I have written over 500 articles about this wonderful game of poker. I play online poker, I watch television about poker and I read plenty of articles. Often, in the wake of all of these related activities I forget to actually sit down and play some hands. When I do play hands I can get easily distracted by the wealth of related information I have amassed in my brain and almost blind myself with science. I make fancy plays, silly moves, and play No Limit Texas Hold’em the wrong way, but with all the right intentions. So now I am trying a new tactic to beat the game – just play hands.
Each week on my live poker radio show myself and two other co-hosts pick a hand of poker one of us has played and analyse it extensively. My professional poker friend Gary has an excellent way of cutting through the bumpf and jargon and offering a solution to the hands problems that sound amazingly simple, too simple sometimes. But then you stop and think about it and realise that this simple approach demands a true understanding of the game and is only learned through extensive experience.
We have all played a game of online poker or live poker where one person likes to tell everyone at the table why they are playing the game incorrectly. They throw jargon and technical phrases into what are straight forward decisions to look good. This is not necessarily the hallmarks of a good player, but someone who is giving away that they have some understanding of the game. They want recognising for this, but in fact they are giving away their own ability and therefore information to other players. They should just play poker and use that knowledge to beat people, if they can.
Poker can be made to look simple. You either have a strong hand or you don’t and you either want to be called or not when you make a bet. The rest of it is just working out whether an opponent is strong or weak and timing whether a move can work. When you have a strong hand you need to bet, so that is relatively straight forward. When I found myself getting distracted from these simple concepts, known as the ABC of Poker, I sat down and simply played some poker. Certainly some of the plays I know work, but not as much as the foundation ABC poker strategies.
So for those who search for ways to improve, consider that perhaps you are already playing close to your best poker game. There is nothing wrong with making small changes every so often but at some point you will reach a level where you cannot improve on and it then becomes about maintaining what you have in terms of poker strength. Hand history reviews and coaching should far a distant second to gaining experience. I found myself doing so many poker related things and studying the game that actually playing the hands rarely took place. Redressing this balance made me a better poker player straight away because I took what I learned and got used to applying this in practise. It is like a footballer, they can train all week but they really improve in a big match situation. The same goes for poker.
So by all means study, learn and practise. But play your hands as well. Using good bankroll management you can learn without getting cleaned out. Playing poker is what matters so join me at bwin.com and play the poker hands that really teach you how to play poker.
By Malcolm Clarke