Let’s get the facts straight right from the off, poker is a game of strategy and skill, not a game of luck for gamblers. When you strip it down although Texas Holdem poker is basically a simple game, there are so many aspects that you need to perfect in order to be good at it. There is an element of luck involved in poker but to say it is a game of chance is the equivalent of claiming football or golf or motor racing rely on luck. You can get luck in all of these on any particular day – a deflection that wins the game, a golf ball that hits the rough then spins back out avoiding the bunker or a rival driver’s car suffering a malfunction but nobody would suggest that winning at any of them is purely down to luck.
So what are some of the factors that influence your poker strategy?
Psychology – Can you read your opponents? The best poker players in the world have an almost telepathic understanding of the other players at the table and they always seem to know what they have in their hands. To reach a good standard of poker, especially in live games, you need to develop an understanding of human nature in general and poker players in particular. It’s not something that will come to you right away so pracise is essential, the more poker you can play the better.
Concentration – Poker can be a very long game and to be a winner you will need to have great powers of concentration and focus. Many professional poker players use sunglasses and headphones to block out distractions, everybody is different and what works for some might not necessarily work for you. Each to their own. Poker tournaments are by nature long events, there’s no time limit on them and they go until the last player takes all the chips off the runner-up. The duration can vary wildly but generally the more players involved in the tournament the longer it will run.
Mathematics – Don’t be put off by this, you won’t be required to perform any advanced calculus or even calculate the area of a circle but you must have a basic awareness of numbers and percentages. At any point in any Texas Holdem poker hand you have a certain percentage chance of winning. This is based on the two cards you have been dealt and the cards showing face up on the table. If you have the best possible hand that can be made with the cards on the table and the cards you’re holding, you are said to have the “nuts” and your percentage chance of winning the hand is 100%. All through the hand the percentages change but even if you are on a hand with a say 10% chance of winning, you can get lucky and catch the card that turns your hand into a winning one.
Patience – Similar to Concentration mentioned above, you will need to display a great deal of patience if you want to be a top poker player. This is the main difference that separates the skilled poker player from the gambler. By nature a gambler will always want to be involved in the play and will be tempted into playing most if not all hands. He will gamble that the next card will be the one he needs and will invariable end up losing all his chips and crashing out of the game. You need to be different and show a great deal of patience. Wait until the right moment and you get a hand you know that you can win, don’t be tempted into gambling on scraps or you will be doomed to failure.
Timing – Timing is everything when it comes to poker strategy. To illustrate this, imagine you are at a table with eight other players and you are dealt a pair of nines. If you are first to act, the obvious move is to check as you don’t know what the rest of the players at the table have got and your nines are unlikely to be a strong hand against eight opponents. However if you are on the big blind or small blind and have seen how the table has bet the hand, you might feel that your 99 is in a good place to take the pot and will be worth a call if there has been betting action, or maybe even a raise if there are only a couple of players left in the hand.
Guts – Guts, bravery, bottle, strength of character, call it what you want but you need to have it in order to develop a successful poker strategy. There is money at stake – your money – and you need to be able to handle the fact that at some stage you will lose money. If you have a mindset of holding on to what you have, the chances are that your chips will dwindle away to nothing and you will be out of the game. You need to pick your moments and know when to act, but when you do you need to have the courage of your convictions and play to win. This will involve raising or even going all-in and you might lose everything but when you have done your mental calculations and believe you are in a great position – go for it!