This is the best question you can ask yourself. There some important things that you should always keep in mind.: focus, attitude and will. Lets take every single one of them.
Focus in poker.
Tips
Focus and Preperation
Managing your chip stack
Reading bluffs
Minimum Requirements Part 1
Emotions
Chip Tells
When is a $25 chip worth more
than $25?
Using your personality
The most dangerous card in the
deck
Falling in love
Does it make a difference where's
you sit?
Compound Errors
Heads Up
Online Poker Tips Part Two
Online Poker Tips Part One
Minimum Requirements Part 2
Don't Do it
Putting Someone on an Exact Hand
Understand
A New Beginning
Building a Stack Part Two
Building a Stack Part One
It Was A Great Game
For the Record... Let's be honest
Bluffing (and showing bluffs)
Gaining information
The pain barrier
A Common Misconception
Making Deals
Page 1
Focus and Preperation
You are here: Home › Poker Articles & Features › Pro Tips › Page 2
› Focus and Preperation
"Have you ever found that sometimes you start tournaments well
and in others you just can't get 'tuned in'? Sometimes you make
finals but when the money counts you make mistakes and have
difficulty focusing? What should you do about it?
Let us consider a trained athlete just before he/she runs in the
100M final at the Olympics. What do they do? Are they in the bar
(having a beer or chatting to their friends in the crowd? Not usually.
They can be seen 'blocking out' all outside interferences. They may
be sat with their heads in their hands or standing with their heads
bowed. What do they think about? Winning ! Having that gold
medal placed around their necks!
How do they achieve the 'focus' that everyone talks about? They
probably go through races in their heads that they've won. They
'pump themselves up' by going through past victories in their
minds.
Let's apply this to poker.
First though, go through all the hands that you've played badly
(some people will take longer than others ;-) ). Think about hands
that you've played that have knocked you out of tournaments at
crucial stages. The time that you played AQ (or even that lousy AJ)
against a good players pre-flop raise, hit the Ace on the flop and
decimated your stack of chips. The time that you called a raise for
ALL your chips with pocket sevens or the time that you made an
early position raise with pocket nines, fell in love with them and
refused to pass for a re-raise on your left !
Now that that's out of the way, think about hands you've played
well. The 'perfect' reads that you've put on opponents because
everything seemed so transparent, the finals that you've made and
the tournaments that you've won. Can you remember the way you
played through those victorious finals, how quickly the time
seemed to pass and how confident you felt? This is how you can
gain the 'poker focus' that you need and slip straight into your 'A'
game at the start of the next tournament that you play.
Mike Caro once said that when you join a poker game say to
yourself, 'I am a GREAT poker player; a powerful winning force
surrounds me.' He had a point !
Next month we have a very simple Pro Tip but an important one.
There is a trap that many players fall into again and again without
actually realising. We will show you how to avoid it !……………
Profitable Poker Attitude
Becoming a great poker player is having the right attitude towards
every situation in the game. A good player possesses an attitude
which leads to profitable results. A poor player, on the other
hand, entertains views about poker that can be best described as
obscure, if not disadvantageous.
For example, poor players view the game of poker as an activity
that provides the mind an escape from the everyday bustle and
work pressure. But good players join a poker table knowing that
the game demands sharp focus and intense mental concentration.
They also make sure they pick the best poker software.
During a game, the poor player believes that winning the pot is the
ultimate goal. But the good poker player is more concerned about
playing his hand astutely. Winning is welcome but secondary.
Related to this, a poor player’s decisions are contingent on
whether he is winning or losing. That is, when he is winning, he is
likely to believe that lady luck is right beside him. A good player,
on the other hand, is not affected by his winnings nor bothered by
his losses. He is aware of the psychological effects of winning and
losing but he chooses not to be swayed them.
A poor poker player thinks of wild games as pseudo-poker. This
poor player believes that no self-respecting skilled player should
get involve in wild games. But the good poker player has a
completely different point of view. The good player welcomes wild
games because these give him more opportunities to win. Wild
games actually call for superior poker skills.
The poor poker player does not really know what an ante increase
implies. His feelings towards it can be ambivalent. On the other
hand, a good poker player realizes that an ante increase induces
players to be looser. He also realizes that such will put the tight
players at a disadvantage.
In no-limit poker, the poor player tends to back out. He has the
impression that no-limit poker is only for those who are
considered pros. But the good player looks forward to the
challenge of no-limits . He knows that he will have greater
advantage because the higher stakes can induce his opponents to
commit mistakes.
When the play is already past the time limit, the poor player
fancies that his chances of winning are greatly reduced. But the
good player exploits this situation. He appreciates the fact that his
opponents are tired and losing their concentration. This certainly
increases his own chances of winning.
A person who intends to be good at playing poker should analyze
which attitudes he possesses. If he already has the attitudes of a
good player, then his winning statistics is most likely high. If he
has the attitudes of the poor player, then he needs to implement
some serious changes.
POKER TELLS AND BODY LANGUAGE
There are many differences between expert poker players
and their less skilled counterparts. One such area is the
ability to decipher subtle clues as to what their opponents
most likely holdings are. Many of these subtle clues fall
under the category of “tells”. A tell is essentially anything
that gives away the strength of an opponents hand. They
often involve the timing or manner in which a player bets,
or something that they may say during a hand. In the
movies it is more often a specific mannerism, like the
eating of an Oreo cookie when a player has a very strong
hand. In real life tells are rarely so exact.
Tells are one part of a puzzle that when put together with
other parts, tell the story that is a poker hand. Rarely is a
tell strong enough to be trusted completely. You generally
will need corroborating evidence before taking action. No
tell is true 100% of the time. Not only do some players
naturally act differently but sophisticated opponents will
occasionally send off “reverse tells”, intended to deceive
you.
Many players object to online poker because they do not
think there are any tells. This is not entirely true. Astute
online players will pick up on many things that will help
them to read their opponents hands. These will be covered
in detail later.
Although the individual tells that are covered in this
article should prove valuable, the underlying principles
are worth much more. If you understand why a player
exhibits one tell or another, then you will be able to
pinpoint other tells that occur for the same reasons. This
is when you will start to get many subtle clues to the
strength of your opponents hand.
No discussion on tells would be complete without
mentioning Mike Caro. His book, and later video, The
Body Language of Poker is the most complete treatment
ever given to the subject. Both the book and video have
hundreds of photos that illustrate different tells. The
book has however been widely read by expert poker
players so you must use caution against sophisticated
opponents. That said, Caro covers the basics and teaches
the principles that still hold true.
There is no magic trick that will ensure large wins at the
poker table. There are a million small tricks and the more
of them you master the better your results will be.
Identifying tells is one of these tricks that good players
rely on to narrow down their opponents holding.
Brick and Mortar Tells
Strong Means Weak and Weak Means Strong
This is one of Caro’s major themes, and it is an important
concept to understand. Players often do not even
consciously understand that they are acting in this
fashion. On a subconscious level they want to disguise
their holding and if they know it is weak they are likely to
act strong (or vice versa) in an attempt to fool you.
Bluffing players will often bet with excessive force or
slam their chips onto the table. A player with a monster
hand will often bet very passively, as if he does not want
to arouse excess suspicion.
There are countless variations on this one principle and it
is always valuable to be alert for it. For instance, a player
who stares directly at you is less likely to hold a monster
than someone who is attempting to feign disinterest.
Although this is one of the most important characteristic
of tells there is one caveat to them. They are among the
easiest types of tells to fake and sophisticated opponents
will try to trick you by exhibiting reverse tells.
Although this is one of the easiest and most common type
tells to spot it is also one of the most valuable.
Understanding this concept will allow you to pick up
many subtle clues that will add to your bottom line.
Although many individual tells will be discussed you will
find that a great many of them fall under this category.
Players Who are Eating or Reading
Players who are eating, reading, or otherwise engaged are
much less likely to bluff than they normally would be. Be
cautious of a player who sits up from his meal to make a
big raise. You generally need a very strong hand to
continue in this spot. If a player is engrossed in a sports
game on television, that you know he has a big bet riding
on, be very careful if they suddenly make a big bet or
raise. Anytime a players attention is focused on
something other than the poker game they are less likely
to bluff than they usually are. It does not mean that they
are incapable of bluffing, but it does make them
significantly less likely.
Players Who Shake Their Heads or Roll Their Eyes
This is another example of weak means strong. When a
player sees the flop and then shakes their head or rolls
their eyes they generally have made a good hand. Proceed
with caution in these scenarios.
There are a million variations on this type of tell. Any sad
action or face is more likely to be great strength than
weakness.
Players Who Glance Quickly at Their Chips After Looking
at the Flop
Unlike most of the other tells covered, this tell is not an
act. It is a subconscious reaction to seeing what they think
is a profitable situation. This is different than a long
lingering glance at their chips. It is an almost
imperceptible glance, and they will then quickly look
away from their chips. This usually means that they have
made a very strong hand.
Players who Talk
Often times you will find yourself up against an opponent
who likes to, or is at least willing to, engage in
conversation during the play of a hand. Often times
valuable information will be passed on. Players who are
gregarious and talkative during a hand are more likely to
have a strong hand. They are mentally relaxed enough to
converse freely. If a normally talkative player is silent
then they are more likely to be bluffing. They do not want
to do anything to arouse suspicion in their opponents. If
in response to a question a player spouts near gibberish,
then if it is not an act, he is more likely to be bluffing than
normal.
One interesting tell I have noticed about players who talk
during a hand is that they tell the truth more often than
not about what they hold. This can be just as confusing, if
you do not know this tell, but if you find someone who
routinely tells the truth it can be valuable information. It
has been my experience that when a player says “I
promise” that he rarely is lying. For instance a player
may say “I promise I don’t have the Ace of Spades” after
making a big bet on the river if there are 4 spades on the
board, as well as a pair. This player almost certainly does
not have the Ace of Spades and is in fact much more likely
to have a full house in this instance. Do not assume this
player is weak, in fact, he is much more likely to be very,
very strong. If you happen to have the Ace of Spades
though, be careful, as he is also almost certainly not
bluffing.
You will encounter some players who are so good at
randomizing what they say that you will not be able to get
any valuable information from them. More often,
however, players will betray their holdings by what they
say and you should pay attention, and ask questions when
necessary.
Focus in poker.
Tips
Focus and Preperation
Managing your chip stack
Reading bluffs
Minimum Requirements Part 1
Emotions
Chip Tells
When is a $25 chip worth more
than $25?
Using your personality
The most dangerous card in the
deck
Falling in love
Does it make a difference where's
you sit?
Compound Errors
Heads Up
Online Poker Tips Part Two
Online Poker Tips Part One
Minimum Requirements Part 2
Don't Do it
Putting Someone on an Exact Hand
Understand
A New Beginning
Building a Stack Part Two
Building a Stack Part One
It Was A Great Game
For the Record... Let's be honest
Bluffing (and showing bluffs)
Gaining information
The pain barrier
A Common Misconception
Making Deals
Page 1
Focus and Preperation
You are here: Home › Poker Articles & Features › Pro Tips › Page 2
› Focus and Preperation
"Have you ever found that sometimes you start tournaments well
and in others you just can't get 'tuned in'? Sometimes you make
finals but when the money counts you make mistakes and have
difficulty focusing? What should you do about it?
Let us consider a trained athlete just before he/she runs in the
100M final at the Olympics. What do they do? Are they in the bar
(having a beer or chatting to their friends in the crowd? Not usually.
They can be seen 'blocking out' all outside interferences. They may
be sat with their heads in their hands or standing with their heads
bowed. What do they think about? Winning ! Having that gold
medal placed around their necks!
How do they achieve the 'focus' that everyone talks about? They
probably go through races in their heads that they've won. They
'pump themselves up' by going through past victories in their
minds.
Let's apply this to poker.
First though, go through all the hands that you've played badly
(some people will take longer than others ;-) ). Think about hands
that you've played that have knocked you out of tournaments at
crucial stages. The time that you played AQ (or even that lousy AJ)
against a good players pre-flop raise, hit the Ace on the flop and
decimated your stack of chips. The time that you called a raise for
ALL your chips with pocket sevens or the time that you made an
early position raise with pocket nines, fell in love with them and
refused to pass for a re-raise on your left !
Now that that's out of the way, think about hands you've played
well. The 'perfect' reads that you've put on opponents because
everything seemed so transparent, the finals that you've made and
the tournaments that you've won. Can you remember the way you
played through those victorious finals, how quickly the time
seemed to pass and how confident you felt? This is how you can
gain the 'poker focus' that you need and slip straight into your 'A'
game at the start of the next tournament that you play.
Mike Caro once said that when you join a poker game say to
yourself, 'I am a GREAT poker player; a powerful winning force
surrounds me.' He had a point !
Next month we have a very simple Pro Tip but an important one.
There is a trap that many players fall into again and again without
actually realising. We will show you how to avoid it !……………
Profitable Poker Attitude
Becoming a great poker player is having the right attitude towards
every situation in the game. A good player possesses an attitude
which leads to profitable results. A poor player, on the other
hand, entertains views about poker that can be best described as
obscure, if not disadvantageous.
For example, poor players view the game of poker as an activity
that provides the mind an escape from the everyday bustle and
work pressure. But good players join a poker table knowing that
the game demands sharp focus and intense mental concentration.
They also make sure they pick the best poker software.
During a game, the poor player believes that winning the pot is the
ultimate goal. But the good poker player is more concerned about
playing his hand astutely. Winning is welcome but secondary.
Related to this, a poor player’s decisions are contingent on
whether he is winning or losing. That is, when he is winning, he is
likely to believe that lady luck is right beside him. A good player,
on the other hand, is not affected by his winnings nor bothered by
his losses. He is aware of the psychological effects of winning and
losing but he chooses not to be swayed them.
A poor poker player thinks of wild games as pseudo-poker. This
poor player believes that no self-respecting skilled player should
get involve in wild games. But the good poker player has a
completely different point of view. The good player welcomes wild
games because these give him more opportunities to win. Wild
games actually call for superior poker skills.
The poor poker player does not really know what an ante increase
implies. His feelings towards it can be ambivalent. On the other
hand, a good poker player realizes that an ante increase induces
players to be looser. He also realizes that such will put the tight
players at a disadvantage.
In no-limit poker, the poor player tends to back out. He has the
impression that no-limit poker is only for those who are
considered pros. But the good player looks forward to the
challenge of no-limits . He knows that he will have greater
advantage because the higher stakes can induce his opponents to
commit mistakes.
When the play is already past the time limit, the poor player
fancies that his chances of winning are greatly reduced. But the
good player exploits this situation. He appreciates the fact that his
opponents are tired and losing their concentration. This certainly
increases his own chances of winning.
A person who intends to be good at playing poker should analyze
which attitudes he possesses. If he already has the attitudes of a
good player, then his winning statistics is most likely high. If he
has the attitudes of the poor player, then he needs to implement
some serious changes.
POKER TELLS AND BODY LANGUAGE
There are many differences between expert poker players
and their less skilled counterparts. One such area is the
ability to decipher subtle clues as to what their opponents
most likely holdings are. Many of these subtle clues fall
under the category of “tells”. A tell is essentially anything
that gives away the strength of an opponents hand. They
often involve the timing or manner in which a player bets,
or something that they may say during a hand. In the
movies it is more often a specific mannerism, like the
eating of an Oreo cookie when a player has a very strong
hand. In real life tells are rarely so exact.
Tells are one part of a puzzle that when put together with
other parts, tell the story that is a poker hand. Rarely is a
tell strong enough to be trusted completely. You generally
will need corroborating evidence before taking action. No
tell is true 100% of the time. Not only do some players
naturally act differently but sophisticated opponents will
occasionally send off “reverse tells”, intended to deceive
you.
Many players object to online poker because they do not
think there are any tells. This is not entirely true. Astute
online players will pick up on many things that will help
them to read their opponents hands. These will be covered
in detail later.
Although the individual tells that are covered in this
article should prove valuable, the underlying principles
are worth much more. If you understand why a player
exhibits one tell or another, then you will be able to
pinpoint other tells that occur for the same reasons. This
is when you will start to get many subtle clues to the
strength of your opponents hand.
No discussion on tells would be complete without
mentioning Mike Caro. His book, and later video, The
Body Language of Poker is the most complete treatment
ever given to the subject. Both the book and video have
hundreds of photos that illustrate different tells. The
book has however been widely read by expert poker
players so you must use caution against sophisticated
opponents. That said, Caro covers the basics and teaches
the principles that still hold true.
There is no magic trick that will ensure large wins at the
poker table. There are a million small tricks and the more
of them you master the better your results will be.
Identifying tells is one of these tricks that good players
rely on to narrow down their opponents holding.
Brick and Mortar Tells
Strong Means Weak and Weak Means Strong
This is one of Caro’s major themes, and it is an important
concept to understand. Players often do not even
consciously understand that they are acting in this
fashion. On a subconscious level they want to disguise
their holding and if they know it is weak they are likely to
act strong (or vice versa) in an attempt to fool you.
Bluffing players will often bet with excessive force or
slam their chips onto the table. A player with a monster
hand will often bet very passively, as if he does not want
to arouse excess suspicion.
There are countless variations on this one principle and it
is always valuable to be alert for it. For instance, a player
who stares directly at you is less likely to hold a monster
than someone who is attempting to feign disinterest.
Although this is one of the most important characteristic
of tells there is one caveat to them. They are among the
easiest types of tells to fake and sophisticated opponents
will try to trick you by exhibiting reverse tells.
Although this is one of the easiest and most common type
tells to spot it is also one of the most valuable.
Understanding this concept will allow you to pick up
many subtle clues that will add to your bottom line.
Although many individual tells will be discussed you will
find that a great many of them fall under this category.
Players Who are Eating or Reading
Players who are eating, reading, or otherwise engaged are
much less likely to bluff than they normally would be. Be
cautious of a player who sits up from his meal to make a
big raise. You generally need a very strong hand to
continue in this spot. If a player is engrossed in a sports
game on television, that you know he has a big bet riding
on, be very careful if they suddenly make a big bet or
raise. Anytime a players attention is focused on
something other than the poker game they are less likely
to bluff than they usually are. It does not mean that they
are incapable of bluffing, but it does make them
significantly less likely.
Players Who Shake Their Heads or Roll Their Eyes
This is another example of weak means strong. When a
player sees the flop and then shakes their head or rolls
their eyes they generally have made a good hand. Proceed
with caution in these scenarios.
There are a million variations on this type of tell. Any sad
action or face is more likely to be great strength than
weakness.
Players Who Glance Quickly at Their Chips After Looking
at the Flop
Unlike most of the other tells covered, this tell is not an
act. It is a subconscious reaction to seeing what they think
is a profitable situation. This is different than a long
lingering glance at their chips. It is an almost
imperceptible glance, and they will then quickly look
away from their chips. This usually means that they have
made a very strong hand.
Players who Talk
Often times you will find yourself up against an opponent
who likes to, or is at least willing to, engage in
conversation during the play of a hand. Often times
valuable information will be passed on. Players who are
gregarious and talkative during a hand are more likely to
have a strong hand. They are mentally relaxed enough to
converse freely. If a normally talkative player is silent
then they are more likely to be bluffing. They do not want
to do anything to arouse suspicion in their opponents. If
in response to a question a player spouts near gibberish,
then if it is not an act, he is more likely to be bluffing than
normal.
One interesting tell I have noticed about players who talk
during a hand is that they tell the truth more often than
not about what they hold. This can be just as confusing, if
you do not know this tell, but if you find someone who
routinely tells the truth it can be valuable information. It
has been my experience that when a player says “I
promise” that he rarely is lying. For instance a player
may say “I promise I don’t have the Ace of Spades” after
making a big bet on the river if there are 4 spades on the
board, as well as a pair. This player almost certainly does
not have the Ace of Spades and is in fact much more likely
to have a full house in this instance. Do not assume this
player is weak, in fact, he is much more likely to be very,
very strong. If you happen to have the Ace of Spades
though, be careful, as he is also almost certainly not
bluffing.
You will encounter some players who are so good at
randomizing what they say that you will not be able to get
any valuable information from them. More often,
however, players will betray their holdings by what they
say and you should pay attention, and ask questions when
necessary.
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