Solid Poker Players

[bobf111]

• A solid poker player knows the general probabilities of the game. For example, they know that you have about 1 in 8.5 chance of hitting a set when holding a pocket pair, and that you have about a 1 in 3 chance of completing a flopped flush draw by the river.

• Good players understand 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.

• Good players can figure out the pot odds. Knowing outs is meaningless unless it's translated into rational, calculated betting. Knowing you have a 20% chance of hitting, what do you do then? If you're not sure, check out our Pot Odds in tip of the day.

• Math skills are the most basic knowledge; it's day-one reading. Anyone who doesn't understand these concepts should not play in a game for real money until they do.

Skill #2: Discipline

• Good poker players demand an advantage. What separates a winning poker player from a fish is that a fish does not expect to win, while a poker player does. A fish is happy playing craps, roulette, or the slots; he just hopes to get lucky. A poker player does not hope to get lucky. He just hopes others don't get lucky.

• Good poker players understand that a different game requires a different discipline. A disciplined no-limit player can be a foolish limit player and vice versa. For example, a disciplined limit hold'em player has solid preflop skills. When there is not much action preflop, he or she only plays the better hands. When a lot of people are limping in, he or she will make a loose call with a suited connector or other speculative hand.

• A disciplined player knows when to play and when to quit. He recognizes when he is on tilt and is aware when a game is too juicy to just quit while ahead.

• A disciplined player knows that he is not perfect. When a disciplined player makes a mistake, he learns. He does not blame others. He does not cry. He learns from the mistake and moves on.

Skill #3: Psychology

• A good player is not a self-centered player. He may be the biggest SOB you know. He may not care about anyone but himself, and he may enjoy stealing food from the poor. However, when a poker pro walks into a poker room, he always empathizes with his opponents. He tries to think what they think and understand the decisions they make and why they make them. The poker pro always tries to have an answer to these questions:

1. What does my opponent have?
2. What does my opponent think I have?
3. What does my opponent think I think he has?

• Knowing the answer to these questions is the first step, manipulating the answers is the second and more important step. Suppose that you have a pair of kings and your opponent has a pair of aces. If you both know what the other has, and you both know that you know what the other has, then why play a game of poker? A poker pro manipulates the answers to questions #2 and #3 by slowplaying, fastplaying, and bluffing in order to throw his opponent off.

• Good poker players know that psychology is much more important in a no-limit game than in a limit game. Limit games often turn into math battles, while no-limit games carry a strong psychology component. Thus, poker tells are much more important in no-limit games.

Skill #4: Understanding Risk vs. Reward

• Pot odds and demanding an advantage fall into this category. Poker players are willing to take a long-shot risk if the reward is high enough, but only if the expected return is higher than the risk.

• More importantly, they understand the risk-vs.-reward nature of the game outside of the actual poker room. They know how much bank they need to play, and how much money they need in reserve to cover other expenses in life.

• Good poker players understand they need to be more risk-averse with their overall bankroll than their stack at the table.

When you play in an individual game, you must value every chip equally at the table. You should only care about making correct plays. If you buy in for $10, you should be okay with taking a 52% chance of doubling up to $20 if it means a 48% chance of losing your $10.

However, you should be risk-averse with your overall bankroll. You need to have enough money so that any day at the tables will not affect your bankroll too much. If you worry too much about losing, then you will make mistakes at the table. You need to leave yourself with the chance to fight another day.

[plainflour]

Yo Bob

You'v said it all

[BigA1]

This is a great, great post. In fact I am going to post a thread satirizing my poor play of late because I did not follow some of your advice. The sad fact is that I know everything that you posted, and still made some very poor choices.
I hope to do better in the future.

[magno]

very nice,thanks bob

[T_B_H]

great read bob thank you.

correct decisions is what i keep telling myself.

kev

[pokerpeyz]

yeh... m8 let's raise the flag in being a poker player!!! if you're still a poker player!!! what if you're a poker king??? hahaha.....

WELL DONE m8!! let us all cheer for poker game!!! CHEERS!!!

[judetheobscure]

Great advice, just used it to beat BigA. No hard feelings.

[craigsimnett]

excellent advice generally, Bob, though i'm not sure about your rules for calculating the probabilities of gaining a winning hand! Counting the 'outs' is not always reliable, so much depends on so many other factors. Most important is the number of cards dealt out, i.e. how many people at the table. This makes a HUGE differeence to the probabilites involved. I would certainly not play a hand with 2 opponents the same as I would play the same hand with 9 opponents!
I teach mathematics at college and find it excedingly difficult to accurately calculate the probabilities whilst under pressure in a game. Experience should tell a player after a while what is good to play under certain circumstances.

After all..We all learn from our mistakes, don't we!!

I wish!

[RobbieLePop]

Craig - You've got your two hole cards and between 3-5 community cards.

So there are 45-47 'unseen cards' that can make your hand.

If you quickly count your outs; say you're holding AK suited (hearts) in hand and the flop is 2h 5h 8s, then you have outs of:
3 A's, 3 K's, 8 hearts = 14 / 47.

Rather than work out the exact calculation of 14 over 47, just double your outs (28 in this case) because 47 * 2 is almost 100.
Plus the one on top to get you that extra 6%.

Be careful though, remember if you've got something like Q 5 offsuit, you're only playing for your queens, and that might not even be enough if someone holds a better kicker.

[Virtus11]

very well said bob......
always learning something from your tips

[Summer09]

A disciplined player knows that he is not perfect. When a disciplined player makes a mistake, he learns. He does not blame others. He does not cry.( but i do cry sometimes ...LOL ) He learns from the mistake and moves on.

thanks for the great advice bob

[pushy1]

thanks you bob this is very good advice for players to follow andwell worded so they can understand

[pam66]

great post bob, very good advice

[colling_wood]

i have taken that all in thx m8

[MetalBladeSlayer916]

Great advice, and well taken!

[babyboy08]

Excellent job m8!

[rad6]

interesting read, will try to put it to good use.

[Shrooms]

yes rob but like he said a table of 10,u are working it out to a heads up,and your playin 6 or 10 table what are the odds of those cards being still in the dealers hand i think ZERO.

[chinchilla]

ty i will certainly try your method