3 Things You Must Do If You Want To Start Playing Real Life Poker For Real Money
Card players, no matter how old school they are, once understood that luck would be an Constaint. You’d better not mention that word because it will bring about your downfall, you say! Well, not entirely anyway, although experience does prove that luck will always be a factor. If you get unlucky and lose, you’ll have a tendency to play scared and that will affect your game play.
Even so, skill will always prevail. There is a reason that the top poker professionals are so good and you can be if you work hard. How else do you think Doyle Brunson has been able to beat all of the best players? Skill, and a little bit of luck- in our case at least.
So, if you want to win at poker, there are some things you can do to improve your QQdewa.
First, quit thinking that the only thing you need to do is play tight aggressive. You do not need to play only premium hands; you need to play a wide range of hands.
Second, start watching how your opponents play. When there is a telltale signs that your opponent is weak, you can see it and take his chips. Why is this so? Because he will fold often times to your raises. When he calls you, you can determine that his range of hands is strong.
Third, you need to get in the habit of showing your cards when you make a raise. If you are known to be a player who shows his cards, when you make a raise, some players values their aver face cards and fold. You can get this done sometimes by bluffing, but you need to get a feel of what the table is like before you try to figure out what the table wants. You can only get this so you’ll know what to do when you get a call.
Fourth, and this is the most important, you have to get involved in pots. Eventually you are going to have to win a pot, and this is no problem. However, I do suggest that you use your skill as opposed to going all in when you have a premium hand. Making a big raise from out of position against your favorite hand when the table checks around can be disastrous. You want to find a situation where you are a favorite to win the pot, not to lose it.
Fifth, with only 18 or 19 people in the game, it is imperative that you step in and influence the action. Since you are in the cut-off, or on the button, you have the advantage of being the last to act. However, the button players will know what you did, and they may assume you are playing weaker hands. Then you play your small connectors and come out ahead. When you make a pre-flop raise, most players assume you have a high pocket pair.
Are you following all of this? Well, then you missed most of the above points.
What I did know when I started playing online tournaments was that I needed to have a strategy. I did not know what that strategy was, but it is the only way to be successful making a living playing online poker tournaments. Over time I learned what worked and what did not, and I incorporated most of it into my tournament poker strategy.
Now, a lot of what I just said I did not know when I started, and I have no idea how I could have made the E-Gold bracelet in 2003 without a strategy. In fact, if I could go back in time and tell my younger self what to do, I probably would have told them to steal the winnings at the poker tournament, not to wait for a strategy.
Today, I am well beyond the stage that I was just talking about. I make money because of a strategy and a lot of it is from online poker. You can make money in poker tournaments by implementing very sound strategy; it is not that easy, but it is very possible. You will have strategies, you will have Book Advisors, and you will have people who will do all the tasks for you, but you have to implement them with discipline and consistency to make it work for you.