REAL WINNERS DON’T RELY ON LUCK Everybody welcomes Lady Luck with open arms when she decides to show up but poker winners never rely on her being along for the ride. What does this mean in action? It’s a fair question and I’ll give you an example of reliance on luck. You’re holding Nine-Eight and the flop delivers Ace-Ten-Seven. The pot is not exactly creaking under the ten dollars in it and the bet is up eight dollars. Despite the fact you have a warm interior glow because you’re looking at Seven-Eight-Nine-Ten and have the turn and the river to draw to a nut straight, you SHOULD fold! Now a majority of new players are going to “feel” lucky and want to take their two chances at landing the six. This is relying on luck. The pot odds are simply against you. It’s not a winning play and if you went for it every time it came up over a five year playing period you’d come out a hefty loser. All of us have pulled something like this off and you feel great when the six comes drifting up the river and the glory washes over you. But long term poker success isn’t built on moments of lucky magic. It’s built on making the right call at the right time for the right reasons and with the right risk reward ratio.
WHEN BEING DRUNK IS GOOD I witnessed something in Las Vegas recently that I’ve not see done so well before anywhere else in the world. I was involved in a fairly high stakes private cash game for a short while and quite pleased to note that the guy with the biggest stack was ordering, “Another drink please!” This was dutifully brought by a cocktail waitress and downed in two very swift intakes. My liver hurt just watching the process. The joke was the guy was making all the right moves despite his condition and won three out of the next five hands. I decided it was time for me to apologise and quit to go for a dinner appointment. I met one of the Vegas professionals the following day and described the large Canadian drunk to him. “He wasn’t drunk!” was the amused reply. That’s “Macbeth” the Mounty. “He usually plays in Toronto or Atlantic City. Only comes to Vegas once a year and cleans up. He draws the big raises in like moths to a flame!” Quite brilliant, so if you’re into amateur theatrics you might want to give it a go.
FREQUENTLY ASKED POKER QUESTIONS Q: Are you allowed to lie about your hole cards? A: Revealing your hand is illegal but lying about it isn’t technically against the rules. I’ve seen it done and it can be very effective. It’s bad form and of course there’s always the danger of a five-knuckle-straight landing flush where you don’t really want it.
Q: What is meant by the term “slow rolling”? A: It’s when a player takes an overly long time to evaluate an opponent’s second best hand before flipping over his or her own winning cards. Guaranteed to make people hate you.
