Plugging Some Leaks - Part III

Last time, in the second part of this 10-part series, I discussed a few common mistakes in big-bet play, both in cash games and in tournaments. Today, I will continue with a few general leaks – in both brick-and-mortar and online play.

Leak No. 5: Not concentrating 100 percent when playing online

I get lots of e-mails from people who play online more often than I do. Oftentimes, these people have quite a bit of knowledge and experience, but they cannot get the results that would seem "normal" for their ability, and a lack of concentration usually seems to be the problem. Quite a few of these players get bored easily, and therefore get involved in hands in which they shouldn't be involved. Or, they get distracted by the TV that is on, by roommates who are walking around and talking on the phone, or by their partner and/or children who want attention and don't know or just don't care that playing poker successfully requires the ability to focus on the game 100 percent. Of course, all of these factors have a distinct and significant negative influence on their overall results.

In my view, things are simple. When playing online, there should be as few distractions as possible. They should turn the TV off, tell roommates to leave them in peace or get out of there, or tell their wife that they're busy and just cannot be disturbed unless it is very important.

If you do things as I do, you will want to concentrate on the game so much (looking for patterns in your opponents' play, observing if they have been winning or losing and what kinds of effects you think this may have on their play, checking your notes on specific players, and so on) that it should simply be impossible to get bored. After all, things go so much faster online than in a brick-and-mortar cardroom that I cannot imagine how on earth you could get bored. Some people might have the problem of not truly being interested in trying to play as well as they can, because if they were, boredom would never come into play. My recommendation for Internet play is the same as my recommendation for any poker game: You should try to play your best game all of the time. If you keep this in mind every time you play, and truly try to live by this rule, you should have no problems whatsoever in fighting the boredom/concentration problems mentioned here.

Leak No. 6: Being affected by the pressure of playing on a small bankroll

Quite a few players go on tilt when they suffer a bad beat or lose two or three pots in a row. Even professional players like myself are not totally immune from this, and we must fight hard to keep our games at the highest possible level when things aren't going our way. While some players are more vulnerable to tilt than others, simply because of their character (some people simply cannot stand losing), its effect will often be more pronounced when someone is playing on a small bankroll. If you lose a $2,000 pot on the river when your opponent was drawing very thin, and you have a bankroll of only $10,000, it is very easy for you to go on tilt because the money is so important to you. But when you have a $100,000 bankroll, it should be easier for you to say: "I played the hand like I was supposed to, and my opponent just got a little lucky. If I can simply keep on playing like this, by betting and raising whenever I've got the best of it, the money eventually will come my way."

A related concept when it comes to avoiding tilt is not focusing on the short run so much, but having a long-term perspective. In that situation described above, in which you lost that $2,000 pot when your opponent had very few outs, you may get seriously upset – especially if that pot was rather big in relation to the size of the blinds and/or the amount of money on the table. But if you know that even after losing that pot, you are still up more than $50,000 for the entire year, it will be easier for you to think: "Well, this is just one big pot in a very long series of big pots, and regardless of the outcome of this pot, and possibly the next two, five, or even 10 big pots, I will still be a significant winner overall. So, why should I worry about something as insignificant as the outcome of just one single hand?"

All in all, you should always be able to see your (and your opponent's) long-term expectation in a hand, and you should not focus on something that is basically irrelevant: whether or not you actually won the pot. Of course, this is easier said than done, but if you want to be a good player, you should never focus on the issue of luck. Instead, be concerned with trying to make the best possible plays at all times.