker, which could have been an extra $150 in your pocket!
If you were to play out all your blinds you could literally hand another player a $100 bill, and still come out $50 richer than if you continued to leave the game before the blinds come back to you!
Here’s how it works: Suppose your win-rate is $25/100 hands –or $.25/hand. Now, suppose you play an average of 200 sessions of poker each year, and on average leave the game three hands before you will be the Big Blind. That means you have missed 600 hands of FREE poker, which could have been an extra $150 in your pocket!
If you were to play out all your blinds you could literally hand another player a $100 bill, and still come out $50 richer than if you continued to leave the game before the blinds come back to you!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
5 Poker Books You Can’t Live Without
When I started playing poker (serious poker that is) a search of Amazon.com would yield one or two poker books on each form of poker. There was only a single book that covered No Limit Hold’ Em, Doyle Brunson’s Super System, which was fine because nobody played No Limit Hold’ Em except in tournaments anyway!
Nowadays there are so many books, written by so many authors, a lot of players have a difficult time deciding which book(s) to buy. In this column I will go over the five poker books every player should have on their bookshelf, regardless of the game they play.
Nowadays there are so many books, written by so many authors, a lot of players have a difficult time deciding which book(s) to buy. In this column I will go over the five poker books every player should have on their bookshelf, regardless of the game they play.
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