How To Play "Good" Poker

I am departing from my BFP discussion on poker a little bit and am going to try to offer some straight up tips to anyone who might run across this on the net and want to know what "good" poker really is. I am not going to quote a bunch of books, even though I have read a bunch of books. Hellmuth, Negreanu, Harrington and Brunson agree on most fundamental rules of good play anyway, so I am not going to just regurgitate their fine books. I am, however, going to give you my thoughts on how a horrible player can just play better poker.

The first thing that is vital to the success of a poker player is patience. If you are not content to sit and fold 85% of the hands you are dealt, then perhaps you should get into another game. It's the math people. There are 4 cards of each suit that are face cards. That gives you 16 cards that you can make pairs or gain a suitable starting hand. If you throw in 10s, 9s, and 8s, you have a total of 22 cards out of 52 that must either pair or get a combination that is worth putting your entire stack at risk. I will explain that concept next. I try to abide by the Hellmuth top 10 starting hands as far as raising goes. I also limp with small pairs when I can, but fold to raises when my position and the number of people at the table are not favorable. You know what I do a majority of the rest of the time? I fold. Thats the first step to playing good poker. Fold. A lot.

Anytime you play a hand, you must consider the fact that every chip you have in your greedy little paws is at stake. Every bad hand you play can lose your money. The idea of folding and waiting for premium hands is more about stack protection than anything else. You want your money in when you have the best hand. Playing bad cards puts you at a disadvantage immediately. So you hit the low end of a straight? What happens when your opponent has the good end? Bottom 2 pair? So what? Your opponent just flopped a set. Get your money in when you have the best chance. Its not TV, so you can't "play every hand just like the pros do!" There is no ESPN production guy to edit out the boring hands and keep you interested.

Secondly, pay attention!. No...really...I wasn't saying to read this closer...I was actually saying to just pay attention to the table. Who is playing with their chips before a bet or a call? Who is counting out a raise 3 spots before it's their turn? What happens at the table when you raise? Is someone talking to another person and not really paying attention? These, and there are many more that should run through your head, are questions that good players ask. Ask the questions and act accordingly.

See who at your tables and in your poker leagues is the most successful or does the best in poker situations and then do what they do. Here is the one that gets me and made me actually ask out loud at a table last night the following question. "Why do people who continually week after week not do the same things the people who do not suck week after week do?" This was something I did early in my poker playing. I befriended some good poker players and we talked about hands (not bad beats for the love of God), but actual hands where I messed up or where I could have done something different. I followed what they did and I emulated it. Now, the best poker player I know has tools I do not have. She's a female and I can't pull the "bat the eyes" and "act like I am just not sure what this crazy game is about" tricks she can try. Thankfully, I don't think she does that often, but she could...and I clearly couldn't. However, she also has information that I could glean habits I could borrow. I did that. Become a "doing" learner and you will become a better poker player.

All of this has been said over and over and over and over, but I felt it worth rementioning. Sorry if this is a review for those 3 of you that read my site. If you are a new player...or just a stubborn player, please read through and digest what I have to say. It's not fun to fold for hours on end, but if/when you sit down to play for some money, you end up in the plus much more often if you learn to fold more often.

American Idol: Week 9

I won't make this a long post at all. The fact of the matter is that there is a clear distance between David Cook and the rest of the group. Believe what you want about Baby Dave (Archuletta), but he is all hype and the judges consistently make him out to be MUCH better than he actually was. Last night was ok at best for him. Brooke made a spectacular song choice and then flubbed it up and got nervous. I liked the styling of the song. According to the spreadsheet, which I won't bother showing, Kristy Lee should be gone. One note at the end does not make up for the hideous rest of the song.

The problem this week has been one that has haunted the entire season and has nearly made the show unwatchable at points. The theme weeks are horrible. 2 Beatles weeks when there was no standout performance to beg another one. Dolly week? No punchline needed there. And then they have Mariah week. If doing Mariah songs is one of the cardinal sins on the show, why in the sodding hell did they have a whole theme week of just that?!?!

Bottom 3 tonight are from best to last:

Carly
Brooke
Kristy Lee

American Idol: Week 8

Idol Gives Back!!!! Woohoo! I do like all the good things that AI is trying to do. They are spotlighting areas of the world and of our great nation that need our support more than we can fathom. However, the downer of the whole ordeal is that the singers had to choose an inspirational song. The problem is that they chose songs that inspired them...not generally inspirational songs. We ended up with David Cook's first stumble with a completely self absorbed song choice that rendered a song that is great by the original artist, but just not a good choice for American Idol. We saw Brooke choose a good song, but again, not a singer's song and she managed to duplicate the oringal pretty decently. Thats great for a karaoke contest, not so great for us. Here is how the spreadsheet calls it:

If I were going by the spreadsheet, it appears that David wrote his ticket home with a "buzz band" song, much like Constantine did with Nickelback. However, I think that Brooke may be waining in the public opinion and her song choices and folky turn aren't really the things that AI's are made of. It's also possible that Syesha picked a song too big for her once again, and while she did it pretty well in my opinion, I am sure some are tired of her constant balladry and attempts at the bigger songs. She has a good voice, but its just not as big as she thinks. Tonight will tell the tell...

American Idol: Week 7

I was a little distraught last night when I got in from my normal Tuesday poker excursion and my DVR, which had fouled up the night before, had not recorded American Idol. Then I recalled that I could just download it in the morning...so I did. It was Dolly Parton night. Let me say this about Dolly...my fiance is a huge fan of 2 singers...Dolly and Elton. Dolly is huge for her and she still pops a Dolly tape (yes, tape) into her car radio every now and again. Dolly is a prolific song writer and that is what is forgotten about her for the most part. It's hard for people to get past the boobs, the theme park and the innocent redneckness of Dolly Parton to remember that she has written a metric ton of music over the last 40 years. I expected a pretty bland night, because I wasn't kidding myself. A lot of times, AI goes over the edge (see Beatles weeks) and puts these huge songs on amateurs. It ended up being a little pitchy for me, but okay overall. It is hard to hear anyone else doing Dolly's songs. Here is the chart:

Some thoughts:

I have a problem, and this may just be a "me" thing, with a 17 year old Californian singing a song about Smoky Mtn memories. I know he had a reason, but the ideal of the song was too much for David A. The performance was typical. I just think I am over him now.

Syesha broke one of the major rules in AI competition. Never do a song Whitney Houston did. Ever. She may have written her ticket off the show this week.

I found myself disagreeing with Simon more this week. I think it might be because Simon hates country music. He can say otherwise, but he does. I saw it in his eyes.

Rameal's "cute" factor wore off after the first episode she was on. She can leave any time now.

Performance of the night...I am giving it to Johns. He did a great job with the song he chose and it seemed to fit what he will become after AI if he doesn't end up waiting tables in a fancy Buckhead, GA restaurant.