Most people think of poker players as gamblers in a game of chance. It this were totally true, however, there would not be professionals who make their living by earning more than they lose and amateurs who lose more than they win. The difference here is that the pros have acquired the discipline involved in all sports of learning, understanding, and most essentially, practicing endlessly in their chosen field. They may have card sense, but above all they have the discipline to find a method that works for them.
In fact, there is no such thing as spontaneous talent: music did not “just made sense” to Mozart – where would he be if he hadn’t spent his childhood practicing? One could say that talent is well-practiced potential. But don’t wait for a freaky father to hit you with a rod over your fingers every time you play the wrong card; impose your own discipline.
The fun of the game to most amateurs lies in the excitement of pitting themselves against blind chance. Poker is popular because of the adrenaline rush that comes with taking a risk. The professional knows his basic chances at poker, but rather than having a pleasurable time, he studies and takes advantage of opponents’ mistakes, remembers them and uses them against them while calculating immediate odds. Chance is only one element to challenge his skill and wits. The pro is not playing a half-blind game of chance, he is playing a strategic game of matching himself against another’s method and besting him.
It is vital to be familiar with the varieties of poker games and to know which of them best suit your abilities and predispositions; not only to realize what your weaknesses are, but to know also which game incites you to your best effort and best engages your intuitions. Players who haven’t the habit of self-introspection keep sullenly playing a game which doesn’t engage their best faculties. Sometimes a benevolent professional looking from the side may advise the person to try another game type and the player is surprised to discover that they are much more talented than they thought.
Make no mistake, there is a vast difference between limit and no-limit poker. The disciplined player will keep temptation in check and will prefer the game at which he feels fully in control and can go about it calmly and cautiously, all the while gathering data on his opponents to use against them relentlessly in small moves. They will only play the hands that seem to be the best, disregarding about 80% of the hands that are dealt.
A disciplined no-limit professional will evince the opposite of reserve, will be aggressive before the flop, and will play hands that to the limit expert would seem reckless stunts, always knowing, however, what precisely he is trying to achieve by every aggressive move.
In both cases, no less important than the right move is the ability to restrain oneself and quit when the situation is hopeless or when you feel you are loosing control: it happens to everyone, but the disciplined player dedicated to consistent performance will not pursue the phantom of mounting frustration.
On better days, never trust chance to maintain your good fortune forever – learn to leave before you loose the edge. Good players learn to establish not only the limits of their losses, but also the limits of their gain during each session.
The author of this article plays online poker and gets where they offer the .
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