Just because you can turn a card and win a pot, doesn’t mean you’ve got what it takes to become a successful Poker Player. If you want to become an UNsuccessful poker player, please be my guest and let me know where you’re playing. You may think that you’re Mr Frosty the coolest cat on the block, because ou can write Occupation: Poker Player, on official forms but if you’re not making a living wage (or even minimum wage) then you might as well go work down the golden arches.  Why is it difficult? And what’s the big difference to playing cards socially? Read on.

First off don’t quit the day job until you are sure you have the basic technical skills to be a winner at the Poker Table. Second of all you need some serious start up money, you wouldn’t go into business expecting to turn a profit on week one and in poker you need money to make money, (no cash = no sit, no sit = no win, no win = no wages). If you think this, doesn’t matter, and you’ll be in the money soon enough, ask yourself if you would happily start a job and then be told you wouldn’t take home any money to for eth foreseeable future, but you’re expected to keep turning up and working away.  Thirdly you need fall back money, it keeps you going after a bad beat, it sees you through the times were you just lose and it should ensure no one takes away your car or your house (or breaks your thumbs).

Sounds easy?

If you’re going to make a go of it you MUST treat your money and your bankroll like the tools of your trade, (because that’s what they are) I’m talking bankroll management. By all means be aggressive with your bets, but don’t throw your cash away! A painter needs paint, a carpenter needs wood and a Poker Player needs cash (most tournaments supply their own tables and cards). It may be easy enough to get occasional big wins, but the same way that small pots are you’re bread and butter for a long session, likewise small daily (or five days a week) wins are what you need to focus on (first). Give it time as well, the top pros, know when to ride out the bad times, and cut the raises down accordingly, if you do that you should be able to play well enough during these stretches so you break-even, rather than lose money. Swinging from feast to famine, isn’t healthy in any job and certainly isn’t healthy in poker.

It’s not easy, but I wouldn’t want to do any other job.

Players tend to get tunnel vision the moment that their hands hit and pay little attention to anything else.  Now this was a notable pro player at one of the most prestigious poker tournaments in the world and he never thought for a second that he was second best. This is proof that it can happen to anyone.

This is something that will also happen with high pairs or when someone hits the high portion of the board with a card.  For instance, you are sitting on K9s and a K hits the board along with two babies.  You lead out and someone comes over top of you and you immediately push.  What makes you think that a 9 kicker is going to hold up?  Even if you are ahead at that moment, more than likely it is a bad play to commit your stack with that type of hand.

The same can be said for the small flush.  Even when the odds are slim that the other player also has a flush, it is pretty safe to assume that they are on a massive draw and if another card hits, you are dead and your chips gets shuffled across the table.  There is no worse feeling than seeing the aftermath and asking yourself, “What the hell was I thinking?”

There is a time and a place to make a stand and a baby flush is not it.  If you are going to make a play, you are much better off waiting until the river anyway.  At this point, you can get a better read on your opponent and pretty much know if they were going after the draw of if they had the same flush as you did, only stronger.

This also gives you the ability to still get out of the hand with relatively little damage to your stack.  If you are leading out, you can do so with smaller bets that won’t cripple you if you end up losing.  You can still make a move on the hand on the river with a healthy raise, but if they come over top of you, you can be pretty sure that they are not just bluffing.

The problem when you get aggressive early in a hand like this is that any draw will come right back at you.  You are then faced with the decision to give someone two more cards and hope that your baby flush holds up or worse, have the cards turned and realize that you are drawing dead.  There is always as time to make a stand, but choose a better hand.

I am not a big fan of the phrase, “that’s poker,” but it really is.  The nature of the beast is that bad beats are going to happen and you need to be able to deal with them if you are going to be a successful poker player.  What you need to do is keep your mouth shut and deal with the bad beat instead of giving a poker lesson at the table.

When someone makes a play like that, they more than likely think that they have done the right thing and you need to applaud them for their incredible play.  The reality of it is that you want this guy to make that play each and every time.  Sheer odds dictate that you are going to come out on top in this situation far more than you are going to lose.  He may have beaten you on this occasion, but in the end, you are going to be the one holding the chips on him.

If you give him the lecture, you are teaching your opponent how to play the game.  Why would you ever do that?  Not only that, but you are also giving the entire table information on how you play the game and exposing yourself to bluffs and getting outplayed in later hands.  This is one of the absolute no-no’s of poker.  Again, keep your mouth shut and take the beat.  If you open it up at all, it should be to tell him he made a great play.

Dealing with something like this is going to take some discipline.  You were expecting to win a huge hand and all of sudden someone else is taking down the pot.  Start thinking about the times that you sucked out and put a smile on your face.  File the information away for later and eventually, that money will be back in your stack.

When the hand presents itself again and he does not hit, tell him how scared you were to play against him.  Tell him how lucky he has been and you figured he would hit again.  All of this will re-enforce his playing style and get him to continue to feed the pots and help you get that stack back in the positive.  Dealing with a suckout is part of the game and you better learn how to do it if you are going to get the most out of bad players.

One of the most common tells in poker is the amount of time that it takes people to react to making their play. This is especially true for beginner players. Taking too long and acting quickly are the most common tells, but it is easy to get confused if you are not careful.

Check raising is something that you will see quite often, especially if you are in isolation against a player. In order to make the right call when it comes time to make your play, you really need to watch at how the player reacted to each bet that was made.

Assume you are on the button and it has folded around to you. You place a 4x the blind raise and the sb folds, but the bb stays in the pot with you. First take notice if he does a snap call or takes some time to think about it. If he is taking his time, he could be on suited connectors or small pocket pair. Any big hand here would have him throwing his chips in quickly. If he is taking his time, he is more than likely trying to decide if the investment is worth it.

A flop comes and the board hits you with a pair, but also has two suited cards. Now you are sitting on trips and have a huge opportunity to make some money depending upon what your opponent is holding. More than likely, he will check the action over to you, but once again, see how long it takes for this to happen. He checks and then you fire again. His check happened immediately and how he is taking his time to decide what to do. After taking the max time, he comers right back over the top of you.

This gives you a ton of information when you put everything together. His quick check followed by the long decision tells you that he has probably not hit the board, but has the possibility of a huge hand. He may have an over pair to the board or may be sitting on a flush draw. You are now going to be faced with the decision of calling him down or putting him in for all of his chips.

The best play for you in this case is to get them in and make him decide. The thinking here is that he has suited connectors and is pushing on a flush draw. This is a common move and gives the player a lot of outs. In many cases, their opponent will fold the hand to the check raise, but by coming over the top, you now have him on decision to risk his stack or tournament life on a draw. In a cash game, you will probably get called because they can rebuy. In a tournament, you can count on taking this pot down right here with an experienced player. While the odds are in their favor, most players will not risk calling off their stack to a draw.

There are a lot more tells to look for when playing online poker. Remember, just because you are not in the same room with the person does not mean that they are not giving off information.