Playing Cards vs Playing Poker

I read a dozen or so poker books over the years, good and bad.  Many are packed full of all the poker knowledge you need to be a winning player and I would suggest reading a few to get a good poker foundation.  Ed Miller is my favorite, along with David Sklansky, and two plus two.  I read and studied all about pot odds, outs, discounted outs and implied odds.  I memorized the rough percentages of draws, bet sizing, and how to control the pot size.   Armed with this knowledge, I rushed out to play; sure I would rake in the chips. 

All this knowledge did help and I had many winning sessions but overall, I still lost.  I may have won more often then I lost, but the losses would wipe out multiple winning sessions.  I know tilt and bad play helped, but it wasn’t the full picture.  I was only paying attention to my hand.  I wasn’t oblivious to my opponent, just over fixated on my odds, outs, and percentages.  It is commonly referred to as “Falling in Love with Your Hand”.  I was “Playing Cards” instead of “Poker”.  Poker changes with every turn of the card or even player action and I was only paying attention to what I was doing.

 

Maybe I got bored after half the book, or was so excited to put into action all the wonderful things I learned, but I stopped reading, or at least, stopped paying attention half way through.  After all, I learned how to play “my hand”.  In my defense, the sections covering how to put it all together, special situations, and reading your opponents’ hands were smaller.  It took me a long time and a lot of money to realize, just because the sections were smaller, doesn’t mean they are less important.  So if you are like me, thick headed and short sighted, go back and re-read the second half of your books.  This time pay attention and absorb the information.

Opponent raising ranges, hand reading, and player reads are were you start playing Poker.  It is like playing two hands at once.  If you put yourself in your opponents place and ask yourself which cards would you have to have in order to do what he just did, you can start to narrow down his likely holding.  Once you have an idea what your opponent has, playing your hand is easier.  Adding the second level of thinking is when you truly start to play “Poker”.  I say “start” because there are always levels to add when you are thinking.

So you knew all that and I just wasted your time and mine repeating it.  We also know that going to the gym and eating healthy is good for you, but here I am, out of shape and fat.  I repeat it until it sinks into my thick head.  Then when I get bored at the table, lax in my thinking, and start to lose, I repeat it again.  Its training, even top professionals in all jobs train or go to seminars to remind themselves that the basics still apply and you need to pay attention to them.  So re-read your books, poker blogs, and watch the new Vlogs that review hands and concepts.  There is so much quality poker material out there, don’t dismiss it just because you already “know it”.  Train! Train! Train!