Mathematics
A good player knows the probabilities of the game. For example, they know that you have about 1 in 8.5 chance of hitting a set when holding a pocket pair, and that you have about a 1 in 3 chance of completing a flopped flush draw by the river. I will make a thread with some of the most common probabilities ASAP
Good players understand the importance of outs. Outs are simply the number of cards that will improve your hand. Count your outs, multiply them by two, and add one, and that's roughly the percentage chance you have of hitting those cards.
Good players can figure out the pot odds. I have written an article about pot odds in another thread.
This is the most basic skill at poker, without obeying the mathematics of the game, you will never be a good player.
Discipline
A disciplined player knows when to play and when to quit. They can see when they are chasing losses and can stop. This is very important, I personally have done damage to my bankroll by chasing losses in the past. Usually when you are chasing losses you will probably be on tilt to some degree, so it's not good idea to keep playing.
A disciplined player knows that he is not perfect. When a disciplined player makes a mistake, he learns. He does not blame others. He does not cry. He learns from the mistake and moves on.
One example of being disciplined is when selecting your starting hands. It can get boring when you are folding junk starting hands, and frustrating when you see a flop that would have been good for your folded cards, but learning to deal with this will definitley improve your game.
Psychology
There are 3 questions that you need to try and have answers for
1. What does my opponent have?
2. What does my opponent think I have?
3. What does my opponent think I think he has?
Knowing the answer to these questions is the first step, manipulating the answers is the second and more important step. Suppose that you have a pair of kings and your opponent has a pair of aces. If you both know what the other has, and you both know that you know what the other has, then why play a game of poker? A poker pro manipulates the answers to questions #2 and #3 by slowplaying, fastplaying, and bluffing in order to throw his opponent off.
Also there are certain players you need to be watchful for and wary of. The best way to suss out what kind of a player you are facing is by watching how they bet, and when you have the chance, see what cards they have played with. There are loads of different types of player but two key tags are loose and aggressive. Caution is advised against both but for different reasons.
Loose players: These are the people who are constantly raising preflop, and making big bets after the flop, even when they haven't hit anything. If you see a person who is betting like this hand after hand, you can be assured they are loose, because unless you are witnessing a miracle they cannot be getting the cards and hitting flops that often. I often see loose players having a huge stack early on in games, but time after time they fritter that stack away with stupid betting. If you are positioned to act before a player like this beware that they could be rasing pre-flop so unless you have cards to call this don't even put in your blind. Also though these are the players to catch by slow playing when you have the nuts or you know you are on top.
Tight players: These players are constantly folding hands pre-flop and rarely raising. You don't really need to worry about these guys pre-flop but when they are betting take heed, becasue usually they are packing.
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A good player knows the probabilities of the game. For example, they know that you have about 1 in 8.5 chance of hitting a set when holding a pocket pair, and that you have about a 1 in 3 chance of completing a flopped flush draw by the river. I will make a thread with some of the most common probabilities ASAP
Good players understand the importance of outs. Outs are simply the number of cards that will improve your hand. Count your outs, multiply them by two, and add one, and that's roughly the percentage chance you have of hitting those cards.
Good players can figure out the pot odds. I have written an article about pot odds in another thread.
This is the most basic skill at poker, without obeying the mathematics of the game, you will never be a good player.
Discipline
A disciplined player knows when to play and when to quit. They can see when they are chasing losses and can stop. This is very important, I personally have done damage to my bankroll by chasing losses in the past. Usually when you are chasing losses you will probably be on tilt to some degree, so it's not good idea to keep playing.
A disciplined player knows that he is not perfect. When a disciplined player makes a mistake, he learns. He does not blame others. He does not cry. He learns from the mistake and moves on.
One example of being disciplined is when selecting your starting hands. It can get boring when you are folding junk starting hands, and frustrating when you see a flop that would have been good for your folded cards, but learning to deal with this will definitley improve your game.
Psychology
There are 3 questions that you need to try and have answers for
1. What does my opponent have?
2. What does my opponent think I have?
3. What does my opponent think I think he has?
Knowing the answer to these questions is the first step, manipulating the answers is the second and more important step. Suppose that you have a pair of kings and your opponent has a pair of aces. If you both know what the other has, and you both know that you know what the other has, then why play a game of poker? A poker pro manipulates the answers to questions #2 and #3 by slowplaying, fastplaying, and bluffing in order to throw his opponent off.
Also there are certain players you need to be watchful for and wary of. The best way to suss out what kind of a player you are facing is by watching how they bet, and when you have the chance, see what cards they have played with. There are loads of different types of player but two key tags are loose and aggressive. Caution is advised against both but for different reasons.
Loose players: These are the people who are constantly raising preflop, and making big bets after the flop, even when they haven't hit anything. If you see a person who is betting like this hand after hand, you can be assured they are loose, because unless you are witnessing a miracle they cannot be getting the cards and hitting flops that often. I often see loose players having a huge stack early on in games, but time after time they fritter that stack away with stupid betting. If you are positioned to act before a player like this beware that they could be rasing pre-flop so unless you have cards to call this don't even put in your blind. Also though these are the players to catch by slow playing when you have the nuts or you know you are on top.
Tight players: These players are constantly folding hands pre-flop and rarely raising. You don't really need to worry about these guys pre-flop but when they are betting take heed, becasue usually they are packing.
Sign up to Betfair Poker through the link below.
You will receive up to a $150 bonus upon your first deposit.
Terms & Conditions