There’s an old
saying which will
help you learn how to win at poker: “It’s better to
travel hopefully than to arrive.”
This advice is all very well if
you’re some kind of philospher, but really useless when
you’re considering your poker career.
Sure, some hope is always needed. When
you’re all-in with 55 against KK, you hope to hit a 5. That
doesn’t make it mathematically more likely.
If you regularly find
yourself on the wrong end of such hope-against-hope situations,
it’s
time to consider a change of attitude. Adjusting your worldview is the
first step on the path to learning how to win at poker.
Church of Texas Holdem Psalm #1:
Hope is a weaker force than experience teaches us it should be.
Or, in other words, don’t keep
praying to the poker gods for things to get better. Painful experience
should teach you that your game won’t improve unless you seek
to
improve things actively.
So, if you find yourself making regular
pleas for divine intervention, what can you do to make things easier?
You can begin by eliminating just five classic
‘trap’ hands from your
starting hands when a pot is raised:
KJ QJ AT KT QT
Suited or not.
(Sometimes you should play these hands. Never say never, especially in
tournament play when the blinds get big. But for now, humour me; and if
you play cash games, make a note right now to eliminate these hands in
raised pots.)
Why do I advise you to junk these
high-card hands? Simply because, against the average raiser, you will
more often than not be dominated by his hand.
Ironically, learning how to win
at poker is about learning how to play less. You don't need to contest
every pot to be a winning player.
Ask yourself: “What’s
the minimum hand I
would raise with?” The answer should most
definitely not be
one of the hands mentioned above!
Let’s take KJ to illustrate. You
call a
raise and the flop is:
Are you winning? Does the raiser have an overpair, or AJ? Finding out
is likely to be expensive. And even if he doesn’t, think of
the
potential cards on the turn or river that could make you throw your
hand away. An A or Q would probably kill your hand.
By then, you might be so
pot-committed that you’re calling your way out of the
tournament, or
into your bankroll for another buy-in.
There are a million ways to improve your
poker returns. One of the easiest is to not play cards that can get you
into deep trouble, but at the same time convince you that
you’re
winning when you flop a piece of them.
The best advice to learn how to win at
poker is, learn how not to lose!
Here endeth the lesson.
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