The Different Stages in a Player's Life

The riddle of the sphinx was the question, what walks on four feet in the morning, two feet in the afternoon, and three in the evening? The answer was man. So, you ask, how does that relate to poker? Well, it really doesn't, but with a far stretch of the imagination, we might get it there. Maybe a poker player has an evolution to his playing style. That is, what you need to be successful when you start out may not be the same to achieve success in higher-limit games against other experienced players.

As total beginners, all people play far too loose, ensuring that they cannot win. They also raise foolishly but call regularly when raising is needed. Needless to say, they call too often all the way through hands with little chance of winning pots. Without reading and studying, there is only a small chance that they can evolve into winning poker players. It takes some time for them to start to realize that there is more to the game than trying to get lucky and catch cards. That is, even though poker is an easy game to play, it is not an easy game to play well. Sometime during this stage, some players begin to understand that playing tight gets the money in the small games they are playing. It doesn't necessarily allow them to win a lot, but it does give them positive results, which is a welcome change from their previous status. From here, they morph into the next stage.

This stage of a player's evolution is the tight stage. Most of those who are going to go forward to become eventual winning players will enter this stage. The problem is that they frequently play too tight and may have little imagination in the beginning. The good side is that one now finds that he wins a fair amount of the time due only to tight play, and bad playing by opponents. He also may be aided by the small ante/blind structure of many of the games at the smaller limits, and after a long spell of ups and downs, the newly minted tight player starts to find out about how good plays can increase your earnings. He experiments a little and finds that it's fun to make speculative raises and bluffs, and he begins to see his winnings increase. From here, he starts the trek to the next stage of his evolution.

This is the advanced stage of a poker player's career. Now, the cat is out of the bag. He wins more often and gets what he believes is the right feel for the game. Great plays come about by pushing marginal hands and making fantastic calls on the end through his ability to read hands. Poker is fun when it's played this way. No longer is the tight player inside the body. All hands start to look like they have value, and with skillful manipulation, winning the pot is easy. He begins to believe that he can play bad hands for profit, when, in reality, he can't. The player has taken a big step backward and a long leap forward at the same time. The tight style needed is gone and a new imaginative style is born, and he becomes loose-aggressive. Unfortunately for him, if he gets too loose, he loses all of his money and may never recover. But for those who are moving up the ladder, this is the last leap before the finishing stage.

Finally, if our player can get through the maze, he may find himself armed with the tools to round out expert status. This last stage incorporates the tight play that's a must in poker with the imagination to win pots without the best hand. He has become tight and aggressive. Semibluffs, bluffs, raises to knock out the best hand (and sometimes the second-best hand) to get the pot down to you and the loser, and good calls on the end are some of the things that were missing before or were played incorrectly. The expert wins lots of money and gains a reputation for being a great player. Whether he keeps the money depends on his ability to find good games at limits within his bankroll.

By the way, don't let the above paragraph fool you. It takes a lot of work to achieve this kind of skill, and only a small number of players ever reach this status.

That is my take on how most of the expert players moved up the ladder in ability and skill. From that point forward, each person has to learn the self-control that is required to quit when playing badly, and at the same time be able to gauge when opponents are outplaying him. Those who will make the most of their time at the tables will be found playing in good games when they are at the peak of their faculties, and will be very successful in the long run. Not playing when tired or upset, limiting the hours so that concentration continues, and leaving when you don't have it that day, but may not know why, are some of the hidden keys to long-term success. If and when a person puts it all together, he can say that he is an expert.

The above applies to virtually all forms of poker. Becoming a great player doesn't happen overnight. It's true that some people have a great deal of natural ability, but even they have to work on their games. On the other hand, those of you who don't possess a great deal of natural ability can still become very good and successful players through experience and much hard work.