I just got done reading Nathan BlackRain79 Williams’ new eBook, “Crushing the Microstakes” and thought I would do a quick post to let people know about it.

Coming in at a whopping 251 pages, Crushing the Microstakes is a fairly impressive eBook. Williams, who claims to be the winningest player at the microstakes, walks beginning players through playing NLHE at the $2 and $5 buy-in levels.

While you probably won’t get rich playing at these stakes, Crushing the Microstakes is perfect for players just getting started. Most books out there teach you how to play against low or mid stakes players which is not exactly the kind of action you see at these micro stakes. In fact, Williams admits that some of his advice at $2 NL might sound crazy to people who player higher stakes but insists that the strategy works against your typical $2 NL players.

Another thing that makes Crushing the Microstakes unique in the poker eBook market is that Williams also walks you through many of the tools you can use like Hold’em Manager (HEM), PokerStove, automation scripts, etc. Basically everything you need to know to multi-table the micro stakes and crush them.

One of the things I particularly liked about Williams’ style is that he recognizes just how bad your opponents are likely to be at these levels. Most poker books assume you have better opponents so they don’t address the fact that pre-flop raises just aren’t going to drive out some players. Williams, on the other hand, counts on it. He suggests that when you pick up hands like AA and KK you can slip in 10BB raises because once a fish has decided he’s going to play a hand, anything less than an all-in shove is not going to dissuade him from calling your raise.

That’s one of the real strengths of this book. Williams understands these micro-stakes players. He gets how they think about hands and Crushing the Microstakes is all about exploiting their fishy tendencies.

Of course, some of those same moves will get you slaughtered at $100NL but this book isn’t about $100NL and Williams readily admits that. His book is designed to take you from knowing very little about online poker to being able to crush the smallest games.

Another example of the difference between micro and higher stakes that is worth talking about is bluffing. The percentage of players who will call you down on the river with ace high or an under-pair to the board is much, much higher in the micros than it is at even low-stakes. The value of bluffing goes way down if you’re up against a guy who has called down 99 out of the last 100 river bets.

This is one of the reasons I like this book. How many times have you heard someone complain that they want to move up in limits where people respect their raises? Well, if you can’t beat the total fish you don’t understand the game well enough to beat people who do respect raises.

Poker is a game of adjusting to your opponent. If you’re playing against a guy who has never met two cards that he wouldn’t see a flop with or will call a big river bet just to see whether you’re bluffing, and you don’t adjust your game to exploit that, you really aren’t a very good poker player to begin with.

You can bluff into this guy all night long and complain about how everyone on 2+2 agrees with your line or pull out PokerStove and empirically demonstrate that you made the mathematically correct move, but you’re still going to end up losing pots to this guy. Not because he’s a better player than you, but because you’re employing an ineffective strategy against that type of opponent.

I give Crushing the Microstakes a big thumbs-up for players who are just starting out and even for players who haven’t yet figure out that there isn’t a single perfect strategy in poker. There are a lot of little snippets here and there that I’ve learned (usually the hard way) over the years of playing but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone actually put down on paper before.

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4. Reviewing Tri “Slowhabit” Nguyen’s “How I Made My First Million from Poker”

I just got done reading a pre-release copy of Tri “Slowhabit” Nguyen’s “How I Made My First Million from Poker.”  It’s definitely not your typical poker book and if you’ve read some of Nguyen’s previous books on poker strategy this is an entirely new look at the game.

In many ways it will remind you more of Barry Greenstein’s “Ace on the River” than it will “The Mathematics of Poker” by Bill Chen.  In fact, Barry wrote the foreword for the Nguyen’s book.

Like “Ace on the River,” “How I Made My First Million from Poker” is less about what starting hands to play and more about avoiding the pitfalls of the poker lifestyle as a professional online poker player.  Where Barry focused on the casino life Nguyen concentrates more on the new, younger breed of players who fire up 20 tables and grind out rakeback.

I’m unsure if the release of Nguyen’s book is fortunate or unfortunate with all that has been going on in the poker world recently but perhaps if we get a regulated US market soon his book will find its place with up and coming online poker grinders.

Nguyen’s nuggets of wisdom are invaluable and are obviously from someone who has been there.  He talks about everything from how to keep yourself motivated to how to know when it’s time to walk away from poker entirely.

The parts I found most valuable though were sprinkled throughout the book on a topic he hits on repeatedly which is improving your game.  He emphasizes over and over again that the game is constantly evolving and that a tricky line that works today is going to become a standard move tomorrow and if you want to stay ahead you have to keep working on exploiting weaknesses in your opponents.

It’s obvious that Nguyen comes from the new breed of poker players.  These young, aggressive players that seem to give yesterday’s poker heroes so much trouble.  A lot of his advice is geared toward this type of player.  For example whereas Sklansky and some of the old-guard poker players talk about having X number of buy-ins or big bets in their bankroll Nguyen fully encourages you to take shots, risk your bankroll (intelligently), and play fearless.

For instance, in the chapter on Bankroll Management he says:

Another reason why you should try to move up as soon as possible is as you grow older, your willingness to gamble and take risk decreases tremendously. You have worked hard to get to where you are, making the risk of losing it all disheartening and even at times scary. You won’t want to deal with an enormous amount of stress anymore.

When you’re young, you don’t know any better, and that’s a good thing. You have a lot of hope and aspiration to be the best. You have that gamble in your blood. You want to play because you truly love the game. It’s exciting. The high when you win is comparable to the low when you lose. During this phase in your poker career, you should be as aggressive as you can with your bankroll. You have time and age on your side. If things go wrong, you can always rebuild.

That’s not the kind of advice you read very often.

If I could offer Tri some advice it would be to be a little more sensitive to those of us who are youth-challenged.  There’s nothing like reading a 25 year old write about being old and the challenges he faces with younger poker players coming up behind him to make you really feel your age.

This is one of those books where if you just take away one useful lesson you’re sure to pay for the book many times over.  And believe me, there are enough nuggets of gold strewn about that it’s almost impossible not to find something that you can take away from reading the book.

But make no mistake; this is not a book where Nguyen tells you which hands to play or when to raise.  You won’t be able to read this book and walk away a better player.  You need to follow up and actually follow his advice and do the assignments that he offers.  Being a better player is hard work.  There are no quick fixes.  As Nguyen puts it:

When you watch high-level pros at the poker tables, it might seem that all you see are monster bluffs and huge pots. But you don’t see the behind-the-scene preparation. That is, you don’t see the endless instant message conversations, the forum postings, the Poker Stove analyses, the personal coaching sessions, the downswings, the depressions, the anxiety attacks, the broken keyboards, the smashed screens, or the flying mice. All you see is the performance when you are the table.

This is really the essence of the book.  Nguyen gives you ideas and tools but then you need to go out there and act upon them.  When he tells you to write down a description of the type of opponent you have problems playing against and to figure out how to eliminate your weaknesses and to find the weaknesses in your opponent, you actually have to do it.  Just reading what he wrote won’t make you a better player but if you actually do the work there’s no doubt you’ll learn something new and hopefully improve your game.

I did have some constructive criticism though.  First off is that the breadth of topics covered leaves one wanting more depth.  I got to the end of several chapters and wanted more.  Some topics should have been books unto themselves.

Also, while Nguyen is wise beyond his years, he’s still rather young.  What I mean by that is that what is wise beyond one’s years when you’re in your mid-twenties might not seem wise at all for someone considerably older.

For instance, when talking about keeping in a positive mind set Nguyen talks about eliminating things from your life that bring you negative feelings.

Write down a list of people and/or things that annoy you. Proceed to avoid these people and things like the plague. Your life and poker game will be better than yesterday.

There’s nothing wrong with the advice but the better answer would be to figure out why those things or people annoy you in the first place and work on not being annoyed by them.  For example, if your skin is exceptionally sensitive to the sun, one option might be to avoid the sun but the better answer would be to see a dermatologist who might be able to prescribe you some medication that either treats or cures your condition.

Likewise, Nguyen labels a chapter Mindfulness, but the chapter really isn’t about mindfulness in the sense that Buddhists, meditators, or psychologists define mindfulness.  For instance, he says:

This is what being mindful is about. You make a conscious effort to go over your choices and how they will affect you.

But that’s not the definition of mindfulness I know.  According to Psychology Today, mindfulness is:

Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When you’re mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience.

These are really rather minor issues though.  Avoiding things and people that annoy you is a perfectly reasonable way to avoid negative emotions.  The more common use of the word mindfulness might not fit with Nguyen’s definition but the advice he does give is solid.

Besides, I felt I had to find something to correct just to show Nguyen that some of us old farts often pick up other kinds of wisdom along with our grey hairs.  J

Overall it’s a solid and much needed book in the poker community.  It’s not a book about whether to raise or fold or what starting hands to play.  And that’s a good thing because what makes you money today can change tomorrow.  If you’re just following a set of instructions on autopilot you won’t be able to grow as a player.  When change happens you’ll have to wait for someone to write a new set of instructions for you to follow.

Nguyen’s book attempts to give you the tools so you don’t need someone else to give you the answers (though he does recommend coaching and surrounding yourself with other poker players as a tool to help you work through your game).  It’s about finding a balanced lifestyle that allows you to become the best player you can be.

And what more could you want?

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5. Get Ed Miller’s “How to Read Hands at No Limit Hold’Em” From Bill’s Poker Blog

I’m such a big fan of Ed Miller’s new book, “How to Read Hands at No Limit Hold’Em” I want to give you a copy for free (a $49.99 value).

Here’s the deal:

1. Go read my review of Miller’s new book.

2. If you aren’t already following me on Twitter (shame on you) go ahead and Follow me on Twitter

3. Tweet the following message:

Just entered to win How to Read Hands at No Limit Hold’Em. Just follow @billrini and retweet. http://s.rini.org/ic8df

4. On Nov 21st I will randomly choose a winner from all people who have tweeted/re-tweeted the above message and are still following me on Twitter (you will be notified via DM so you need to be following me for me to be able to contact you).

That’s it. Nice and simple.

When I notify you I will ask you for your email address so I can send you the book (only available in electronic format).

Obligatory Rules:

1. You must be following me on Nov 21 for the reasons outlined in #4 above.

2. You must Tweet the message exactly as it appears above. I am experimenting with some code I’ve written that uses the Twitter API and this is testing that code. I will also check the results manually via Twitter Search but if you alter the message even slightly I may not be able to record your tweet using either of those methods.

3. You have 48 hours to respond after I contact you via Twitter DM. If you have not responded by DM within 48 hours I’ll be on a flight to Thailand and when I land I will award the prize to the next randomly selected person.

UPDATE:  The contest is complete and the book has been awarded to the winner, @petenumber2.  

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I had the great pleasure of reviewing a pre-release version of Ed Miller’s new book, How to Read Hands at No Limit Hold’Em. I call it a great pleasure because I’ve been a big fan of Ed’s writings over the years. I religiously read his 2+2 postings and was one of the first in line to purchase his first book, Small Stakes Hold’Em, that he co-wrote David Sklanksy and Mason Malmuth. That was the first poker book that I really connected with.

Miller’s How to Read Hands is one of the missing pieces in poker literature. There really isn’t a good book on reading hands. About the closest you can come is Caro’s writings on tells and-or books that gloss over hand reading (or fail to discuss the topic at all) but are mainly focused on playing your own hand.

Miller’s book takes a different approach. You actually learn how to read hands. Ed walks you through assessing your opponents, pre-flop action, flop action, turn action, and river actions to help you narrow down what your opponent can be holding. You start with a range of hands that different players might play in various situations and narrowing down that range as more cards are exposed and betting actions give you more and more valuable information.

As with many of Ed’s writings, the focus in How to Read Hands is on besting low-limit opponents. Phil Ivey is still going to be a tough read but you’ll have a good handle on how to deconstruct and analyse a hand against your typical $100 NL opponents by the time you’re done with the book.

My only real criticism of the book is that the guys Ed sees at his low limit games and the ones I often encounter aren’t really the same. His examples of nit, regulars, and fish hand ranges may not be a great fit for the types of players you encounter in your local game.

But it’s a minor criticism since the book does push you towards developing your own ranges for player types based on your own experiences. What Ed sees in a Las Vegas card room might not match the types of players you encounter at a LA card room. You need to adjust your ranges based on your observations.

Overall it’s a solid book on a topic that isn’t covered in any great detail elsewhere. In fact, I share Miller’s frustration when he talks about people putting their opponents on a hand but being unable to explain why.

I think our natural tendency as players is to either put our opponent on the scariest hand they could have or to wishfully think that they’re holding a weak hand. We tend to look for the obvious and on a board of:

7s 8d 9h

We immediately jump to the conclusion that either your opponent is holding TJ, 56, 6T. or some random hand that we have beat. We tend to polarize the range. Either it’s a monster or complete air.

But we need to ask whether or not the action fits. How likely is it that your opponent raised from UTG with 6T? If you know that this guy’s pre-flop raising range is AA-TT or AK – AJ then certain hands like 56 make no sense.

It sounds basic but it’s amazing how many people cannot articulate how they arrive at a hand that they’ve put their opponent on. How many times have you heard someone claim that “they just knew it”?

Ed walks you through that process. Instead of “just knowing” you can use a methodical approach to developing a hand range for your opponents and then slowly eliminating hands as your progress on each street.

Having a pretty good idea where your opponent is in a hand is a huge advantage. I know that sounds rather obvious but how many times do you call that river bet with middle pair when your opponent’s actions have been screaming overpair? How many times do you check it down on the river because you’re not confident enough in your read to put in a value bet? How much has that cost you?

Other than playing too many hands, not being able to accurately put your opponent on a range of hands is, IMHO, the biggest difference between mediocre players and good players.

I really can’t recommend How to Read Hands enough. It’s a true original in a sea of poker books that do nothing but rehash the same old strategy concepts. I can truly say that this is one of the first books I’ve read in years that I’ve felt is a must-have book for aspiring poker players. Don’t buy this book at your own peril.

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Poker players shoot themselves in the foot by focusing on the wrong things. Recently, I was on a poker radio show and did a LIVE poker coaching session for a poker player I did not know.

My only requirements when the radio host picks a volunteer are that the poker player wants coaching and is willing to talk about the problem on air. This is how the coaching went.

American poker player JD has been playing poker for about four years and plays most days online. Four months after Poker’s Black Friday and the shut down of the three largest poker sites in the U.S., JD continues playing daily on smaller sites.

JD has a home based business, gets up about an hour before the rest of the family, and plays a $3.30 to $22.00 NL Hold’em Sit-n-Go. Most often in the lower buy-in range. JD keeps good records and cashes more than 50% of the time.

After focusing on JD’s strengths, which were a nice balance of patience and selective aggression, we turned to challenges.

DB: “What are your challenges at the poker table?”

JD: “I just cannot win with pocket kings.”

DB: “How do you know?”

JD: “I can show you three and a half years of screen shots of when I lost with pocket kings!”

DB: “How many screen shots do you have of you wining with pocket kings?”

There was a dead silence on the other end of the line followed by flat response.

JD: “I don’t have any.”

DB: “Do you believe you have ever won with pocket kings?”

JD: “Yes.”

Our brain records everything that happens to us, however, we have selective playback. Our mind plays tricks on us because it tends to recall emotionally charged memories, particularly negative ones easier than neutral or even joyful ones.

JD was doing what most poker players do… focusing on what did not work rather than what was working. We do it in our lives as well as at the poker table.

When I became a poker journalist in 1998, one of my primary motivations was to have access to the winning poker minds. I wanted to get inside their heads. What mindset separated consistent winners from the losers?

The top three characteristics of a winning poker mindset:

• Ability to focus on wins rather than losses
• Willingness to get away from a losing hand sooner than later
• Learn the lessons inside a loss then letting it go

As human beings, we tend to disregard our wins because the emotions associated with our wins have less energy than the tilt we generate from losses. Our wins become throwaways.

The fact is that we have an astonishing ability to control our minds and our mindset at the poker table. The key is that we must pay attention to our thoughts and the emotions that accompany those thoughts.

Losses keep us up at night… if we let them.

Until next time, remember my motto:

“If you can’t raise, don’t call.”

Donna Blevins
Poker Mindset Coach &
Dean of Poker Mindset Academy

© 2011 Donna Blevins

Editor’s Note: Donna Blevins is a professional poker player and Poker Mindset Coach, who helps people get out of their own way and stop sabotaging their lives. For a sneak peak of Donna’s upcoming book Poker Mirrors Life, go to Poker Mindset Coach

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Barry Carter was kind enough to send me over a copy of the book he and Jared Tendler wrote, The Mental Game of Poker. I’m not a huge fan of poker psychology books mostly because their best advice is, “don’t go on tilt.” Geez, thanks. One exception to that general dislike of poker psychology was Tommy Angelo’s Elements of Poker which I thoroughly enjoyed because it took a completely different approach. Tendler and Carter also take a fresh approach and give you actionable things you can do to improve your mental game but also measure your improvement.

The books starts off from the premise that most of us misunderstand tilt and our emotions. If you ask a player why he got so tilted he might rant about how this donkey drew a one-outer on him. But that’s not what caused the tilt and unfortunately this is where other poker psychology books stop. They say, “Hey, just realize that variance exists and block out the frustration.” That’s all fine and dandy but the real reason you go on tilt is because you expect to win against a weaker opponent. If you just push down your frustration without attempting to deal with the underlying cause of the tilt you’ll be able to stay away from tilt when you’re really, really trying hard but as soon as your guard is down it sneaks up on your game and overtakes you. You’re down a buy-in before you even realize that you need to chant happy thoughts.

The Mental Game of Poker (TMGP) basically gives you a roadmap to work on your mental game. They even recommend keeping mental hand histories so you can review your emotional states like you do how you actually played a hand. It’s a more practical and scientific approach than simply trying to deny your emotions. TMGP gives you the tools to understand your tilt rather than simply avoiding it. By understanding why you tilt you can work on the underlying cause rather than treating the symptom.

Getting to the heart of why you go on tilt is probably more important than learning to breath deep and tell yourself some positive affirmations. You might tilt because you feel you’re entitled to win over weaker opponents. Someone else might tilt because they’ve been cold decked for over a month. While the differences might seem subtle the way you address each can be very different because you’re dealing with completely different emotions.

TMGP also deals with issues like Fear and Motivation that are also integral to becoming a successful poker player. If you’re playing scared money or you choke in big pots it’s going to be hard to excel in poker. Likewise if you you can’t work up the motivation to bring yourself to the tables it’s going to be pretty damn hard to make money.

It’s funny because reading through the book I kept finding myself being able to personally connect with what was being described. Not just in the poker world but in other parts of life as well. For instance, the Adult Learning Model (ALM) section was exactly how I progressed in learning about scuba diving. And the biggest compliment I can give it is that not only did I see myself in many of the examples but I learned useful ways of approaching issues on the poker table and off that have made a positive impact on my life.

I’ll give TMGP a big thumbs up. I think it’s one of the few books that breaks new ground in the poker genre.

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We all know the player type. Gasping for air in some Phil Hellmuthesque deranged rant about what a fool you are to ever have played such a hand and what a fish you are, these player types can provide one of the best examples of how not to behave at the poker table out there – both in terms
of actual verbal behaviour, as well as in how not to play.

The first, and most obvious reason why this sort of behaviour is not only extremely annoying to those around those doing it – but also extremely bad for business in general – is the simple fact that weak players like to play weak hands. Berating someone for playing badly in a game where
you pray for people playing badly is about as stupid a move as is possible in life. It is akin to a bookmaker telling all it’s regular customers they are idiots and only inviting insider traders into their establishment – hardly a good move by any stretch of the imagination.

If you see what you think is a ‘bad’ play at the poker table, either keep your mouth shut and attack it at every available opportunity, or try and understand it in the terms of the game if the person in question seems to be a winning player. Lot’s of what goes in a poker game is extremely complex, and moves which appear very bad on the surface can actually be just a standard part of a winning player’s need to balance and mix up their game, or simply the required strategy in certain situations.

As an example, when I first started playing poker in a small live sit and go, the big winner in the game seemed to always have the worst hand in all ins but won the game all the time – simply because he understood correct shoving ranges and stack sizes late on. On the surface what he was
doing seemed very weak (shoving regularly with junk), but in reality, what he was doing was very strong (applying huge pressure late, winning many big pots uncontested, and often having the chips to survive a few more all ins than those around him which adds up very quickly in a turbo sit and
go).

Always be wary of anyone in poker saying something was definitively good or bad in terms of hand selection. Hand police themselves are usually relatively weak players, simply because they believe there is a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way to play poker in terms of the cards. The simple truth is that poker is a game of situations, ranges, and people – not exact hands – and any comment about moves with certain hands nearly always come from dull, predictable, tight players, who just don’t think about the game at a very high level.

If you set up high standards for the table you look very stupid if you suddenly get caught doing something unorthodox. No one likes to feel hypocritical ever in life, but to do so in an environment where it will be so quickly picked up on and observed by others nearly always leaves these players in a prison of their own creation. They can’t make the moves required to win at poker against good players, simply because they have set standards for those around them that they now have to live (and usually die) by.

If you are not getting caught regularly doing something with a weak hand in poker you are generally playing very badly unless at a table of complete fish, and in a game as relative as poker, there is very rarely a truly ‘correct’ thing to do. Hand police might make themselves out to be some kind of grand authority on the game, but in reality they are usually some of the weakest players out there, who not only make fish feel uncomfortable and want to leave, but also play meekly and badly due to the odd standards they set the world around them and have to then abide by – do not be intimidated or tempted to imitate them.

Read more Marcus Bateman articles over at the Betfair Poker Blogs

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Guest poster on Bill’s Poker Blog, Tommy Angelo, read my post Holidays Overseas and sent me a link to something he had recently written that he thought was relevant. In his blog post, In Gratitude of Gratefulness, Tommy discusses how the attitudes of gratitude and gratefulness can play a role not just in your poker game but your life as well.

I found his post especially interesting because he paraphrases famous Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn:

Imagine yourself with a terrible toothache. Now picture yourself moments after the toothache goes away. “Thank goodness the pain is gone! I am so grateful right now that my tooth does not ache!” But why should I only be grateful for painless teeth for such a brief moment? Isn’t it equally wonderful every moment that my teeth don’t ache? Right now, for example, I am ache-free. I can be grateful for that.

That really caught me because I had been mulling a blog post about Buddhism and poker. I had some ideas in my head but I’m neither a Buddhist nor can I really say that I fully understand Buddhism. However I do live in a Buddhist country (95% of the population), have a Buddhist girlfriend, and have read a few books on the subject, so let me take a shot at this.

The aspect I wanted to cover was the importance Buddhism places on knowing oneself. For instance, in one book I’ve read by Lama Surya Das he says:

We don’t perceive the truth of how things actually are directly, without distortion or illusion. Instead, we insist on seeing things as we would like them to be. We tell ourselves stories, and we live in our fantasies.

What does this have to do with poker? Think about it a moment. How many of us think that we’re better poker players than we actually are? Even if our bankrolls and results disagree we continue to see everything through a complicated set of filters that leaves us believing that it is bad luck, a rigged poker room, or some other external factor which is causing us to lose.

Some well-known poker players come to mind when I think of this behavior. Phil Hellmuth is probably the best example. He’s certainly a talented poker player. He’s demonstrated that with a long string of tournament wins. But, rumor has it, he gets crushed in cash games. On High Stakes Poker one gets the feeling that the rest of the players view him as a giant fish. We see his frustration with confronting the difference between what he actually is and how he sees himself manifest itself in his outbursts and childish behavior. With silly comments like “If it weren’t for luck I would win them all.”

Why?

Because Hellmuth doesn’t see himself as others see him. His distortion filters present him with the picture of someone who just can’t seem to catch a lucky break. Rather than objectively seeing the flaws in his cash game and fixing them he refuses to acknowledge that there is anything wrong so he continues to obtain the same results. He views himself as the best poker player in the world which makes it impossible for him to admit that he can learn from other players who use different strategies.

Lama Surya Das also says:

As every psychologist (and physicist) knows, we all have a tendency to resist change, particularly in those areas where we most need transformation. Freud was very articulate in pointing out that a resistance to changing for the better is one of the defining characteristics of neurosis. The fact is that we all tend to hang on to our negative habits and frozen behavior patterns. We keep retracing our steps; we keep walking the same circular patterns. We don’t climb out of our ruts, our comfort zones, however dissatisfying they really feel.

That sounds a lot like Phil Hellmuth, many other players I know, as well as myself at times.

Buddhism attempts to peel back a very complex onion of human behavior and get to the core person at the center. For instance, you’re driving in your car and someone cuts you off and you become irate. Why? Is it because you felt disrespected? Is it because this person carelessly endangered your safety? Is it because you are in a hurry for a big meeting?

For each person the answer is going to be different but it’s not the core issue. For instance, if it’s because you felt that the person who cut you off treated you in a disrespectful manner the next thing you need to figure out is why being respected by people who don’t know you is important to you. You just keep peeling back the layers until you get to the real reason that you react in that way.

Again, how does this relate to poker?

If you can’t understand yourself and what makes you act or react in a certain manner, how can you possibly understand your opponents? Once you get past some very basic mathematical concepts the thing that separates good and great players is their ability to outthink their opponents.

For instance, there’s a subtle difference between someone who responds to a possible bluff by calling and someone who folds. One is motivated by not looking a fool if he is right and the other if he is wrong. Knowing the difference and understanding their motivation can mean all the difference in the world at the poker tables. If you shove all-in against a guy who is afraid of looking like a fool if you have nothing, he’s going to call. If you make the very same exact move against someone who’s afraid of having been tricked into calling, he’s going to lay it down.

Here the very same exact action causes two completely different reactions. Knowing which reaction your actions are going to cause is a huge advantage at the poker table. Throwing water on a paper fire will put it out. Throwing water on a grease fire will probably result in you burning down the building. Same action. Different reactions.

To understand others you first have to understand yourself. While I’ve used Buddhism as a backdrop for this post this is far from a Buddhist concept. The goal wasn’t to preach Buddhism (and believe me, I’m pretty sure Buddhists would rather not have me preaching on their behalf, LOL). Rather the goal was to use it as a tool to help demonstrate that at the poker tables sometimes our toughest opponent isn’t sitting across from us. It is us. It’s our inability to truly see ourselves as we are. It is our inability to understand our own emotions so that we can better understand the emotions of our opponents. It’s that ever-elusive inner game that keeps us from our true poker potential.

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Just a quick one to let everyone know that Tommy Angelo’s book, Elements of Poker (my review), is now available as an eBook from Kobo, Amazon, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Borders, and Atlasbooks. Might make for a nice present this Christmas. :-)

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Dealing with a downswing

Managing a large downswing is one of the most difficult things you will have to cope with as a poker player. Ideally you would be able to completely ignore downswings and keep yourself focused on your long term expected win rate but the pressure and stress of running badly for a sustained period of time is very hard to overlook. This article will discuss some mechanisms to help you deal with a downswing and protect you from losing your entire bankroll.

Attitude

Over the course of your poker career there is absolutely nothing you can do to avoid a downswing. Poker is full of bad beats and suck outs. That is just the nature of the beast. What you do have control over, however, is your own attitude to downswings.

You should always be prepared for a downswing before it happens. This means that when you are running well, don’t think that the good times will last indefinitely. Instead work out what a good win rate for your stakes and game is and whenever you are exceeding this rate always put this down to the luck of the cards and not your skill. Understand and accept the realities of poker before you play – you should expect and be prepared for back to back winning sessions and back to back losing sessions.

Bankroll Management

Before you even get into a downswing, indeed before you even sit down at a poker table you should work out an appropriate bankroll for yourself. Most experts recommended at least 40 buy ins for cash games and…, although professional players will have …. If your running good, then your bankroll will appear conservative but you must stick to your limits at all times.

If you cheat on your bankroll now then you will cheat on your bankroll when you are running bad and we all know that moving up limits to quickly win back losses is a destructive response to a downswing. This will result in the loss of all your poker cash. Not only are you playing over your bankroll but you are also doing it at a precious time – your confidence is low and you might be on tilt.

If your downswing is large enough, then you will need to move down limits. This is something that most poker players find very hard to do as it might appear harder to win back your losses. Good poker is not only about how you play your cards and the very best have a great mental attitude to the game and no problem moving down when they need to.

Don’t Panic

All that is happening during a downswing is you experiencing below average results due to variance but when you panic your emotional brain kicks in and you start to make decisions not on logic but based on your emotions. If your feeling emotional then stop playing and go clear your head. Come back to the tables in a few days, hours or weeks. Take however long you need to rationalise what’s going on and realise that a downswing is completely insignificant to your long term winnings.

Change your site and drop down in stakes

Some professional players, nothing to do with bankroll management, find it therapeutic to change sites, clear a new poker bonus and play way below their bankroll until their confidence improves from being back to winning ways. Try this out next time you are going through a rough patch.

Improve Your Game

Finally, running bad is a great time for you to improve your poker skills. If you eliminate what’s wrong with your game then your win rate will increase and this will get you out of your downswing quicker. Further, you will also get a confidence boost as next time you play you know that your game is better than it was before.

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