Everybody seems to complain about how bad their online poker experience is these days. You’ve complain about the poker site not paying you, the tournament generator not giving you a realistic enough structure, the “rake” you always seem to have to pay and the constant bad beats. While I don’t want to sound like the hucksters that they are, are we really judging our games by assuming the worst?
tournament generators and online poker sites seem to be working hand in hand, seemingly undeservedly so. While a lot of the blame lies with them, a lot of it lays with the players themselves. We’ve all suffered through the bad beats, the suck outbors, and the outrageous bad beats. pokerjazz77 At the same time, some of those suck out neighbors and bad beat Tennesseans are our own kind of suck outs. I’m sure that many of the players who are hurting are regulars at the aforementioned sites. We know them, and we know how they play. Heck, we know each other’s first their first prize win, and whether they think they deserve it or not. So what’s the idea, then? How about instead of just blindly playing your hand, how about instead of letting the circumstances of the game itself, determine your fate.
At the poker table, if you’re tired, you should wait for a better spot. If you’re sixty percent of the way through a Sit and Go tournament, and you’re running short of time, you should just get the hell out of dodge. Most of the really bad players are inclined to be tired, or annoyed by the noises, or whatever it is they do in the course of a single hand. Some of them may be taking a bathroom break, others watching television, and others are just getting ready to board the plane. Some of these people may be extremely hung over from drinking too much, others may be on their period, however if the majority of players are getting tired, the tournament is going to suffer.
There are ways to prevent yourself from suffering the massive beats that are common in tired players. If you’re tired, you should ask yourself: Am I really as good as I think I am? If you play tired, you’re seriously flawed as a poker player. When you’reicing the tough decisions, make sure you’re as sharp as a razor, or as a coin. We’ve all suffered a bad beat, it happens to the best of us- sometimes a river, or a bluff, or just plain and simple a bad beat. It can affect everyone in poker, even those who are not themselves when tired.
Some players adjust better than others. If you’re used to winning every single heads up hand in the world, in an effort to prove the critics wrong, you’re going to have to adapt your style a little. Some of the best players in the world know when they’re playing well and when they’re not playing so well. If you’re not rotating through games, or you’re withdrawing from a lot of them, you’re not going to test the waters as hard as you would normally do. You’ll be a little more tight, a little more loose. You’ll have a little bit more of an edge, or not have to make many decisions. Either way, it’s important not to abuse the tiredness excuse, you know if you’re really that good, you’d win them all… At least this time, and next time, and every time after that.
But if you’re not that good, and you think you’re better than that or next level or bottom third, then go out and find what your secret is. The players who are constantly finding ways to beat the game are the ones who are making money and winning Sit N Gos. Find your weakness, and expand on it. (wards and threes, no less than that) You never know, you might end up making half a million on a single hand, and be sitting at the final table paying tomorrow’s rent because you got beat the last time out.
The really good players already know what their weak points are, or at least have a very clear idea of what they are not very good at. Once you admit that you may not be at your best, at least you can adjust quite easily to different types of opponents. Learn to flip your mentality from “I’m a solid player, I do this” to “I’m a terrible player, I don’t do that, but there’s lots of money in this pot”. Learn to tell the difference between your normal “I fold if I have a bad hand” play to “I fold, if you have a better hand than me, I better not bet anymore”.