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Learn to Play Pocker

July 13, 2006

Experts agree that its is better to learn to play pocker at an older age because it has been discovered that younger players are more reckless with their chips.

That's 100 big bets in one month turning what could be a winning month into a losing month. These examples are given just to show what can happen in Scottish Gaming. I'm not sure exactly how many nut flush draws one should have in a month but combine these with your gut shot draws, 5 out draws, 7 out draws, etcetera and you can see that a lot of fluctuations can happen even to the better players. So step #1 is be prepared!

In between all those trips I tried to keep up with my website while also working on a new pocker book. The next thing you know its Christmas, I have played little pocker, and put on over 10 pounds! Now I'm not complaining. We had some great times but the waistline had got a little out of control. Every problem has a solution and mine became the Precor Elliptical machine. For those who don't know what an elliptical machine is, it is basically a cross between a treadmill and a stairclimber.

The consequences of not paying attention can be the difference between mediocre and advanced play. Let's look at some examples. You are sitting in the cutoff with AJ offsuit and the player immediately before you raises first in. Normally this would be an easy fold against a "typical" opponent. However, what if this opponent has raised 7 out of the last 10 hands dealt at the table?

• In online pocker for Mac and PC, one of your opponents has a very strong hand, unless he is trying to protect a vulnerable medium holding. The other problem with calling in this situation is that the original bettor could reraise. To call a raise cold, you almost always need a very strong hand or draw. For draws, the pot will need to be quite large to justify calling a raise cold.
• It is often correct to call on the flop and fold on the turn. Even when you include the cost of the turn bet in your calculation, this will still lead to mistakes as sometimes you will fold even though calling one more bet on the flop is correct. The 5 to 1 odds of improving is based on receiving two cards so you must include the cost of receiving two cards in your calculation; therefore, you need to be able to win $15 for calling to be correct ($3 x 5). With only $5 in the pot on the flop, it will difficult to win an additional $10 from your opponents to justify a call.
• Yet very few players demonstrate the knowledge and/or patience to play good starting pocker hands. Why is starting hand strategy so critical to Texas Hold'em? Playing less hands than your opponents gives you the advantage in the long run. Think about this, if your opponents play 40% of their hands and you are only playing 20%, you will have the advantage in the majority of the hands that you play. You'll win a lot more pots with the best kicker.