There’s an old saying: There’s no crying in baseball. But is there no crying in poker ? I was witness to an odd scene recently at a casino game of no limit hold ‘em that I never saw before. Two players were in a online poker hand, both slowplaying what seemed to be big hands by both of them on the flop and turn. Then the river came and the betting started wildly. They both ended up going all in and turning over their hands. One fellow had a full house, while the other one turned up four of a kind. Now, it certainly is disheartening to lose at the casino online with a full house, but it happens sometimes. But the fellow who lost then suddenly started weeping at the table! No one else really knew what to do or say, it was actually quite uncomfortable. The guy started saying how that was all the money he had saved up to buy his girlfriend an engagement ring, and now he had nothing and she would leave him. Who knows if it he was telling the truth, maybe he was trying to get the casino to give him money (which would never, ever, ever, happen) but either way it was a first for me, and I suspect everyone else at the table. Needless to say, the game of poker never gets boring, and you always see some surprising things.
It’s pretty common among the tide of younger online poker players common in online forums today to find that their interest in Texas hold em poker online spurred from a prior interest in the popular roleplaying card game, Magic: The Gathering. Though the two widely differ in practice, there are common elements to the games that make the step between the two rather naturalthe element of chance meets skill, the want for competition, the lucrative aspects of prize money and acclaim, etc. In each of these elements, it seems that Magic could be considered a training ground of the youth in the ways of strategy and table-based competition that could positively prepare their mind for the game of poker. All of the components mentioned above as present in Magic are more pronounced in pokerthere is more money involved, more fame, higher stakes, etc.but truly the complex nature of Magic’s set up could be argued even more dynamic, if in a totally different way. In the same manner that chess might affect a poker player’s outlook on the game, Magic offers a breeding ground of tactical prowess and spirit. Having been involved in both at different times, I’d say that any Magic player is suited to become an above average poker player.
In poker online, bluffing can win pots or make a player go broke. It’s a tough tactic to pull off, and generally there has to be a scare card on board to make it work. This principle was neatly illustrated in the 2009 World Series of Poker when two champion bracelet holders each got big pocket online pokerhands. One champ was dealt Queens, while the other held Kings. A younger newcomer to the game had 4-8 off suit and was first to bet under the gun. Not knowing he was up against two big poker online hands, he opened with raise, which was called by both champs and created a sizeable pot. The flop brought 4-Ace-rag. The pocket Kings were still best, but the player with the rag hand, which had completed to the low pair of fours, again put out a raise. This raise caused consternation to the other players holding the pocket faces, since when an Ace materializes in this situation, those pocket face cards shrivel. The Queens folded immediately to the bet, making the assumption that the raiser had an Ace. The player holding the Kings paused, not knowing if the Kings were good or trounced by the Ace on the board. After a moment of agonizing decision making, the player laid down the Kings and the best hand, allowing the bluffer to steal a big pot.
Actually, I should probably be saying don’t start making your brain sweat over the small pots, especially against the experienced poker players. Taking a page from professional Daniel Negreanu, “Small ball poker…it’s not meant for players of all levels of skill. [This] approach is too advanced for beginning players.”
While Negreanu does concede that the optimal strategy is to pay as much attention and play with as much skill as one an in small and big pots, he reiterates several times that it’s just too much to process for a novice.
So for the beginner he suggests something a little different, which I have to totally agree with. See, when you’re playing in small pots with good, experienced players, one of two things will happen. You’ll either get lucky an win by default because the cards dictated that you would, but much more commonly what will happen is that you’ll get outplayed in post-flop play.
So what are Negreanu’s tips here? He has two: 1.) If you’re going to bet on a hand, make it a big bet. This necessarily dictates 2.) you’ll be playing far fewer hands because you don’t make big bets on marginal hands especially when you’re in a bad position to do so. These two tenets make you’re play tighter and more sound just by following them at the most basic level.
Now the benefits of the two things. First the big bets. You accomplish myriad things. You induce skilled players to lay down their hands. You force the ones who like to play crazy and off the wall hands to make a harder decision. And you make it more expensive for marginal hands to get in, which in turns makes it harder for the suck-out to happen. Let’s face it, if the hands aren’t in to suck out, the suck out can’t happen, right?
The next is that you’re going to be risking far less on hands that you shouldn’t have been risking money on anyway. This is positive value for your hands.
So if nothing else, take this away with you. Don’t get all worked into the small hands with the experienced poker players. It’s not worth the loss you’ll suffer when you get outplayed. But hey, don’t worry about it. Learn from it, and before you know it you’ll be the one who the beginners don’t want to be getting into small pots with, and you’ll be taking their money when they don’t know any better.
There are many elements to the game of poker. The cards you have, the way you bet, and of course, luck. While there are many parts of a poker game that may seem to be out of your control, there is one weapon that you can use too great effect, the poker face. The poker face is more than just not showing expression. In a poker game the right face can win or loose a game for you. In fact many hands of poker have been won by people who had absolutely nothing because of their poker face. The trick to correctly using a poker face is the knowledge of what face to use and when to use it.
The first question many people ask is what exactly a poker face is. The simplest definition of a poker face is lack of any expression in a poker game. However, there is more to a poker face than not showing emotion. In fact good poker players use their lack of emotion to express almost every feeling known to mankind. They just do it without changing their expression. Learning how to do this is not necessary to be a good poker player, but having it under your control will help you out a lot.
The reason a poker face is so important is because it makes you unreadable to your opponents. Someone who is not showing expression is very hard to predict. When someone is hard to predict, it is hard to make decisions based on their actions. In poker, not knowing what decision to make can win or loose a game. For this reason every inspiring poker player should learn to keep their own poker face and be as unreadable as possible.