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LOOSE OR TIGHT?
Here question often asked by my beginning students: Should I play loose or should I play tight? My answer is always, solid I like the word. It sounds like strength. It has power and energy. It feels like a force unto itself. Vigor Courage Intensity Solid.
Now look at and listen to the words tight and loose. They sound almost sissified in comparison to solid. So I'm certainly not going to recommend that my students play tight or loose. Play solid! A solid player is a skillful player who sometimes plays tight and sometimes plays loose.
He can be conservative or aggressive, depending on the situation. At the bottom line, a solid player roams the entire poker range from conservative to selectively aggressive. He has various poker slot strategies and knows when to use them.
A player who is only tight has little chance of scoring a big win, unless the cards run all over him. A player who is only loose has little chance of winning anything.
Correction the loose player will win more pots than the solid player, but hell put the money right back into the game. Hell win-but he wont take it home. Play solid! Not many players do. The reason is that most of us are unwilling, or unable, to adapt from our basic life-styles.
People generally don't make a conscious decisions to play conservatively or to play aggressively. They tend to play one way or the other as a result of their basic natures. Most conservative players are conservative people. Most aggressive players are aggressive people.
For one type to play like the other is to go against the grain. Its difficult but its not impossible. My students do it. You can do it. If you play consistently conservative (tight) and I know that you will bet only when you are holding the nuts, why should I ever call one of your bets?
You must show me a rag now and then to convince me that I have a chance of beating you. True, if you have a reputation of being consistently conservative, you can occasionally run a successful bluff. You can, but you probably wont. Conservative players aren't bluffers. It goes against the grain.
If you play consistently aggressive (loose ) and I know you could be betting with anything, Ill be much more willing to call your bets while I'm holding marginal poker hands. from time to time in the natural course of events, you will be holding power and beat me. But not often enough to overcome all of the rags you've played. You'll give it back to me, or to another player. You wont take it home.
We can now see that the best course is an unpredictable course. Its called changing gears. Its called winning poker.
You'll need a conscious decision to change your style of play. The first several times, you'll feel strange and nervous. Proceed slowly. There's no need to set up an anxiety reaction. Experiment. Be comfortable with the change. Play mostly within your natural style.
Remember, your not trying to change your style completely. You want to develop the ability to change occasionally be able to comfortably change gears and keep your opponents guessing.
For the conservative player, loosening up a bit will make the game more interesting and exciting-and increase your win potential. For the rammer and jammer, slowing down will give you a chance to think about what your doing-and increase you win potential.
COSTLY MISTAKES YOU SHOULDNT MAKE
That's an obvious but odd title for this Lesson. Of course we shouldn't make mistakes, costly or otherwise. But that's easier said than done. We don't realize it when we are making the mistake- otherwise, we wouldn't do it. (Or would we?)
So how do we keep from making mistakes if we don't notice ourselves making them? I'm glad you asked. In my private poker lessons in Las Vegas, one of the assignments I give my students is to be constantly monitoring themselves for mistakes in their play. I now give you the same admonition: Before making any move at the poker table, ask yourself:
Is This A Mistake?
Train yourself- practice over and over before taking any action at the table. Always ask yourself that question. If what you are about to do isn't a mistake, then go ahead and do it. If you determine that it is a mistake, then don't do it. Simple. However, if you realize that it is a mistake and then go ahead with the move anyway, with some rationalizing excuse for why did it, then you'd better work on your discipline.
Example: your holding a small four-flush at fourth street. You've seen four of your needed suit in other players upcards. Too many. Then the voice in the back of your head says, There are too many hearts out, but what the heck-I haven't played a hand in over twenty minutes. I'm gonna go for it. Next time Ill be good. I doubt it. Next time it will be even easier to slip.
Stay disciplined. Train yourself until it becomes automatic to ask the question, Is this a mistake? This process will help you keep your discipline strong and intact. Your motivation is the knowledge that the consistent winners at poker are the players who make the fewest mistakes.
Solid, mistake free poker is what gets the money at these low and medium limits. With all of this in mind, lets take a look at a few of the more common mistakes made by even regular, several-times-a-week players. First of all, lets examine calling in very early position on third street when the only value to your hand is big overcards to the board.Generally, you want to play a hand like this from late position against one player. If you insist on playing it from an early position, forget about calling. You'll end up with too many opponents. You'd better raise to substantially narrow the field.
Your best chance of winning is to eliminate the straight and flush draws and then pair up a big card, higher than any pair your opponent could be handlings essentially the only reason to play a hand that has only high cards as its value.
Another big mistake I've often seen players make is entering a pot at third street with a small pair and low side card.
The only real improvement to such a hand is to make trips. You cant make two big pair because you have no high cards to pair. The next mistake I've seen a lot of players make is to compound the above error by continuing to play when they pair that small side card.
Fives and threes just isn't much of a poker hand at these limits. About the only hand they'll beat is one pair. So many mistakes. Next one: Playing when your cards are not live. If you've come this far through this Course, you probably have a full appreciation of the value of a hand with live cards as opposed to the same hand without live cards.
Just as holdem is a game of big cards, seven card stud is a game of live cards. If you get nothing else from this Course, get that. Okay, what's next on the mistake list? Not stealing the antes at every opportunity. In any game with an ante, if your not stealing, your falling behind. Next: Checking dark on the end when you are on a flush draw.
Players who check on seventh street without looking at their last card (check dark) do so mostly to stop someone else from betting. The implied threat is, I check before looking to see if I have made my hand, so if you bet I might raise so watch out. The problem is, you are acting without information. You might intimidate an opponent into checking along; then you look at your last card and see that you have made your hand.
You missed a bet. Also, if a strong opponent makes any kind of a hand he's going to bet despite your implied threat. That puts the threat back onto you, and now you must decide whether he bet because he made a winning hand or because you have shown weakness. More? Okay: Letting your ego into the poker game. I've seen it a hundred times in public poker.
One player will raise another players bet on an early street, not because of the value of his hand, but because he doesn't like his opponent. Raise me? Well, I raise you, wise guy. The initial bettors ego isn't going to stand for that. Oh yeah? Well, back at you, buddy. So we have these two players warring, with neither of them strong enough to have stood the first raise.
As I watch, I know that in about a minute and a half, one of these guys is going to be kicking himself in the butt for ever having gotten involved in the hand. The other will be congratulating himself for his brilliant playing. Ego tells every poker player in the world that his wins are because of his superior skill, while his losses are just bad luck. Most players believe it. I do, don't you?
Another way your ego can do you dirty is to keep you playing in the game you'd like to beat instead of the game you can beat.
Don't let your ego move you up to the higher limits too soon, before your ready with an adequate bankroll, experience, and a lot of heart. Heres another common error that I used to occasionally commit out of frustration-until I saw that it costs me money. Some days you just cant seem to pick up a starting hand, and to make matters worse, you keep getting his with the low card at third street.
The mistake is tossing in your forced bet and your garbage hand along with it. The problem is that you might have paired one of your cards on fourth street, for instance, see everyone check, then tripped up on fifth street, and made a full house at sixth street. Admittedly that's a stretch, but I've seen such things happen. Chasing and not chasing are two more mistakes.
In every pot, one player has the best poker hand and everyone else is chasing. You are chasing whenever you are playing without the best hand, trying to outdraw your opponents. (Its also called going uphill. Any time you are drawing to a straight or a flush you are, by definition, chasing any player who has a pair. You are justified in your chase if your drawing hand has live overcards to your opponents probably pair.
If you don't make the hand your drawing to, you can still beat him by pairing one of your overcards and going on to make two pair or trips. Chase only when the pot is giving you the proper odds for the hand you are trying to make. If you regularly chase with 5-to-1 hands when you are getting only 3-to-1 pot odds, for example, you will be a long-range money loser.
And of course you'll want to consider this question: If I make the hand I am drawing to, is it likely that I will win the pot? You can chase with a smaller pair than your opponents pair sf yours is hidden and live, and if your side card (which is also live) is an overcard to your opponents probable pair. One more: This mistake is not calling at seventh street without your knowing for certain that the bettor has you beaten.
If you have any reasonable chance of winning the pot, even with only a fair hand, it usually is best to call for that one last bet on last bet on seventh street. If he has you be, you lose one more bet. But if you throw away the best hand, you lose a whole pot. I repeat my earlier admonition: Constantly monitor yourself for mistakes in your game. Keep asking yourself, Is this a mistake?