These are just a few general concepts and some poker tips to follow to help players who want to get better at poker and to help them start putting a bit more thought into how they approach their overall game. This article is definitely not for your weekend warrior who is just out to have a good time and have a few drinks, playing any 2 cards and who is happy to re-enter a tournament 5 or 6 times just so they don’t have to go home early to the missus – if this sounds like you then you’re not ready to learn this yet.
This is also not an extensive or in-depth list that will guarantee you will win at poker every time however the concepts here will get you thinking more about how you approach your game and will give you a bit of guidance on some of the things that you should be doing if you want to become a better player and take your game seriously and to the next level. So, with that said let’s get started.
Avoid games that are bad for you
The very first thing you need to do is avoid any poker game that could be bad for you and your game. So, before you even draw any money out of the cash machine to go to buy in to your local casino competition or deposit any money online to your favourite poker website you should look at the game and decide with your current strategy and approach to poker can you beat it or at the very least run deep for a cash.
A bad game could be one of these 2 types. The first one being that the game could be way too soft with lots of 6 handed pots with players raising and re-raising each other with junk holdings. This type of game can really screw with your brain as this is exactly what you want these ‘bad players’ to be doing however it can become extremely frustrating when you get it in good only to be sucked out majority of the time when they hit a runner, runner with a hand they should have folded pre-flop.
Obviously, your overarching strategy here should be to trap these bad players however you should be aware that every pot you enter you will have less equity as the majority of the time these pots won’t be heads up. The more players in the pot the more your equity reduces.
The second game type you should avoid are games that are too tough for you to play. Playing against other players who are much better and have won a lot more tournaments than you will be great for your learning curve however your bankroll most likely wouldn’t withstand playing against players who are much better than you in the long run. Take a shot from time-to-time however unless you run golden you shouldn’t play against these player types too often.
So, what games do you play? Look for tournaments that are soft enough to fit within your playing style and also fit within your bankroll and comfortable buy-in levels and don’t be afraid to play a little wider than usual and give you the ability to try out different strategies and tactics to see what you can get away with.
Only play with money you can afford to lose
Speaking of bankroll and buy-in levels you should never play with money you can’t afford to lose. Not only is this high risk, especially if you have a family and financial commitments like a mortgage, you will also be setting yourself up for failure as it will put you into a looser gambling or fearful tighter mindset. This shift in mindset before you even start playing will only throw you off your game and you’ll likely play outside of your normal game and sub-optimally during that session.
Make sure when you buy-in to any tournament you are playing with money that is either from a separate poker bankroll or is from your disposable income once you’ve covered all monthly expenditure.
Make sure you’re in the right frame of mind
Over recent years mindset optimisation has become a more popular way for poker players to prepare for a tournament or deal with the aftermath of a losing session. Plenty of poker players nowadays are listening to podcasts, calming music or turning to mindset coaches who have nothing to do with or know how to play poker however they do know how to deal with the emotions of tilt to help players deal with how they prepare and deal with each poker session they play. And you shouldn’t be any different.
Playing with the wrong mindset can have a detrimental impact on the way you play poker. Whether you’ve had a bad day at work, your dogs died or if you’re in the middle of a tournament and just got sucked out on the river by a 2 outer for the 5th time, how you deal with those experiences and how you cope you the emotions they trigger can massively affect how well you play or in most cases don’t play.
Getting in to the zone before you play by watching a funny video to release some endorphins, listening to your favourite song a couple of times while you’re waiting for the tournament to start or by going outside of the casino for a walk for 15 minutes when you’re on break to avoid the bad beat stories other players can’t wait to tell you can be a change you make to your game that could be paramount towards improving your results. You should always aim to be in a positive, stress-free frame of mind before you start playing and aim to maintain this throughout the tournament by avoiding any negativity.
Recognise when you’re tilting or about to tilt, catch it early and stop it from escalating
Following on from getting your mindset right before you start playing you should try and be self-aware and look for the signs in yourself that you’re either tilted or showing the early warning signs that you’re starting to tilt.
Going card dead for a few hours, getting rivered 4 or 5 times in a row or having the local loudmouth sat at your table as well as many other situations are just some of the ways that tilt can be triggered. If you’re not aware of what triggers you or what the early warning signs of tilt are in yourself and you don’t catch it early enough to be able to stop it from escalating it will grind you down and will really impact how well you play. If tilt takes over it will leave you pointing the finger of blame at something like the dealer, the cards that you were dealt or other players at the table when in actual fact they had nothing to do with why you’ve lost your cool when you’ve only got yourself to blame.
Don’t play hands, instead play ranges
Forget about your favourite hand or if the cards you had were suited, you need to stop playing individual hands and start playing ranges of hands. A hand range is a set of hands that you are willing to limp, call, raise or fold with and depending on the action you’re facing or whether you’re the first one to act will depend on what your hand range looks like for each action type – yes, for each position at the table you should have a different range of hands for each type of action and not use a single hand range as a blanket cover across all.
Other factors to take into account with regards to hand ranges are the position you are sat in relation to the button, the number of players at the table, your stack size in relation to the blinds and your opponent’s stack sizes. You should also take into consideration any other information you either know already or have gathered during your session about your opponents.
With each position around the table and the action presented before you will determine the range of hands you’re willing to play in any given situation. For example, here’s a typical hand range for a tight raise when you’re in early position.
There are plenty of example hand range charts available which would be a great starting point however don’t follow these blindly, you really should start to develop your own hand ranges for different situations and for your own style of play.
Play the majority of your hands in position
Information is key in poker and one of the best ways to gather intel on your opponents is by playing the majority of your hands in position. Being in position is generally the best spot in poker as it means you’re the last to act after any action post-flop has happened which means you get to see what everyone does before it’s your turn to act.
To make sure you are in position you should be playing from as late a position as possible, the latest position at the poker table is to be on the button with the only exception here been the small and big blinds who will be last to act pre-flop.
If you’re a looser player who likes playing pretty looking hands from any position such as lower suited connectors, lower suited gappers and unsuited high cards that don’t contain an Ace consider dropping these types of hands from your early position ranges and start being a bit more aggressive with them when it folds to you when you’re in late position. From the button against the random hands the blinds can pick up these are good candidates to raise and try to steal the blinds and if you get called, by say the big blind defending, then these types of hands have good board coverage and tend to flop really well so you can pick up the pot with a standard half pot continuation bet most of the time depending on the opponent involved.
Play your hands the same way every time to help disguise your strength
The best way to disguise the strength of your hands at all times is to make sure you do the same things over and over again with each hand that you play. Some people when they open as the first one in will raise small when they have a small hand and they’ll raise big when they have a big hand and on the flip side some people will do the exact opposite.
What you should do is make sure that whatever action you carry out whether it be a raise as the first one in, a call or even a 3bet you should be raising in amounts that are exactly the same size versus their initial bet. The best way to do to this and to stick to a stable pattern that your opponents will find difficult to work out how strong you are and whether to continue playing against you is to decide on a set multiple of the bet you’re facing and make sure that each time you play against that bet you do the same thing every time.
A couple of examples here would be that if the blinds were 50/100 you would raise the blinds first one in to say 2.5x or 250 and if, at the same blind level, you were facing a 3x raise to 300 you may decide to 3bet to 4x of the 3bet to 1200. Depending on the blinds throughout the tournament you should stick to this same pattern to avoid detection.
This works well in the early stages of any tournament as your stack sizes are relatively pretty deep however when the blinds are high and the stacks are much shorter it’s OK to adjust your bet sizing to ensure you don’t over commit yourself or bleed chips pre-flop. However, no matter where you are in a tournament the overall concept of doing the same thing all the time still applies.
On top of keeping your bets to the same size, you should also be conscious of everything else you do, as Daniel Negreanu says “Everything you do at the poker table conveys information” so don’t be all “Loosey goosey eating a sandwich”. What this means is to make sure everything you do does not give anything away that could indicate to your opponents the strength of your hand. Whether it’s looking at your cards, reaching for chips or checking your option think about been almost robotic with any actions you make at the table.
When bluffing make sure your story makes sense
When you’re running a bluff the 2 most important things to consider are the action prior to you making your bluff and how that action connects to the texture of the board. Many players will just shove their entire chip stack in on the turn as soon as it’s their turn to act because they’ve missed and think to shove their entire chip stack in their opponent’s face will be enough to get them to fold.
When using both of these elements it’s important to make sure that whenever you run a bluff the story you’re trying to tell your opponent makes sense. So, from your pre-flop action right up until the point in the hand that you decide to bet to take down the pot you have to make sure that your bluff doesn’t look like a bluff.
Many players will just shove their entire chip stack in on the turn as soon as it’s their turn to act because they’ve missed and think shoving their entire chip stack in their opponents face as quickly as possible will be enough to get them to fold which in some instances this does work however sometimes you may be trying to represent what your opponent already has and they will snap call you off just as fast.
There are 2 main types of bluffs 1) the semi-bluff; these are bluffs that should be used more often as you’ll be bluffing with equity which means there will be cards left in the deck that you can hit if you are called and 2) the stone-cold bluff; these are bluffs when you have absolutely nothing and are trying to put pressure on your opponent in an attempt to get them to fold a slightly stronger hand. Stone-cold bluffs should be used sparingly and when you have no other way to win the hand.
The opposite is also true for when other players are trying to bluff you off of your hand. On every street of action, you should keep track of the action up until when they run their bluff and when faced with a tough decision take a few seconds out to go through and replay the action so far, connect this information with the board texture and decide whether you are been bluffed or not. The more you start doing this the more naturally it will come and you’ll find that intuition will start to also have an effect as you’ll be adding your gut feeling to your decision making.
Be aware of players around you
Whether you play face-to-face every week with the regulars that frequent your local casino or if you have an archive of notes and hand histories on players online it’s important to be aware of the players at your table. If you have absolutely no information at all about your opposition it’s important that you start paying attention to them as soon as they sit down or to start monitoring your poker tracking tools statistics based on their action percentages and hands shown down.
In a live environment before the tournament even begins, watch the people who sit down at your table closely and look to see what their mannerisms are before play commences. Doing this could give you an edge as you may pick up vital information about how they behave when they are relaxed and without any poker related information been presented to them to process. If you already know a bit about your opponents’ live mannerisms and their style of play you should adjust your strategy accordingly and look to connect the information with how they are behaving to how strong of a holding they may have.
When playing online you can look at the latest statistics from the start of play or go through your database of notes and action statistics if you’re using an online poker tracking tool and the functions within the poker software you’re currently playing with – information is definitely power when playing online.
Also, be aware that if you’re doing this to your opponent’s other players that already know about this are also doing this to you too so you may want to think about throwing them a few curve balls but don’t expect any Oscars.
Be aware of the stack sizes around your table
It’s important to be aware of everyone’s stack sizes at your table. When in the early and middle stages of a multi-table tournament you don’t need to be too concerned about the stacks of players on the other tables as there is absolutely nothing you can do about the action going on there, all you can do is affect the action on your own table. So just concentrate on the stacks of your opponents on your table and be aware of who you can steal chips from and who can send you home for an early shower or can send you back to the card room desk to buy back in again.
Effective Stack Size (EFS) is a term you may or may not have heard of. The effective stack is basically the player at your table who holds the least amount of chips. The effective stack in any situation will move around players as bets are made and pots are won however you should always be aware of who the effective stack is on your table and factor this into your overall strategy and the spots you decide to play.
As you get late in to a tournament and closer to the money bubble and when there are only a few tables left playing shorthanded knowing the effective stack sizes of the remaining players on all remaining tables becomes more important and something you should actively be aware of as there could be players on the other tables who have really short stacks. The pressure of the blinds forces the effective stack to have to get their stack in with a sub-premium hand causing them to be knocked out of the tournament before you fall into the same situation.
If you’re a short stack yourself it can be a profitable strategy to wait around for the other short stacks to get knocked out and then become aggressive once the money bubble bursts however you really should be playing to win the tournament and not aim to make a load of minimum cashes.
Aggressive poker is winning poker
In a tournament sitting around waiting for Aces watching the clock and looking at the pay-outs allowing your stack to diminish to the ever-growing blind structure is not a long-term winning strategy and is only going to make you exploitable against the other players at your table once they realise what you’re doing.
Even when you do finally look down at Aces and come in for your standard pre-flop raise your table image will be so tight that the other players will likely snap fold or they’ll call off your raise with a marginal holding to see if they can out flop and stack you. You should never allow this to happen and to make sure this doesn’t happen you should be in there getting your heart rate going, stealing blinds and taking pots that don’t belong to you.
Yes, you will get caught out from time-to-time and if you’re playing against good players, they will adjust their strategy to you. However, in general, your overall strategy for poker should be aggressive and you should look for as many opportunities where you can steal as many chips as you can whether they come from the blinds from late position or you steal the pot on the flop with a continuation bet when someone has called your pre-flop raise whether you hit the flop or not. Whatever you do don’t ever be a ‘Nit Bitch’!
And that’s it, for now anyway. There are many other concepts to learn to become better at poker however the rules and tips provided here will certainly give you plenty to think about and should induce you to take the initiative and start learning more about each of the points raised in this article and many other areas of the game. And if you found this information useful give it a share using the buttons below and pass it on to your friends.
