Capitalizing on the Poker Boom

There's a poker boom in progress right now that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who plays regularly. It began when the World Poker Tour started televising tournaments that allowed viewers to see each player's holecards, and the crowning touch occurred when Chris Moneymaker parlayed a $40 buy-in to an online tournament into a $2.5 million victory at the World Series of Poker.

With Moneymaker winning the WSOP seemingly again and again via replays on ESPN and others taking home staggering sums of money on the WPT, where the reruns continue to grab a bigger market share than the initial shows, a brave new world of players has been created and they're coming to a casino – be it the traditional brick-and-mortar casino or the online variety – near you. Many of these new players haven't yet learned to play very well, have more money than skill, and have even taken what they've seen of shorthanded final-table play on television and applied it to cash games, with predictably dire results.

So, where does that leave you, a regular poker-playing aficionado with a lot more experience and presumably much more skill than the TV generation of players who seem to be flooding the games these days? There's opportunity, to be sure, but how best to capitalize on it – that's the question.

There's volatility, I say, and it's right here in River City: While swings and variance in your bankroll will be greater as more new players find their way into games, at the end of the day you ought to win more money. With a table full of players who stayed up late last night watching big-name pros go all in at the final table with hands like A-7, you can expect their raising standards to be just as loose as if they were at a final tournament table with a short stack and those big, ugly blinds poised to take a bite out of their hide in the next hand or two. When you're in that position, you've got to make a stand with just about anything, or else find yourself relegated to playing random hands in the blind for the remainder of your money. In that situation, any ace looks as good as gold. But not in a cash game – no way.

That's a subtlety the TV generation of poker players has yet to learn, and many of them will be calling, or even raising, with hands like A-7 from almost anywhere on the table. And you know what? Whenever you play a hand, even a bad one, miracles can happen and you stand a chance of winning the pot. In the long run, of course, all of those additional calls and unwarranted raises will be money in your pocket above and beyond what you'd figure to win from savvier players. But in the short run, anything can happen, and you ought to expect to get beaten up pretty thoroughly from time to time.

It's what you do about it that counts. If you let losses get to you, you'll probably lose a lot more than you should have, based just on the fall of the cards alone. But if you recognize it for what it is – a short-term variance representing nothing more sinister than the luck of the draw – you'll be fine in the long run.

Dig in your heels and call 'em on the river: New players often have an overinflated view of bluffing. Some novices even think that's what poker is all about. It's a view that's reinforced by watching players bluff at pots in TV tournaments, particularly when the table is shorthanded, the blinds represent a substantial share of each player's equity, and players simply can't wait for a hand to come their way as they can in a cash game. Bluffing is the drug of choice among new players, and a successful bluff is like poker on steroids and ecstasy – everything is bigger and more powerful, and it feels a lot better, too.

To win more, you'll have to call more often to neutralize bluffs you can expect from new players. While you won't like it one bit whenever you call and find your opponent showing you the best hand, you don't have to snap off all that many bluffs to make a call on the river your default option when you're facing bluffaholics.

I shot the sheriff: The last thing a chronic bluffer wants to see is someone run a successful bluff on him. To prevent being bluffed, many bluffers put on their sheriff's badge and will almost always call "to keep you honest." When your opponent is the self-appointed table sheriff, your life is as easy as a two-step. Here's the first step: Never bluff. And the second is obvious, too: Always bet for value. And while you're at it, you probably shouldn't semibluff as often as you might against better players, because when the sheriff is taking aim, it's doubtful that he's ever going to lay down the best hand. But if you've got the sheriff and his entire posse at the table, and they're all intent on keeping you honest, you're still getting the right price to bet your flush and straight draws aggressively. Although you won't steal a pot out from under the sheriff's nose – after all, he'll never lay down a hand, will he? – you ought to build bigger pots whenever the pot odds overshadow the odds against making your hand.

The tide's rolling in these days, and it's bringing in a harvest of brand-new players – all of whom are chomping at the bit to get into action. It won't last forever. Many novices will learn the game and eventually become fine players. Others will take no comfort in their lack of knowledge and losses, and eventually they'll go away for good. But for now, many of the new players you'll find in your games are intoxicated by poker. They came to play! Play they do, and play they will: too often, too aggressively, too eager to bluff, and all too happy to prevent you from stealing a pot from them. All of those extra bets and calls amount to a relatively large sum of money when you add them up over time. And all you have to do is show down the best hand to win. What wondrous times we're living in. It's pretty nice when you think about it, isn't it?

Raise your game with Lou Krieger at http://www.royalvegaspoker.com. His newest books, Internet Poker: How to Play and Beat Online Poker Games and Winning Omaha/8 Poker, are available through Card Player.