Patience, More or Less

It used to be that patience was high on the list of virtues for poker players. Wait for an advantage, then make it pay off. Let your opponents self-destruct while you play solid poker. While patience is still often critically important to success at poker – how could impatience be a good thing? – there are several mitigating factors in today's poker landscape that put naturally impatient players at less of a disadvantage. Or, at least they make it possible for naturally impatient people to do better at poker than in the past.

First, the availability of online poker, and in particular multitable play online, has given those players who simply can't wait to get involved in another hand a way to do so without giving away the farm. To be sure, anyone playing four tables at once is giving something away. But with two, three, four, or (it almost hurts to say it) sometimes more concurrent tables going, it's not hard to arrange to be involved in many more hands per hour. Instead of lowering your standards for starting hands, you just increase the overall rate of play, perhaps playing even tighter to compensate for your divided attention. At some level, players who do this are still paying for their impatience. But a good balance between divided attention and adequate stimulation can mitigate the effects of a naturally impatient temperament.

Second, the prevalence of other impatient players, newer players who consider A-8 a premium hand in no-limit hold'em, has reduced the penalty for your own impatience. Where previously your A-J may have been a poor choice with which to contest a raised pot, it may now be a solid favorite against an unknown raised hand (of course, depending on the player). And it's all the more so in today's lightning-paced tournaments, live or online, in which the majority of players are forced to get their chips in with substandard holdings. Lightning-paced tournaments aren't great for skilled players in general, and they certainly work nicely for players who are naturally inclined to get a little anxious at the table.

Ring games, even limit ring games, aren't immune, either. Your J-10 suited may not seem like the greatest opportunity in early position at a table full of solid, aggressive players. But if you've found a table where six or more players seeing the flop is the norm, even with a substantial chance of a raise behind you, the hand may be well worth a call (or even, conditions permitting, a call and reraise). Any mistakes you make with loose hand selection are at least partially mitigated when opponents are playing even looser.

None of this is to suggest that you throw patience out the window – as there are also relatively new reasons why patience is as important as ever. For example, many of those lightning-paced tournaments are structured so as to exert little pressure on players in the early rounds, and much more in the later rounds. A single-table contest that starts with $1,500 stacks and $20 blinds, but rapidly escalates to $500 blinds, offers a strict penalty for the truly impatient. The outcomes of these events often hinge on a few key hands during the endgame, at which time the forced bets make moderate chip disparities relatively easy to overcome. Players who are willing to commit their chips without immediate pressure need to get lucky at multiple stages of the event in order to do well. Players who are less willing to get involved early without a solid advantage stand a better chance of making it to the point at which just a few lucky breaks will get the money.

Even in limit ring games, while it may be possible to play a few more hands against opponents who are playing too loosely, it's also important to be patient for quality opportunities later in the game. The more opponents you face, the less your starting cards tell you about the value of your position in the hand, and the more you generally need to improve to contest the pot. In hold'em, A-K is a hand you'd like to improve to top pair. But against several opponents, with a board like K-9-8-10-3 (or even K-Q-J-8-8), perhaps with a three-flush also out, patience can serve you well. In an old-fashioned tighter game, you'd have a reasonable chance of winning in either case, and could hardly be faulted for calling down a single opponent. Against six opponents who seem bent on getting the betting capped, it may be better to play more patiently after the flop, even though your natural instinct is to want to get paid off.

And, of course, while wilder and more aggressive play has become more common, it still takes a fair bit of patience to play well at even the wildest tables. Add in the fact that more sedate tables are still relatively easy to find (more at some limits and in some locations than others), and patience is a virtue still worth cultivating.

The bottom line is that patience is still important in poker, perhaps as important now as ever. But there are, increasingly, times you can get away with a bit of impatience, and it's worth seeking those opportunities out if impatience is a natural part of your personality.

Daniel Kimberg is the author of Serious Poker and maintains a web site for serious poker players at www.seriouspoker.com.