Professional poker players hate to be called “professional gamblers” because it’s not a valid title for them. Why? – Because for good poker players
poker is not a game of luck. For good poker players
poker is a game of a lot of things
like focus
discipline
intelligence
psychology
math
patience – the list goes on
but one thing is for sure and it is the fact that luck is not one of the words on that list.
Ok
so poker is a little bit of luck at certain moments perhaps
but when you play poker with the intents to make money consistently
than you have to think about the long run. In the long run
the better poker player is always going to win more money. The better of a poker player you are
the less luck there is involved. To be a good poker player
and to decrease the limitations of luck
you have to master the skills of psychology and mathematics.
Poker is a game of percentages. Calculating things called pot odds
implied odds
and outs are something that is essential to a winning poker player. When you watch poker on T.V. you will always notice that the screen always shows the chances that a player has of winning the hand percentage wise. When you play at the casino
and you are in a hand against someone else and they are taking a long time to make a decision and they are talking to themselves
they are usually calculating the odds in there heads. You have to become a human calculator to be a winning player and being able to do so is one of the keys to being successful in the long run – the other one is psychology.
Knowing the math usually gives you the edge on other poker players
but to decrease luck even more you have to master the psychology of poker. You have to be able to make tremendous reads on people and you have to make those reads by carefully evaluated every single move they make. If you just know the math
and you are unable to play the “nitty gritty” of poker then you will be susceptible to being bluffed at a lot and it will result in folding a lot of winning hands. Poker isn’t just about what cards you get
everybody gets cards at some point – it’s how you play those cards. You have to be able to make losing hands win
and you have to be able to call people when you have the best hand. The better you become at doing this the more luck you take out of the game and the more skill you add to it.
There are two reasons people quit their jobs and become full time poker players. One of them is because there are great poker players out there that overcome luck with great amounts of skill
and the other reason is because there are a lot of people that think they are good but actually just have gambling problems; make sure you are not the latter of the two before you decide to play poker as a part time or full time job and make sure luck is not the main ingredient of your poker game.
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Home-Style Poker versus Pro Poker: What Works
Home-Style Poker versus Pro Poker: What Works If you have been very good at playing poker with your buddies at home
this does not guarantee that you will be very good when you play with the pros in a casino. Home-style poker and pro poker have significant differences and a different strategy is called for in [...]
Brian Townsend Admits to Multi-Accounting (source: PokerSourceOnline.com)
Brian Townsend
a CardRunners.com instructor and one of the most popular young internet poker … (source: PokerSourceOnline.com) – RSS and RSS Feed on Feedzilla.com
Dealing with Sore Losers
Once in your poker playing life
youll come across one or more players that simply cant step to the beat of losing and winning. These people are those who probably think they should win simply because their opponents seemed to be winning the entire day
which is not a good excuse for losing badly in [...]
For many years
poker players had no way to test their poker skills
other than engaging in actual poker play – and often risking significant sums of money only to discover they aren’t winning
and then try to intuit over a long period of time where their game needs improvement.
It’s now possible to test your actual Texas Hold’em poker skills using a free online poker test. There are several of these tests now available. The original test was first published at PokerTester.com.
The poker test consists of answering 25 multiple-choice questions
testing 8 different poker skills areas.
Everyone who learns to play poker climbs the “poker ladder” over a period of time
as they learn more and grow each poker skill.
Progressing up the poker ladder from a beginner toward becoming an advanced or expert player takes a combination of skills
time and experience.
In particular
the following skills areas are tested by PokerTester’s Texas Holdem test:
Starting Hands – which starting hands you select to play
from which positions and under which circumstances
has a big impact on how well you do in poker.
Betting Strategy – how you choose to bet makes a huge difference in your winnings at poker. Choosing to bet or raise when you should’ve called or folded
for example
will make the difference between cashing out or making the final table in a tournament
or going home early with empty pockets.
Playing the Odds – knowing how and when to play the odds is critical to making money and building your stack in poker. This includes quickly calculating outs
pot odds and determining whether your hand is a money-maker or loser (statistically). While you can’t play strictly by the odds
it’s an important factor of the game
since there’s always an element of chance involved.
Bluffing and Trapping – one of the most important skills in the game of poker is successful bluffing. The ability to bluff and trap successfully is so critical because in poker
you won’t typically get that many super-strong hands
so knowing when and how to bluff and trap typically makes all the difference in how well a player does at poker.
Reading Players – the ability to understand what a player is likely doing at any point in the game
as well as successfully reading their hand strength
is a critical skill. If you learn to do it successfully
you’ll know when to fold when holding the second-best hands and when to raise or go all-in against a bluff the opponent is making.
Heads Up Play – playing properly in a one-on-one situation is critical
since there are many occasions where you’ll be pitted against just one opponent
either in a particular hand or at the end of a tournament. Winning heads up play is what separates the Champions from the rest.
Advanced Play – knowing a number of advanced techniques will enable you to confuse your opponents
keeping them off balance and wondering what’s going on
preventing them from easily reading you as a player
or gaining certainty about your hand strength.
Tournament Play – as much of today’s play is centered on tournaments
both large multi-table tournaments as well as satellite and sit and go tournaments
knowing and using proper tournament strategy is an important skill to develop.
It takes about 15 to 20 minutes to thoughtfully take the poker test. Upon completion
you receive a “report card” containing your overall score. The report includes a score for each of the 8 key poker skills areas
so you know your strengths and weaknesses exactly. In addition
tips are provided to indicate exactly what you need to brush up on (the questions you missed or scored weakly on).
By truly understanding one’s skills
it’s then possible to focus one’s study on just those weaker areas
enabling a player to improve their overall poker game much more rapidly.
With these kind of innovations now available online
anyone can now quickly and easily discover their own poker skill level – objectively. By combining this skills information with proper study
it’s now possible for players to quickly brush up on their game and become strong players much faster than ever before.
Rick
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Relative Hand Strength with Jon Aguiar
Jon FatalError Aguiar has traveled the globe playing in the world’s richest poker tournaments. In the last five years
hes accumulated $1.1 million in winnings in live and online tournaments. Aguiars latest trip was to Monte Carlo for the…
