by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Aug 9, 2018 | Updated on Aug 9, 2018Playing poker and winning is a very difficult task to do, you can lose most of the times specially if you don’t know the little dirty psychology secrets that anybody playing poker for real has to understand. If you were to ask one of the top poker players about the secrets to their success, they’d probably send you packing. Why on earth would they give away information which could be used against them?
10 Tips To Give You The Edge Over The Competition
In this blog post, I am going to share 10 tips with you that will instantly make you a more dominant player, especially in tournaments.
- Don’t Play Drunk
- Don’t play with an insufficient bankroll
- Play the Right Starting Hands
- Don’t be distracted
- Respond to change.
- Don’t Play in a Bad Mood
- good poker training site
- Attack the blinds of the tight players
- Don’t be afraid to pull the trigger with your bluffs.
- 10. Serve your game, not your ego
There are nights where you’re just playing with friends and it’s more about the fun than the poker. But if you’re in a casino, watch the alcohol. The truth is, while you may be more relaxed after two drinks, it may lead to you playing looser and less sharply, even if you’re not fully drunk. Just keep in mind that poker isn’t a game to play when you have dulled senses.
This is extremely important for all poker players. If you don’t have a sufficient bankroll, you run the risk of losing it all, and thus the ability to continue playing this great game, also consider that when you are playing with an aggressive bankroll. It will necessarily change your mindset and decision making in hands, since the money is more important to you, instead of focusing on making the correct play.
When you think about starting hands you will realize that you should be folding around 80% more hands than you should be playing at any given table. Naturally, the hands you play, and how you play them, will change depending on thousands of different variables at the table. Whether it be lack of patience, or an unfamiliarity with opening ranges, many tournament poker players still open too wide. This is especially true when it comes to early and middle position opens, where there are still many opponents left to act behind who can be dealt a strong hand. The problem is when called, wide openers are often at a range disadvantage. Often being dominated by their opponents, they are vulnerable to 3 bets since they frequently won’t have a holding strong enough to continue under pressure. Modern day tournament structures often only see deep stack play occur during the first few levels of play.
While live poker gives you the opportunity to take in a huge amount of information about your opponents, it also provides you with lots of down time where little is happening. This results in most players losing concentration. They then turn to various distractions, such as their phone, sports, books, and many other activates to occupy their attention. While it probably isn’t too big of a deal to occupy your time when you are on a break, if you are constantly engaged with activities besides poker, you will not focus well. If you do not focus well, you will miss tons of vital information that will help you adjust to your opponents’ strategy, allowing you to win significantly more money. When playing poker, turn off the distractions and play poker.
A poker game is not static it’s dynamic that changes from moment to moment. You have to respond to those changes. Just because a player was bluffing an hour ago doesn’t mean he’s bluffing now. Be up-to-the-second in your thinking or be prepared to go home broke.
When you play poker, you shouldn’t do it to escape from being depressed or having a really bad day. You start out on tilt — playing emotionally, not rationally — and you won’t play your best. Fellow players will sense your mood and take advantage of it.
Online poker players are spoiled for choice when it comes to training sites. There are so many good sites with tons of excellent video content produced by professional poker coaches that have made millions playing poker for a living. Some poker training sites cater to tournament players, whilst others are dedicated to cash games, so keep that in mind when choosing a site.
While you should rarely give a tight player action, when the tight players are in the blinds, you should be prone to stealing with an overly wide range, especially if the players between you and the tight blinds are not overly active. If you pay attention and actively look for these situations, you will be able to profit with a much wider range of hands than normal.
Too many players don’t have the guts to fire big bluffs, which leaves them open to attentive opponents who will stop paying them off. In turn, you need be the player who stir fear and anxiety in your opponents by pushing pressure in big pots despite not always having the goods. Being able to do this efficiently will make you a better and more versatile player overall, and will increase your win ratio tremendously. Of course, against weaker opposition you needn’t bluff as much, since they won’t be as attentive to your strategy, know how to exploit it, or have the discipline to follow through with a counter-strategy.
Serving your ego in a poker game is not your purpose and it will harm you. It will only cloud your card sense with a lot of irrelevant issues, and also alienate your opponents. Be humble, act humble, and leave your ego at home.
Final Thoughts
Poker is a multi-faceted game which makes it fun but challenging. Challenge yourself to factor in the relevant concepts, and make more profitable decisions. There’s no need to waste tournament poker chips every time, especially when the pot is multi-way. Pick your spots to make profitable plays. The divide between break-even players and big-time winners is not really as wide as many people think. It is often just a few simple little adjustments you can learn over time that can carry you over to enable you to start winning at higher clip.
