Tag Archives: least

Texas Holdem Strategy: Know When to Say "When" (Page 1 of 2)

May 16, 2019   Game guide   No comments

The difference between walking away a winner and going broke chasing your losses is knowing when to walk away. Many poker players, even skilled, experienced players have dealt with this problem. It takes discipline to get up and leave the table. Some signs that it may be time to “take the money and run” (I just love the classics) include:

1. The players at the table have changed and you are not winning as consistently as you were.

There is a saying that there is at least one sucker at every poker table. If you look around and can’t identify who they are, it’s you. If you’ve driven all of the fish away from your table and you aren’t winning as often or as much, don’t be afraid to get up and try your luck at another table. If you’re being out-played, you’re being out-played. You want to be the shark (or barracuda, at least), not the fish.

2.You’ve lost your focus.

Believe it or not, playing poker can be an exhausting endeavor. While physically sedentary, it’s very emotionally and mentally draining to constantly try to remain aware of shifting player dynamics during hours of play. It wears at you. There are literally dozens of studies that show concentration, focus, and decision making ability all suffer with prolonged periods of stress and exhaustion. We need to acknowledge it when, for whatever reason, we just aren’t at our best.

4. There’s little or no money to be made.

Winning poker is only possible when there is a good mix of aggressive and conservative players at the table. Sometimes you will find yourself in a situation when it seems everyone at the table, including you, is a “rock”. When that happens, the pots are likely to be smaller, with less action. Rocks as a rule are tight-aggressive. They’re not going to play too many speculative hands, and they’re certainly not going to give you action without a strong hand. A table full of maniacs is just as bad, in a different way. If everyone is being super-aggressive, poker soon takes on the semblance of a lottery. There’s much more opportunity to lose than to win.

5. You have made a reasonable profit on the session.

You need to keep track of your stack in relation to the other players’ and also in relation to the total chips at the table. At a certain point the ratio of risk:reward gets turned against you. It may seem counter-intuitive, but being a massive chip leader is a difficult circumstance to master. The reason is that your perception of risk can get skewed and distorted by the size of your stack. If you’ve been playing well and have built up your stack to 3,4 or even 5 times your starting stack, you will be a huge force at the table. Even if other players have re-bought, you are likely to have at least a 2:1 chip advantage over the average stack at your table. If you become “drunk with power” you could start pushing with hands you should fold. For the same reason, watch your stack’s ratio to the total chips at the table. If you have over half the chips in play you really can’t advance your cause too much. At that point you are potentially risking your large stack to win a portion of a much smaller one.

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Can You Really Earn a Decent Income Playing Poker Online?

January 5, 2019   Game guide   No comments

Yes, you most certainly can, and, just as certainly, you can lose a decent income as well! Fortunately, the online Poker industry has grown so much over the past few years, and is so competitive, that you can learn and practice your play at very little real cost to yourself. Many Poker rooms now offer you a bonus just to sign up with them; others have an introductory ‘free-roll’ facility. Use these whilst you learn and your costs will be minimised.
For you to succeed at playing online Poker you will need at least some talent, Poker is not simply a game of chance. Equally, you will need a degree of dedication, patience and discipline before your ideal of achieving a real income from online Poker is reached. Successful online Poker players make their money from less successful players, your task is ensure that you hang on to your money during the learning phase. You will need to purchase instructional material and thoroughly absorb the contents, reading any book over and over again. Then you will need to start playing at very low stakes, taking note of where and why you lose – and then improving that part of your game.
Poker is a game of skill, and gamesmanship. Much like stock-market dealing, wins and losses are often due to fear and greed, there are many who can technically analyse the market, few who can trade in a completely dispassionate manner – a basic requirement if you really want to make online Poker your new source of income.
Once you have learned the basics of playing online Texas Holdem, you need to keep reading, keep practicing, keep learning, making sure that you become one of the winners and not a loser or, as such individuals are termed, a ‘fish’.
Once you have started to play for real money your priority, at least in the early days, is to find an online Poker table with as many weak players as possible, for it is from them that you stand the greatest chance of winning. You do not really wish to compete with the person just back from winning a $250,000 game in Las Vegas! So, your first job is to find a table that has two or three fishes in attendance.
Whilst the right online Poker table may be difficult to find it will be worth all of the effort involved and is a major step in earning your living by playing online Texas Holdem. There are a number of advantages to playing Poker online, not least that there is no-one to analyse any twitches or fumbles you may have when you get a particularly good or bad hand. Equally, you do not have to travel, you play when you want to play, you do not need to wear a dinner jacket and can dress as you like, no need to pay the dealer and so on.
Of prime importance once you start to play online Poker in a professional manner is the keeping of precise records of your wins and losses, to determine your manner of playing and ensuring that you are not over-betting with money you cannot afford to lose. Note that if you consistently play Poker online there is every possibility that you will encounter the same player or players at different times, so avoid being predicable in your betting patterns.
By the time you reach this level of play, in some weeks or months, dependent upon your aptitude and work rate, you will have a good grasp of most of the important aspects of playing online Poker – you will no longer be a fish! Indeed, by now you will be hunting the tables for others less skilled and knowledgeable, for it is these individuals that form the greatest pool of your future income.
By now, you will also have become aware of the many tools available to the successful online Poker player, many of which cannot be used in live situations. These tools are used, and used very successfully by those earning their living by playing online Texas Holdem. I suspect that you will learn to do the same! The very best of luck in your endeavours.

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