BEATING THE ODDS IN POKER AND OVERCOMING LUCK

When playing poker, luck is a huge factor. Just to have that chance of winning a major event these days you must get lucky more times than you can count. Skill is important, but you must be sure to beat the odds and overcome luck.

There is now a lot of new players playing poker on the Internet.  Due to this increase in numbers hand expectations have dropped. Many players decide to play hands with marginal consequences they are prepared to take the risks iregardless of the luck factor.  Even if you are going into an all in situation with the best of it, worse players are calling and sucking out. Even though it is impossible to avoid this, there are ways to keep the skill high and the reliance on luck lower.

You should always make sure you are not wasting your time by playing the right hands.  Don't get involved trying to beat an aggressive player unless you have a great hand, don't risk losing your chips by trying to bluff.  If you are confident your opponent is weak you can mix up your game and play different types of hands, learn to read your opponents and decide where you stand. 

Try not to go into any situation with the worst of it. Try to stay away from drawing situations, and don't get all your chips in the pot if you don't think you are ahead in the hand. If you are going into hands with the better percentage of winning then you don't have to rely on luck as much to help you win. You do, though, hope to avoid bad luck where the person sucks out on you! You shouldn't necessarily hope for good luck in a tournament, but hope that bad luck stays away. If you always play with the best of it then you won't need good luck.

If someone does suck out on you and you are still in the tournament you must make sure you avoid letting it get to you. You have to realize that this hand is done and you have to move on to the next one. If you are mad about something that happened at the table, you should never let your opponents know, because they will try to take advantage of that. You should act as if whatever happened didn't bother you a bit, and know that if they sucked out on you they may not be as good as you and you will be able to get your chips back from them later.

 

Throughout the internet you will find a lot of advice about playing poker but generally speaking you should aim to play tight and aggressive.  Learn quickly everyone's playing style and adapt to it accordingly.  Loose players, play them tightly and avoid playing tight players.  You should aim to mix up your game so that other players find it difficult to read your play.

 

Try not to depend on luck, develop your strategies, don't be foolish, and hopefully you'll become one of the next world series poker champions.

Last Updated ( Sunday, 16 December 2007 )