HOW DO I IMPROVE AS A POKER PLAYER? I guess the most frequently asked question of all from new players is, “How do I improve my poker game?” The answer in my view is simple. You need to play in online real-life tournaments against truly competitive players. People playing in online tournaments are playing for real money and have a passionate desire to get through to a final table where there are large amounts of cash to be won. They go for the throat. They simply want to crush all the other players that are in their way. That’s exactly what you need once you’re passed the learning stage. Boxers that are well managed are all guided carefully through the training stage and fed a few opponents to allow them to hone their skills but at a given point they have to confront some serious opposition. It’s the same with poker. You can get bloodied but you’ll learn the ins and outs a whole lot quicker in online tournaments than you will playing with pals for matchsticks or playmoney.
MIND GAMES One of the exciting things about online poker in particular is that you don’t have to be who you are. I’m quite often never sure who’s going to turn up in my head when I start a game. Just because you know a lot about poker doesn’t mean you have to betray that fact. Sometimes acting like a sucker for a few low stakes games can stand you in good stead. There’s a lot of acting involved if you want to mess with other players. Personally, I find adopting a different guise under differing table conditions is a huge buzz and done in a controlled fashion can be very successful. Try never to show up in a predictable manner. It’s an edge.
SIMPLE POKER TUTORIAL Q: Let’s say you’re holding Ace clubs-four diamonds and the flop delivers Ace spades-9 spades and seven hearts. What should your response be to powerful betting at this stage in the hand assuming a full table game? A: Well, you’ve paired your Ace at the flop which makes you feel good but your kicker card (the four of diamonds) is low and in a full table game there’s every chance someone else has paired the Ace but is holding a more respectable kicker card than your humble four. However, had you been holding Ace spades and four spades you would of course keep going because although the hole cards are the same value as previously they are same-suited and you have two further spades on the flop. This offers good odds on a backdoor spade flush at the turn or the river and you would want to pursue that with the Aces as a second line of defence.
