You need to be logged in to your Sky Poker account above to post discussions and comments.
You might need to refresh your page afterwards.
Sky Poker forums will be temporarily unavailable from 11pm Wednesday July 25th.
Sky Poker Forums is upgrading its look! Stay tuned for the big reveal!
What is your ultimate #1 Tip for Poker?
What is your ultimate #1 Tip for Poker?
Would it be to read multiple strategy books? To steal more blinds? To be aggressive? Or something different?
Would it be to read multiple strategy books? To steal more blinds? To be aggressive? Or something different?
Comments
reverse cowgirl?
Ollie was on my table last night and I thought it was a better question for here than the chatbox as it was sure to spark an interesting and informative discussion.
Let me have a go...
Position is massively important. It's so tempting to look at hands as good, great, medium and bad and to think of 7c8c as a fun hand that is nice to play as you can make a straight or flush and win a big pot and that is fun. With 18 bbs it may be a great hand to shove against an opener, with 32 bbs it's a lovely hand to call in position and with 11 bbs it's an easy fold when someone has raised under the gun.
That would be a perfect example of a hand that you'll find WAY less profitable (probably a big loser) out of position. The hand requires tricky decisions...what should you do if you flop a flush draw?, how happy are you with a 346 flop?, what about Q83? All of these questions are so much easier when you are in position.
With 66 or 77, a hand of similar strength position is less important, with 15 bbs and a late position raise you shove, with less than 20 bbs blind on blind you can shove or call a shove and with 30+ bbs in the small blind you can 3-bet or call a raise. The deeper you are the more you want to flop a set.
Positional play is probably the most important lesson to learn in poker but it could be the widest topic to discuss. You can see why the chatbox is not always the best place Ollie.
If we get a few more replies I'll post a couple more epiphanies I had that really helped me improve at poker.
Sometimes you are being given an excellent price to put chips in the pot. Other times the odds make it unwise. Having the ability to quickly work-out which applies in common poker situations will make a big difference to your results.
The game is so much easier if you choose to sit at a table of others playing a style that you know to beat and (sort of linked to the position note above), doing your best to have the person you perceive as the 'worst' player at a table sat directly to your right.
Sure, we shouldn't hide from playing better players and continually trying to improve our own game, but shouldn't do that at the expense of finding those 'easy' spots to keep us solvent!
Echo what Mr Channing said; Position!
Another important thing is to be realistic. If you're new to the game, you will lose money initially, there is no way around this. You can't just jump in and start winning. If you treat these inevitable early losses as essentially a training course, and take everything on board in terms of advice whilst gaining more experience at the tables, then the losses should turn to profit over time.
Plenty of players will never turn it around, but in a game where maybe 80/90% (?) of people won't make a penny long term, it's far from the minority. This is where the enjoyment factor needs to kick in.