They say the first brand of beer you drink will be your favorite for the rest of your life. Well, I think poker psychology has a lot to do with this as well. I was introduced to NL hold 'em by all our friends when the poker boom came around a few years ago. We all played...everyone we knew did. Out of that group a few people tasted short term success, sometimes through luck and other times because they figured out a new play or caught some hot cards. The success coupled with the action and the fact that it was a fun game drew in almost everyone. The more consistent winners were even more hooked. I can almost name the group off the top of my head: us 3, Zak, Connor, Scott, Ice, Paulsen, Dave, Tim, Dustin, Cameron, Sam, etc... well all of them weren't consistent winners but they definately had the taste of a few big wins in their mouth. Anyway from that group a few more rose to the top because like any other game, poker is a game of winners and losers. We moved to higher stakes and ran into new players we had never played with before with similar backgrounds as our own. This is where our games clashed. Most the people I play with or have played with outside of the home games only play NL hold 'em. With that being said, bear with me while I try to pull three concepts together to make my point.
I'm going to change gears a little here (no pun intended) and talk about facing these new players. When we face these new players who presumably are around the same level as we are, we are forced to evaluate and re-evaluate our game. You have to mix up your game or else if you play with someone enough they can learn how you play to a T. Once you have passed that level and are able to change gears and evaluate hands and situations you are now on top of your game. You can't possibly learn anymore right? You have mastered the concepts of poker that make you a winning player... but poker is a game of situations, people, and luck. Luck of course is something that cannot be controlled, but situations and people can be put into one category: experience. The more you know the more you can apply.
In my quest to become a better player, I started playing all different types of games. Omaha Hi, Hi/Lo, Pot limit Hold 'em, Stud, tournaments, cash games, and just about everything out there. Aside from the structural differences in these games, they all come down to luck, people and situations. It is amazing how much each game can teach you about other games you play. Mixing up your game can not only rapidly improve your experience but it also makes you a better player at all the other games. Protecting you hand and betting your draws is a huge part of Omaha Hi, which can greatly improve your NL hold em tournament skills. I think the most important skill in poker is hand reading. Not putting someone on an exact hand but more importantly being able to read strength or weakness. I feel in other games where there is a betting limit you develop a skill for reading that and it really carries over to NL hold 'em where most people waste their time putting someone on an exact hand rather than figuring out how strong or weak a bet is or what range of hands someone is representing.
Ok let me try to tie this all togehter (hopefully you're still reading this long long post). First off, we are here and playing poker because of the success we all tasted from when we started playing. We now face many players similar to ourselves and we must adapt and have the upper edge. Poker has winning players and losing players at every level so you have to keep making sure you aren't the losing player at the table. Once you reach that certain point of poker where only experience seperates you from someone else, then you must gather as much experience as you can. Mixing up your game and playing different games is critical to success in poker. Also, you might enjoy a little winning (you don't necessarily have to lose at all other games). This post has been all over the place but the main point I want to get across is that you are here because you are better than most at this game and once you see the finish line you don't stop (max you know this). The last lap is the hardest but the pay off is worth it. Start mixing up your game selection. Start playing stud, take the time to learn PLO (it is a very profitable game if played correctly) and start playing in tournaments. Every game requires a differnet skill set but once developed, all the skills blend together. Take your game to the next level. Fight through the beats. You might even improve your hold em game along the way. Peace.
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Also, aside from you guys posting hands. I would really like it if you posted questions or thoughts about poker theory and poker psychology. Let me know how you view the game as I'm sure we all have a different approach to how we play hands, what you do when you sit down at tables, etc.
Good Post and Good insight...I can't really think of anything to add except that with the games we play at here its so important to know how each player plays, this is also important at casinos but we play against the same people every day as opposed to the thousands of different people going in and out of casinos. Just knowing if the other player thinks your drawing when you actually have a huge hand is one way i have found it easy to get money off people's styles that i have pinned down...
Solid post, Joe. It should be reassuring to know that if poker somehow doesn't work out, you can go into writing, or professional blog posting...Anyways, I do not consider myself a good poker player. I feel as though I am an above average No-Limit Holdem player, but being able to play anything beyond that is a joke. I agree that being able to play and understand a wide variety of games will immensely improve your overall ability. There certainly are concepts and strategies from 7-stud that will transfer over to Omaha 8OB and so on...I don't know this personally, but it only seems like it makes sense that they would.
More so than playing a variety of different games, facing new opponents IMO (in my opinion) is the single greatest factor that will take your game to the next level. For example, when I came out to ASU, I played with a regular "group" of two other players who lived close by. They weren't the greatest individuals in the world, but they taught me so much about Hold'em it was rediculous. For example, if I ever caught a hand with two big cards (A-K/A-Q), I would always fire on the flop regardless of what came. If I missed the flop and my opponent called, then on the turn I would always have to check and fold. I started realizing that this was happening way too much and then I started to learn that a lot of the times he was calling with air in hopes of just taking the pot away on the turn. I started to adapt to this and then took that skill (calling with nothing on the flop in hopes of stealing on the turn) and worked in into my style. I would have probably learned this sometime down the road, but these two guys advanced my learning curve tremendously. Ultimately you must take bits and pieces from myriad strategies and package them into a unique style that is your own.
As far as hand reading goes, I believe this is important as well. However, you must take it beyond simply knowing that they have Big Slick. I don't know if this is what you were trying to say Joe, but you must know that even though they have A-K, what will they do with it if you raise them on a K-Q-10 board. Are they going to shove and gamble or are they going to muck and play conservatively? Some people may have "a good hand" but in their eyes, their "good hand" may not be good enough when facing a raise.
Thanks for the compliments guys, a few things I would like to add from reading the comments. Facing new opponents was one of the points I was trying to get across and I'm glad you picked up on that and explained it better. It's also funny that you mentioned calling the flop with air to simply make a play (this is called floating by the way). One of my biggest problems in my game is that because I play so agressively I start to get paranoid that people are doing this and it has become increasingly harder to make reads on people (I think just about everyone on bodog caught on to how reckless and fast I was playing because I've gotten many comments from players). I lost my train of thought, but I do also want to clarify what I was talking about hand reading. Max, I think you misunderstood what I meant, as I agree with what you are saying. Instead of putting someone on a specific hand, its easier to made reads about how strong or weak they are. This will ultimately tell you how much they like their hand and how they will play it accordingly. Now, if you can put villian on A-K and you read strength from him on that board of K-Q-10 then you know he's probably not folding to a raise. I think this was highlighted pretty well by Annie Duke in one of the ESPN broadcasts of the Tournament of Champions that she won. She was analyzing a hand where she had 10-10 and Raymer had K-K which she ultimately laid down. She was talking about a tell that she had picked up on Raymer by watching the TV broadcast of the WSOP that indicated he had a good hand. What she was talking about when she was trying to figure out was if Raymer thought a hand like A-K was good there and thats why he was showing strength. Anyway, start paying attention to how players act when they're strong and weak. If you can get some kind of information and then couple that with betting patterns and whats on the board you can make some pretty sick plays.
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