PokerWorks

It's Not All About The Cards

When I first started playing tournament poker, I was what most people might call a rock; except that was actually probably a little too kind. I was so tight I made the tightest of players look like Gus Hansen. And I did well enough playing this way, even won a tournament or two, and made a profit, but whenever I played I was always finding myself either 1) coming just short of the money or 2) making the money with relatively no room for further play and thus no real chance at winning. It was profitable poker, but barely. I knew I had to do something. So I e-mailed the one person whose game I admired and feared the most and asked them if they would help me. And thus began the rebirth of my game. This person responded back to me and we began a long series of discussions revolving around what I have been teaching you in this section... table dynamics and playing the player.

So what can table dynamics and playing the player do for you? Here are just a few. It can win you pots when you hold nothing. It can make the pots you win substantially larger by understanding the proper amount to bet in order to induce a call and/or raise when you are holding a premium hand. It can make the pots you lose smaller by giving you knowledge of your opponents and letting you know when you are beat.

Many people spend time learning what hands to play and from what position to play. Even more spend time learning how much to bet and when to bet. And this is good. I teach this stuff as a matter of fact. But the single most important thing any player can learn is to learn to understand your opponents.

One of the things I have my students do is to watch a player from start to finish. Watch them play. Learn the things that make this person tick. Their strengths. Their weaknesses. By doing this, observation of a player when you are actually playing against them becomes easier and eventually you'll find yourself almost not even needing to look at your cards to play against them. This is the type of thing you should be doing with each and every player at your table. Each player is a potential source for chips. They are also a potential source to take yours. Knowing how to play against them will help you maximize your value and minimize your losses.

When you can play this game independent of the cards you are being dealt, you're truly playing poker. This is what this section was all about. Now we'll get into the actual cards themselves and what to do with them.