Be Prepared - Part II

"By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail."
- Ben Franklin

This column is the second with my thoughts on preparing for a major poker tournament. These tournaments usually consist of an event every day over a period of time that spans from two weeks to more than a month. There are also satellites for the tournaments, and there is usually a lot of side action going on at the same time and in the same or nearby venues. In my first column on this topic, I discussed things that you should do in advance, such as choosing your events and playing schedule, setting up guidelines for your bankroll and its fluctuations, and preparing yourself physically for the long, stressful hours of the tournament. In this column, I will discuss mental preparation.

I am going to break mental preparation into two categories: knowledge or skills relating to the games you intend to play, and your personal psychology. If you are planning to go to a major poker tournament, you probably already have a reasonable amount of knowledge and enough skill to have accumulated a bankroll for the tournament. Depending on what you play and where you play it, this knowledge and skill may not translate well to what you'll need for the tournament. For example, if you have been playing a lot of cash games online, you may not be very prepared for a live tournament. One of the most important things you can do to improve your skills is to read about poker. This is especially true now that more of the top players are writing about it. While I don't want to get too carried away in recommending books, I would be derelict in my duties if I didn't at least highlight some of the best choices that you can make for various objectives.

To increase your general knowledge of a variety of games and situations: Doyle Brunson's Super System 2, The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide (edited by Michael Craig), and David Sklansky's The Theory of Poker.

To learn tournament strategies, especially for no-limit hold'em: For beginners, Harrington on Hold'em, Volume I and Kill Phil; for intermediate to advanced players, Harrington on Hold'em, Volume II and Volume III, and Kill Everyone. I think Gus Hansen's new Every Hand Revealed also will give you a lot of insight into expert thinking. Daniel Negreanu also has a new book that is supposed to be excellent, but I haven't read it yet.

For cash-game hold'em: The books just mentioned will give you some valuable information. The new Harrington on Cash Games, Volume I and Volume II are excellent for deep-stack no-limit hold'em, while the Sklansky hold'em books are better for limit poker.

To improve your ability to play live and notice tells: Caro's Book of Tells and Joe Navarro's Read 'Em and Reap. If you have played a lot of online poker but little in live games, it is essential to become familiar with the ideas in these books, so that you can read your opponents and they can't read you.

For pot-limit Omaha: Here, the choices are more limited, but there are at least three good books: Bob Ciaffone's Omaha Poker, Rolf Slotboom's Pot-Limit Omaha, and Jeff Hwang's Pot-Limit Omaha Poker.

Don't try to read them all at the last minute, as if you were cramming for an exam. Pick one or two that seem to address what you believe are appropriate areas for you, and study them carefully. Try to think through each example hand, and decide what you think the choices are. If nothing else, this type of exercise will get you thinking with advanced poker thoughts.

There are several other good ways to improve your skills. One is to watch televised poker. Many of these shows deal only with shorthanded final-table situations in which the blinds and antes are high. This can be deceptive. Poker After Dark and High Stakes Poker show more hands and more deep-stack situations. Another way is to get together with at least one player you trust for poker discussions. A third is to search out the information available on the Web, but be aware that some of it may be wrong or at least highly questionable. There is too much of it for me to claim to be very knowledgeable about what's out there. I think poker training sites like Card Player Pro, Full Tilt Poker's Tips From the Pros, and some of the pros' websites or blogs contain some good stuff. Lastly, watch online players. Full Tilt frequently has games with the top pros playing for high stakes. Recently, I played in a game with Allen Cunningham and Robert Mizrachi, while another table had a huge game with Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Gus Hansen, and Phil Ivey. (Wow! Now that is an all-star cast. I listed them alphabetically to avoid implying some hierarchy of skills.) When you watch, you don't see what they have until a called winning hand is shown down or someone is all in. Try to predict what you think they have, and I guarantee that you will be surprised by how often they turn up something unexpected. Watching and playing online definitely helps.

I don't have much space left to discuss psychological preparation, so I'll just give you a few thoughts. First, clear your mind of everything but poker. Try to avoid playing if you are in the middle of a big business deal or a fight with your significant other. Try to prepare for the inevitable bad beats and bad runs of cards. By preplanning your strategies for handling adversity, you will be better able to handle it without becoming completely unhinged. Don't let a bad day escalate into a disastrous two-day session that leaves you on the rail.

On the positive side, try to visualize yourself playing well and winning. Find things that inspire you to perform under pressure or as an underdog. Music, books, and movies may be what get your competitive juices flowing. I love inspirational movies in which the underdog triumphs, such as Rocky, The Full Monty, Dirty Dancing, and The Karate Kid. Other players get pumped up watching sports or war movies. Doyle likes Westerns. Experiment and find something that works for you.

Steve "Zee" Zolotow, aka The Bald Eagle, is a successful games player. He currently devotes most of his time to poker. He can be found at many major tournaments and playing on Full Tilt, as one of its pros. When escaping from poker, he hangs out in his bars on Avenue A in New York City - Nice Guy Eddie's on Houston and Doc Holliday's on 9th Street.