All of us like to play games. Some of us play obsessively and others just pick up a pen and spend time talking to people about what game they like to play the most. me? I’m a poker player. I spend countless hours sitting at a table, learning what certain strategies work, observing others, learning their tells, and refining my own techniques. I have yet to walk into a casino and steal all their credit cards because I know the fastest way to lose all my money is to get drunk, forget to pay attention, and gamble with my rent money.
However, sometimes I find that the game isn’t just something I do. Sometimes I’m involved in far more than just a few games at a time. Now, I could be playing several games at once, and I could be watching TV, reading a book, or preparing dinner. As much as I love poker, sometimes the various games aren’t enough for me. And when I find myself multi-tabling, I find that my bankroll isn’t big enough for the various buy-in of casinos I decide to stop in, so I sit for hours eating, drinking, and talking to friends whom I may never meet in person.
If you’re sick of getting up from the computer and having to eat, but still love to play online poker, you’ll probably be happy to know that there’s a pretty simple solution to playing and succeeding at poker. It’s called being patient.
Patience is something that takes a lot of time to figure out. Many players are willing to learn the game, but they have this huge bug nose about it that makes it very difficult to concentrate. they have this instinctive want to play every hand, and win every pot. And instead of accepting that fact and slowing down, they do the exact opposite to make sure they bet every hand they are in.
While your intuition may be telling you that it’s a waste of time to call and try to steal the pot against aces, that’s really just a mental attitude. There’s nothing like reality, after all.
So instead of sitting there feeling like you’re against the pocket rockets, you want to figure out exactly how you’re going to bet each hand. Sure, you can’t possibly win all the time, but you can pick out the situations where you’ll profit more than losing, and that’s exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.
The easiest way to determine exactly how you’re going to bet is to use a poker calculator. Once you’ve learned the probabilities of the cards you’re holding, you can bet with those odds, and bet with your bankroll to get a good bet off of your initial deducted bets.
Be patient. There’s nothing like busting out after two hours of play and losing your entire deposit. Yes, it could be possible to lose ten grand in a single evening, but you’re going to die in the long haul of thousands of hours spent playing poker. The thrill of learning the game and coming out on top is what keeps you coming back for more.
Know your limit. Whether you’re playing online afapoker or offline poker, you can’t become expert at everything. So when you’re deciding to stop playing a game, you have to make sure that you’ve got enough money to keep going.
Whatever games you’re playing, if you’re losing or winning, you have to stop to give it some time. Don’t try to impress your friends by playing on your able legs or while hanging from your chest. Don’t let the game drag you down the couch. Take off your iPod and beat the other guys at their own game.
Competing against other players is a lot of fun. You get to interact with them. However, when it comes to cold hard cash, you’re going to win or lose depending on your own skill and luck.
You can’t possibly succeed in poker without continuing to study and practice. Even the pros study and practice. After all, it’s like giving away your money to the casino, if you don’t have the first hand to fall back on.
After you study and practice, you might also find that you’re prone to mood swings. This is when you lose all your money in one big game after a bad beat. When you lose, you have to have a little faith that the cards are not really coming your way for the moment, regardless of what your poker calculator is telling you.
Mood swings are part of the game. Don’t try to fight them. Accept that they’re going to happen. Even if you find yourself playing the worst game in the casino right now, you are not invincible. Even the best hands will be vulnerable some times.