Reduce the number of your poker opponents to walk away with the pot and have more fun...
NARROW THE FIELD There are some hands that can be played a lot more profitably against a couple of opponents than a full table of ten players. Sometimes your cards are demanding you to narrow the field if you want to play on. The downside to this strategy, of course, is that most often the players you are likely to scare away are the ones with rags for cards who would’ve provided profitable fodder for the pot. Keeping that very much in mind the most strategic time to narrow the field is when the weaker players have already committed themselves to the pot and the aggressive players are poised to act behind you. If you go with a healthy raise at this point in a game you have a better than average chance of blowing out the strong players, hopefully leaving you to play weak players with hands to match. Look out for the opportunity.
MOANERS AND GROANERS Unless you’re faced with an experienced con artist, most players who moan and groan on about their bad luck in recent games are highly unlikely to bluff. This “tell” is just as likely to reveal itself through the chat-boxes during online games as it is via verbals in a live action hand. Keep it in mind the next time a moaner makes a big raise at you. He probably has a monster hand. No sense improving his bad luck if you don’t have the “nuts”. Add to his bad luck by folding and devaluing his monster.
SMALL IS MORE FUN ...Now that’s not something you hear very often. The truth is short-handed games of poker are more fun than full games. When you get ten players in a hand there are so many more possible combinations available that everyone starts waiting for really excellent hands. It takes the gambling out of poker which I don’t like. The beauty of poker is that it’s a hybrid of skill and luck, gambling plus a well honed edge. As soon as a hand is reduced to six players or less it becomes more fun. People will risk playing hands that are more borderline and the action builds up. The more short-handed the game the more exciting it gets. The great characters in poker are the action players in this world. They find themselves in a ten handed game that’s locked down tight with everyone waiting for a high pair or whatever safe target hole cards they’ve set for themselves. The action player starts giving everyone “action”. Taking chances, betting, bluffing and raising. He shakes things up and makes an expensive cocktail out of a stale beer. Get Shorty! That’s my advice. You’ll have more fun.
