Things Are Changing

The dynamics of the poker world have gone through some serious changes in the last five years. First, Internet poker exploded onto the scene, making poker available to many who previously had to travel great distances in order to find a game. Second, poker tournaments on TV increased poker's popularity dramatically. Poker on TV also brought no-limit hold'em back into the spotlight, and generated a great deal of interest in both poker in general and tournaments in particular.



Those events brought a flood of inexperienced players into the poker world. What that did to the poker economy was nothing short of a gift from heaven to those already experienced and knowledgeable players. Money poured into the pockets of those poker players with good abilities. A similar thing happened when California changed its laws and legalized hold'em and stud games years ago. The California economy pumped millions and millions of dollars into the poker world, and experienced players headed to California to participate in the second coming of the California Gold Rush.



The best players, feasting on the green and raw players, got pumped up big time, and many got rich. Lots of players who had struggled for years to stay in action suddenly found themselves in fertile hunting grounds, where they possessed a large edge over the field and found themselves with bankrolls for a change. Over the course of time, things changed as the veins of gold became harder to strike, the inexperienced gained experience, and many of the bad players went broke and gave up the game. I'm not saying there is a lack of action in the games in California, but the current scene there is very different from years ago.



Most people who take up poker seriously, and especially those who take a stab at playing for a living, do so after a period of running well. They win. They may win because they play well, but as novices, it is more likely that they win because they run well. Let's face it, you wouldn't have much interest in taking up the game if you were getting slaughtered. Well, during those periods when there are more new players with low knowledge levels entering the game, it is easier to outperform the field and do well. But as the new players become more knowledgeable, the games become tougher to beat, and conditions of the game become less conducive to being a winning player.



That's what happened in California. It took a number of years, but gradually the games got tougher. People who were making a sweet living found it tougher to do so. And that is happening on the Internet now.



Pot sizes are going down at the major Internet poker sites and the overall quality of play is improving. Poker players who created good win rates when the games were full of the feeble are now finding winnings much harder to come by. They respond by playing more hours, trying harder and playing better, or stepping down in an effort to look for easier prey. Some of the marginal players are finding poker life to be very different under the newly changed circumstances.

That said, the gold is still there; it just takes more effort and ability to dig it up. While pot sizes are declining, the play of hands, something that takes much knowledge to do correctly, is still not very good at the low and medium limits, and a significant edge still exists for those who can develop play-of-hand skills.



Early in both the California and Internet booms, combining decent hand-selection knowledge and common-sense post-flop play was enough to outperform the field and beat most of the games. But, as happened in California, that is no longer true on the Internet. You have to do something more than start with the best hand to leave the table a winner.

Most players tend to overvalue the effect of hand selection, some to the exclusion of all other approaches to gaining an edge. The play of starting hands, while very important, is reasonably easy to learn. A fairly adequate rote strategy that will lead to mostly right decisions is readily available in many books. Such strategies have been read by much of the poker world.



As the Internet game has matured, hand selection has recently become more even at the low and medium limits. This results in significantly reduced edge for those who contest each hand. Even more important, however, is the fact that the weak players are not in the pot to make mistakes on the flop, turn, and river. And contrary to conventional wisdom, most of the edge that's won or lost in limit hold'em is not won or lost preflop, but post-flop.



If you are planning on staying on top of the changes in the poker world, and wish to maintain a significant edge over your opponents as the games get tougher, you need to be able to outplay your opponents after the flop. By outplay, I do not mean just bluffing and raise-bluffing your opponents out of pots (although that is definitely part of it). Instead, I mean utilizing correct post-flop plays and strategies. The variables of post-flop play are effectively infinite, and to play well after the flop requires the ability to read hands well, conceptual knowledge, and the ability to convert that knowledge accurately into actual play. Playing poker well requires some level of mental acuity. To develop skillful capabilities, it takes a high level of natural analytical mental strengths, the capacity to focus, and reasonable recall.



To develop your conceptual knowledge, you must understand poker theory. The best book on theory is The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky.



Read it. After reading it, I want you to review every hand played – both those that you play and those that you fold – and analyze whether or not any mistakes were made by yourself or your opponents. Think about the amount of value lost as a result of each of those mistakes. Always consider the value won/lost as a whole against the range of plausible scenarios, not just the current situation! Think in terms of edge gained/lost rather than in actual dollar figures. While it is best that you remember all of them, at least make sure you remember those errors that have a significant amount of lost value. Think through how you may be able to avoid those mistakes in future play. By doing so, you will improve your analytical skills at the table.



I also want you to try to read the hands as they play – once again, both those that you play and those that you don't. Don't just put a player on a hand and fixate on it. Instead, put players on the range of hands that they may hold. Update your thought process with each action and turn of the card. What I am seeking to accomplish here is to improve your hand-reading skills, thereby improving the accuracy of your play choices.



Poker is not an easy game to master, and is much more an art than a science. I often see players who have played for years make the same errors over and over without ever learning from their experiences. Don't be like them! You can learn the science from the multitude of books on the subject, but you can learn the art only through application of your knowledge on the field of battle.



The easy pickings of Internet poker are drying up some. By focusing on post-flop play when your opponents are still bragging about their starting hands, you will be able to realize the profits that are still to be had.

Roy Cooke played winning professional poker for more than 16 years. He is a successful real estate broker/salesperson in Las Vegas. His books are available at http://www.conjelco.com/. His longtime collaborator, John Bond, is a free-lance writer in South Florida.