Good poker players and Bad poker players can win any given poker tournament they both have entered in, so why is it that players makes excuses for the bad plays winning? Why does the skilled player make donkey plays and are deemed bad players for winning?
Poker by playing the players is the difference between a consistent cashing player and the player who is breaking even or losing money. The difference between making poker a skilled game is the players that are winning and those players are not just playing good hands they are playing the players.
Out Play Your Opponent
When playing poker your hole cards are not always what wins the hand.
The hole cards make the difference on a showdown of who wins the hand yet the hand can be won before then. Playing the players, knowing the player types at your poker table and their poker table image will help you take down pots you would normally lose at a showdown. This is called post flop play.
We hear far to often the end losing player in a hand say they were ahead preflop and it was a bad call or bet which the winner got lucky and sucked out on. It is not always a bad play to put your money in knowing you have the worst hand, if your hand can improve to the winning hand you have what is called implied value. Not only that, how would the suck out player know for sure they are behind?
Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hanson and Phil Ivey
Three players in the game of poker right now with extremely the best post flop poker play with different styles of how they play the game of poker. If you have ever watched them play poker you will have seen they have and will raise, re-raise and call with weaker hands pre-flop. Why?
You must be really bad player to knowingly call or raise pre-flop with an inferior hand, but that is not true if you know you can out play your opponent on the flop and take down pots. It isn’t going to work every time and that there is the difference between a winning player and a losing player is knowing when to put on the brakes in a hand.
Making a “play in poker” is knowing your opponent. If you know they will check a flush draw, you would be foolish not to bet on one and not give them the pot odds to call. That would be a steal and a good play, if it does get called and you lose at the checked showdown you look like a donkey (but they might not know that you made a good play).
There are far to many scenario’s to list here of the types of plays you can make vs types of players, essentially that is what your poker player note taking comes down to, that is what your reads at the table are about.
Helping My Game by How They Play Me
This information works both ways to improving your own game. If players are making very obvious plays on you it should let you know how they perceive your table image. If your blinds are consistently being taken it means your not a blind defender and basically a tight push over.
You make a very good point… poker is so much more than just the cards.
I’ve learned just how important note taking is and being able to read the players around you is key to being successful in this game.