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.