It’s All About Basics

A young player approached me recently. A single man in his 20s, he’d been struggling and was looking for advice that would help him to step up his game for the World Series of Poker, which is starting in Vegas soon. Like so many people who come to me, he was looking for some trick that would turn him into a big winner.

I told him that there is no trick. Poker is like any other career. Learning your trade and continuing to study are important. Hard work is important. Consistency is important. Here are some suggestions:

1. Make a goal of what you want to accomplish. Be realistic. If you’re a break-even $2-$5 no-limit hold’em player and want to be able to play winning $5-$10 in one year, commit yourself to that goal. Take one step at a time and don’t be in a big rush. If you have the ability to reach your goal, you will get there. I’ve seen many capable players crash and burn by pushing themselves too hard, too quickly. Take the time and effort to improve your game both at and away from the table.

2. Commit yourself to maintaining discipline at all times. Never play a hand out of anger or vengeance. Control yourself emotionally. Don’t reflex-call a bet when you know you are beat. Don’t lose focus or get mentally distracted and play a hand carelessly. Give every hand and every session you play your best effort!

3. Never give up. And I don’t mean never to quit a loser; rather, always keep fighting in the games you are playing and be persistent in attaining your goals. My friend Jade Lane, who was an Army Ranger, is unrelenting. One hour into his session or 10 hours into his session, he doesn’t fade. That mental fortitude has a lot of value. If your resources of mental strength are waning, go home and come back when you are rejuvenated.

4. Study the game. Read the books, and utilize the poker information websites. Acquire a partner to study with and share the game with. Poker is both an art and a science, requiring much in the way of knowledge and competitive skills to be successful. The information is out there, so utilize it. Many of your opponents are!

5. Accept the fact that poker is a long-run game and that your primary objective is to get your money in with as big an overall edge as you possibly can. Don’t get caught up emotionally in your results. Getting too full of yourself when you are running good or getting overly despondent when running bad causes you to make emotional errors. Poker is a game of both luck and skill; your short-term results will be affected greatly by luck, and your long-term results will be determined by how well you play the game. Use your mental energy to focus on what you can control, playing the game well!

6. Play in games that are within your realm of skill to beat. Be realistic in assessing both your skills and your opponents’ skills. Poker’s Peter Principle, rising to your level of incompetence, is a weakness that I see in many players. Overly eager to move into bigger games, players push themselves into situations in which at best they can “play with” their opponents, and at worst are outclassed by them. Being able to “play with” your opponents means that you will lose to the rake. Being outclassed by them means that you will lose your a—. Don’t think that just because you see one or two bad players playing badly, it automatically gives you the best of it; take a holistic view, and analyze the whole table!

7. Learn the concepts of poker and utilize them in your poker thought. Don’t just look to learn a strategy by rote. Yes, it requires deeper thought, but it puts you on the right path to taking your game to a much higher level. Once you understand the game conceptually, you will be able to take nonstandard situations, and analyze them and make correct decisions. Understanding the concepts of poker actually makes the game easier, as you can take any situation and conclusively come to a correct play. Those who try to learn a strategy of, “If this happens, then do that,” end up with too much information to memorize to develop a first-rate game. Plus, they tend to make errors when the current situation falls outside the “normal” situational range. And they are ridiculously easy to read.

8. Don’t be condescending to your opponents. Play the game with class. If a player made a bad play against you, it’s a good thing. Don’t lecture or intimidate opponents into not making the same mistake again. What are you trying to accomplish? Make them play better? Make them leave? It’s an ugly thing to do personally, and counterproductive professionally. It’s the worst play in poker, and the stupid one is you!

9. When observing opponents, try to determine their weaknesses and what plays will work best to take advantage of those weaknesses. Poker is a people game. Learn an individual opponent’s tendencies; think about how you can best play against those tendencies. When you are correctly making different plays in similar situations against different opponents, you are on your way to developing the poker “feel” that will take your game to a new level.

10. Compute your price on all plays. It will help you to obtain feel and make correctly priced plays. Yes, this does involve learning some math, but it won’t kill you! Math is a fundamental component of poker (though not as important as your people skills), and your poker game will be well-served by learning the math skills that apply to poker.

There is no trick to the game. What separates the winners from the losers is that they understand this, and they do what it takes — day in and day out.

Longtime poker pro and author Roy Cooke’s Card Player column has appeared since 1992. A successful Las Vegas real estate broker since 1990, his website is www.roycooke.com. Should you wish to inquire regarding real-estate matters — including purchase, sale, or mortgage — his phone number is (702) 396-6575. Roy’s longtime collaborator John Bond’s website is www.johnbondwriting.com. Find John and Roy on Facebook.