The Best Poker Advice You’ll Ever Receive - Part 1
Some time ago a friend of mine who’s a novice poker player asked me what I thought were the most important rules for a poker player in a limit betting poker game to follow - regardless of what game they were playing, or what stakes they were playing for. I tossed this question around for a while, and after a few weeks had passed I reported back to him with what I think are the two foolproof guidelines for proper poker play. I’ve provided an explanation and rationale for the first of these rules below. Rule 2 can be found in the next article.
Rule 1: It is impossible to play ‘too tight’.
As many of you surely know, the terms ‘loose’ and ‘tight’ are generally used to describe how somebody plays their hand in the betting round that immediately follows the posting of the blinds (or the posting of antes, in the case of stud). For hold ‘em and Omaha this would mean pre-flop play. For stud this would mean the play on third street.
If you’re worried that you have holes in your game, the last thing you should be worried about is whether or not you aren’t playing enough hands.
If you’ve played much in public card rooms you’ve likely heard a player dismiss the playing ability of an opponent by saying he plays ‘too tight’. The idea here is that the player being criticized is folding some starting hands that would turn a profit if he played them. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard these words passed across the green baize (sometimes directed at myself), and I am utterly convinced that there is nothing to this idea. Is it theoretically possible? I suppose it is. If someone is just a dynamite poker player, and they have a huge bankroll, then there’s a slight chance they should be playing more hands then they are accustomed to playing. But the other 99.9% of us almost surely play more hands then is prudent - even when we think we’re playing a solid and disciplined game of poker.
Why does this happen? Almost all of us overestimate our playing ability. Have you ever heard the statistic that 90% of Americans think they’re above average drivers? Well the same holds true at the poker tables. Most of us rationalize playing an occasional (or not-so-occasional, as the case may be) dog of a hand by telling ourselves that we can outplay our opponents on later streets, or that it’s important not to be too predictable. This, of course, ignores the fact that most of our opponents are not very observant, and therefore have no idea whether we’re predictable or not.
In short, if you’re worried that you have holes in your game, the last thing you should be worried about is whether or not you aren’t playing enough hands. This is not where we lose money. We lose money because we go on tilt, because we don’t extract maximum value from our average to mediocre hands, and because we don’t pay enough attention to our opponents’ playing habits. It is not because we refuse to limp in with 97s in middle position in a limit hold ‘em game.
1 comment
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Posted by georgestam – 20 Oct 2007, 1:16 PM
Good advice, ill keep that in mind, off to read rule 2