In the article series. we looked at the key steps you should take in order to prime yourself for poker success while you are off the table. In this serious article we shall explore the other side of that coin, and take a look at what you need to be doing at the table. We will not be looking at in depth poker strategy in this article, but rather taking a general look at ways to achieve optimal success on the virtual felt.
Why is poker considered a game of skill rather than a game of luck? Answer - Edges. Poker is a game of skill edges. If a good player and a bad player sit down to battle it out in a game of poker, over a large enough sample of hands, the good player will emerge victorious every single time. So why do good players sometimes lose money to bad players? Answer - Variance. Poker is a high variance game where even the strongest players rarely have a huge edge on the field in the short term. The smaller the edge, the longer it takes to get a large enough sample in to overcome the variance and see your true win-rate.
This brings us to the golden rule of poker, and any form of investment for that matter; use good bankroll management (brm). If your bankroll is not big enough to overcome the variance vs your opposition at the stakes you are playing you run the risk of busting your bankroll before your edge has the chance to shine through. The worse your brm, the more you are relying on variance (luck) rather than skill in order to win. You can control your skill level, you cannot control your luck level therefore any serious professional poker player should use good brm in and plant his destiny firmly into his own hands. Don't rely on to the poker gods to win, aim to become a poker god. See the image below for suggested brm by game type.
In order to win money at poker in the long term, you must be better, on average, than the opponents you face. This sounds extremely obvious, but surprisingly enough, many poker players completely ignore this concept. There are several reasons why people enter into games that they are not winning in, these include: overestimating edge (Dunning-Kruger effect), wanting to gamble and tilt. Regardless of the reasons, this is fantastic news for serious poker players, because it's what allows them to make profit from poker in the first place.
So how do we determine which games we should select to play in? The first step is to form a realistic picture of your own abilities. You can do this by analysing your play over a large sample. Look at your results, are you winning in your chosen games? Do you crush certain types of opponents but struggle vs others? Are you better at different stack sizes and table sizes than others? These are the sort of questions you should be asking yourself on a regular basis. Be honest with yourself, no one is perfect and the first step to self improvement is acknowledging your weaknesses so that you can begin to improve on them. If you are unsure of your level of play, big blinds per 100 over a large sample is a very good indicator.
Once have a good idea of where you are at, the next step is to size up your opposition. Choosing the best value sites to play on is extremely important. Many players toil away on reg heavy, high rake and low rake-back *cough Pokerstars* sites without giving it a second thought. These poor, misguided souls have to work hard on their game just to stay afloat. If only they would take a moment to realise that there is an abundance of sites available to grind on, offering a far better value. They would be able to make much more money, with much less stress, putting in the same level of effort. There are plenty of sites to chose from, with a wide variety of pros and cons. Put in the time to research which sites seem to offer the best return for your chosen game type and stakes. Don't be afraid to try new sites. Just because you are winning on your current site does not mean you should not look further, you may be letting easy profit slip away right under your nose.
Once you have chosen your site(s). You must now chose which tables to play on. A lot of poker sites will provide information about the tables in the lobby. Look for tables with a relatively high average pot size an percent of players seeing a flop (be careful these stats are not distorted by recent short handed play.) These tables will most likely have weak players gambling and chasing draws with weak hands. Good players usually auto rebuy in order to maximise their edge. Therefore, looking for players that are not auto rebuying is something you can use to quickly spot potential fish.
Your seating position at a table is also of critical importance. You should aim to have the weakest player possible sitting on your direct right and avoid having aggressive players on your left. This is because the blinds move from right to left, so the player on the right will have position on the player on his left the majority of the time. Position is a huge advantage in poker and being in a good seat allows you to magnify your advantage against the players who are already at the greatest disadvantage while minimizing the edge you have vs stronger players.
Poker is a game of information, thus you should use any information you can get to gain an advantage. You should make detailed notes on players. It's not good enough to simply label a player a fish. This is of minimal help. Instead we should aim to specify what makes a player a fish. A player that is extremely nitty and will let you run him over all day long is a fish. A player that will spew off money with trash hands is also a fish. However, the strategies you should employ to crush these players are extremely different. There is a huge spectrum of behaviours that make a player a "bad" and in order to optimally exploit these leaks, you must first identify them clearly. Use specific colours for different player types in order to be able to quickly identify what you are dealing with. Add written notes containing specific details about your opponents tendencies. Knowing a specific weakness or tendency of a player can often make the difference between winning a huge pot or losing it or at the very least, make your decisions a lot easier
Why is poker considered a game of skill rather than a game of luck? Answer - Edges. Poker is a game of skill edges. If a good player and a bad player sit down to battle it out in a game of poker, over a large enough sample of hands, the good player will emerge victorious every single time. So why do good players sometimes lose money to bad players? Answer - Variance. Poker is a high variance game where even the strongest players rarely have a huge edge on the field in the short term. The smaller the edge, the longer it takes to get a large enough sample in to overcome the variance and see your true win-rate.
This brings us to the golden rule of poker, and any form of investment for that matter; use good bankroll management (brm). If your bankroll is not big enough to overcome the variance vs your opposition at the stakes you are playing you run the risk of busting your bankroll before your edge has the chance to shine through. The worse your brm, the more you are relying on variance (luck) rather than skill in order to win. You can control your skill level, you cannot control your luck level therefore any serious professional poker player should use good brm in and plant his destiny firmly into his own hands. Don't rely on to the poker gods to win, aim to become a poker god. See the image below for suggested brm by game type.
In order to win money at poker in the long term, you must be better, on average, than the opponents you face. This sounds extremely obvious, but surprisingly enough, many poker players completely ignore this concept. There are several reasons why people enter into games that they are not winning in, these include: overestimating edge (Dunning-Kruger effect), wanting to gamble and tilt. Regardless of the reasons, this is fantastic news for serious poker players, because it's what allows them to make profit from poker in the first place.
So how do we determine which games we should select to play in? The first step is to form a realistic picture of your own abilities. You can do this by analysing your play over a large sample. Look at your results, are you winning in your chosen games? Do you crush certain types of opponents but struggle vs others? Are you better at different stack sizes and table sizes than others? These are the sort of questions you should be asking yourself on a regular basis. Be honest with yourself, no one is perfect and the first step to self improvement is acknowledging your weaknesses so that you can begin to improve on them. If you are unsure of your level of play, big blinds per 100 over a large sample is a very good indicator.
Once have a good idea of where you are at, the next step is to size up your opposition. Choosing the best value sites to play on is extremely important. Many players toil away on reg heavy, high rake and low rake-back *cough Pokerstars* sites without giving it a second thought. These poor, misguided souls have to work hard on their game just to stay afloat. If only they would take a moment to realise that there is an abundance of sites available to grind on, offering a far better value. They would be able to make much more money, with much less stress, putting in the same level of effort. There are plenty of sites to chose from, with a wide variety of pros and cons. Put in the time to research which sites seem to offer the best return for your chosen game type and stakes. Don't be afraid to try new sites. Just because you are winning on your current site does not mean you should not look further, you may be letting easy profit slip away right under your nose.
Once you have chosen your site(s). You must now chose which tables to play on. A lot of poker sites will provide information about the tables in the lobby. Look for tables with a relatively high average pot size an percent of players seeing a flop (be careful these stats are not distorted by recent short handed play.) These tables will most likely have weak players gambling and chasing draws with weak hands. Good players usually auto rebuy in order to maximise their edge. Therefore, looking for players that are not auto rebuying is something you can use to quickly spot potential fish.
Your seating position at a table is also of critical importance. You should aim to have the weakest player possible sitting on your direct right and avoid having aggressive players on your left. This is because the blinds move from right to left, so the player on the right will have position on the player on his left the majority of the time. Position is a huge advantage in poker and being in a good seat allows you to magnify your advantage against the players who are already at the greatest disadvantage while minimizing the edge you have vs stronger players.
Poker is a game of information, thus you should use any information you can get to gain an advantage. You should make detailed notes on players. It's not good enough to simply label a player a fish. This is of minimal help. Instead we should aim to specify what makes a player a fish. A player that is extremely nitty and will let you run him over all day long is a fish. A player that will spew off money with trash hands is also a fish. However, the strategies you should employ to crush these players are extremely different. There is a huge spectrum of behaviours that make a player a "bad" and in order to optimally exploit these leaks, you must first identify them clearly. Use specific colours for different player types in order to be able to quickly identify what you are dealing with. Add written notes containing specific details about your opponents tendencies. Knowing a specific weakness or tendency of a player can often make the difference between winning a huge pot or losing it or at the very least, make your decisions a lot easier
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