It doesn’t matter if you play live or online – understanding poker statistics is a vital part of the game.

Of course, it’s much easier to access these stats in online games, as you can use various trackers and software which display key online poker player statistics. But even in a live setting, you can get a very solid understanding of your opponent’s play by observing them in action.

Let’s talk about what you should look out for in your games.

Skip to:

1. VPIP (Voluntarily Put $ In Pot)
2. RFI (Raise First In)
3. 3bet
4. Fold to 3bet
5. Fold to steal
6. C-bet
7. Fold to c-bet
8. Went to showdown
9. Aggression % by street
10. River call

1. VPIP (Voluntarily Put $ In Pot)

VPIP stands for “Voluntarily Put Money ($) In Pot” and helps you understand how often your opponent is choosing to play.

If a player performs any voluntary action like raising, calling, or even limping, and chooses to play the hand, his VPIP stat increases.

Of course, if he’s sitting in the big blind and was forced to post it because of the game structure, but then folded to a raise, this does not count as an action and does not influence this stat.

While it only gives basic information, you can profile your opponents by how often they choose to play, since many recreational players opt to get involved with way too many hands making their range too weak.

If you notice these tendencies, it can help influence your final decisions.

2. RFI (Raise First In)

Preflop raise or raise first in (RFI) shows how often the player decides to enter the pot by raising when everyone before them folds.

While good players have similar VPIP and RFI stats, since they often enter the pot by raising if they decide to play, you will find opponents who have a wide gap between these numbers.

This is a huge indication of weaker players because they usually decide to limp or call a raise instead of raising, and take passive lines post-flop most of the time.

You should look to play as many hands as possible against these players, because they will usually call your bets and rarely bluff, so you will always know where you stand.

3. 3bet

This poker statistic shows how often a player decided to re-raise instead of calling or folding when someone already entered the pot by raising.

The higher the 3bet stat, the more aggressive your opponent is.

As a rule of thumb, you should be looking to play fewer hands against players with a high 3-bet percent because you will be forced to fold a lot when facing aggression.

It is better to avoid these situations with the weakest part of your range, and only play reasonable hands or add more 4-bet bluffs in the mix.

4. Fold to 3bet

Knowing how often your opponent folds to 3-bet after raising is one of the most important online poker statistics.

If you find opponents who are opening too many hands, they are also likely folding to 3-bet too often. If that’s the case, you can add many weak hands to your 3-betting range and exploit their mistakes.

Contrary to this, if these players choose to call many 3-bets after raising with a wide range, you can exploit it by 3-betting only a strong part of your range.

No matter what, knowing this stat will help you adjust against various opponents and put them in some tough spots.

5. Fold to steal

Fold to steal shows how often a player in the blinds folds when facing a raise, and is something you should evaluate when choosing which hands to play from later positions.

The player sitting in the big blind is especially important because they get the best odds and close the action, so will likely be your main competition.

If you find an opponent who is folding a lot, you can raise with more hands than you usually would, or even open every single one of them if the big blind is particularly weak and you find yourself on the button.

Of course, if you’re up against a tough opponent who’s not so keen on folding and chooses to 3-bet a lot, the best adjustment would be to fold your weaker hands and choose a tighter approach.

Knowing how often people fold to steal can be very valuable when choosing what hands you opt to play, so always consider your opponents and how they react to your raise.

6. C-bet

Continuation betting (known as c-bet) is a situation where the preflop raiser opts to continue his aggression and bet after the flop.

If you notice how often a specific player is c-betting, you can adjust your play against them and even build your entire strategy based on this information.

Even though c-betting is a very wide and complex topic, people rarely change their strategy and mostly keep doing the same things over and over again. If you caught someone c-betting too much or way less than they should, you could make simple adjustments and exploit irregularities in their play.

Thinking about your own strategy, one thing that you should avoid is c-betting too often and then being forced to fold almost your entire range after checking.

Instead, put some medium-strength hands in the checking range to protect it, and you will be a much tougher opponent to play.

7. Fold to c-bet

The name is self-explanatory. This poker statistic shows how often your opponent folds when facing a continuation bet.

Often players chose to play too many hands and then fold to any bet if they miss the flop, which is probably one of the worst strategies to have.

Against these players, you should forget about balancing and c-bet every single time you miss yourself to take advantage of their mistakes.

However, if you’re up against a player who’s not very keen on folding, the previous strategy would cost you a lot of money. Instead of betting all your bluffs, you should choose to continue with hands that have some equity and give up with complete air.

Of course, it’s not as simple as that, but knowing how often other players are folding on the flop can help you make superior decisions, so always observe your opponents.

8. Went to showdown

Went to showdown stat lets you see how often your opponent goes to showdown after seeing the flop.

If your opponent has high “went to showdown” stats of more than 35%, it means you should not try to bluff them. Instead, you should be value betting more medium-strength hands, because they are not going to fold if they have any piece of the board.

Contrary to this, if your opponents rarely go to showdown, it means they are only playing very strong hands after the flop, and you should be looking to punish them every time you get a chance to bluff.

Of course, it’s way easier to observe this in online games, where you can quickly see the difference. But even in a live setting, you will notice who is calling down no matter what and who is opting to check/fold most of the hands on the flop, so make adjustments based on that information.

9. Aggression % by street

I am referring to Flop Aggression %, Turn Aggression %, and the same stat for the river.

These numbers show how aggressive players are in any given street, and how often they perform an aggressive line by betting or raising, instead of calling or checking. It’s quite a good indication of how aggressive the player is in general.

While many have reasonably high aggression stats on the flop because of an automatic c-bet, you will find plenty of opponents who play later streets passively, and this is where you can take advantage.

You can categorize various players to see when you should be barreling multiple streets or when you should check your strong hands and let your opponent dictate the action.

Many aggressive players love to bluff, so give them a chance to lose their money.

10. River call

River call efficiently shows how often your opponent is calling with weak hands.

So, whenever you see a player with river call efficiency lower than 1, you know they’re losing money when calling on the river, which is quite hard to do because of all the strong hands players have in these situations.

When you notice something like that, you can be sure they are calling way too wide, thus can value bet more often.

A final word on poker statistics

All of these poker statistics should be in your HUD (heads-up display) when playing online. When playing live, the theory behind these poker statistics should still be observed to help you make better adjustments.  

Be sure to check out some more poker articles by Tadas, such as the 10 most common mistakes in Texas Hold’em or the most common poker cheats.

Lead image credit: PokerTracker

Unlike playing in a casino online, there is something special about sitting down at the poker table and getting into the heart of the action. Then again, you may find yourself in a sea of sharks depending on the game.

There are five poker players who transcend the popularity of online casino games and dominate the felt as only the best poker players in the world can.

Phil Ivey

Ivey may very well be the most famous and best poker player ever. He rose to prominence during the poker boom of the 2000s and has since become the face of Full Tilt Poker. The ten WSOP bracelets certainly don’t hurt his case, either. In 2022 alone, Ivey cashed almost $6 million, making him one of the most successful players ever.

Benny Glaser

Though he may not be the name that Ivey is, Glaser has become a mixed game specialist rather than getting involved in the traditional world of No Limit Texas Hold’em. He’s had success in person and online, winning four British WSOP bracelets. Since 2015, he has become one of the best poker players going, becoming arguably the best in the online realm.

Daniel ‘Jungleman’ Cates

A college dropout turned poker player, Cates had won more than $11 million in online poker by 2011. Cates has since moved into the live environment, winning the WSOP $50,000 Players Championship event in 2021 and 2022. With $11 million in live tournament cashes since, he’s easily become one of the top names in the world.

Jason Koon

Koon, an American, is sixth on the all-time winnings list, having accumulated more than $41 million just from live poker. He left Party Poker to represent GG Poker and has become perhaps the most consistent super high roller performer out there. Don’t let the one WSOP bracelet fool you, either. He won $18 million in high roller events a year ago and he defeated the legendary Phil Hellmuth in Poker Go’s High Stakes Duel III to win $1.6 million. 

Stephen Chidwick

The Englishman Chidwick is currently fourth on the all-time money list but often flies under the radar. He consistently finishes highly in tournaments but keeps a low profile. With one bracelet, more than 20 top 10 finishes, and a whopping 64 finishes in the money at the WSOP, it’s hard to argue with the resume Chidwick puts together.

Conclusion

Though the landscape has changed from the times of Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, and others who dominated the early 2000s poker scene, there are still dominant names running the show. With millions in winnings and consistent finishes at the WSOP, it is easy to see why these players qualify as some of the best in the world.

The newest course in the Upswing Poker library comes from a chess master turned high stakes poker pro.

Alex Vuilleumier achieved the title of International Master and a rating as high as 2400 in competitive chess. In poker, Vuilleumier is a WSOP bracelet winner, with a resume that includes more than $2.2 million in tournament earnings.

Alex’s chess background forms his unique approach to poker, and he brings that approach to you in his new Precision Poker course. The standalone course debuts on February 19 at Upswing Poker. Join the waitlist here!

In his first Upswing Poker video, Alex shared 3 things about the poker world that shocked him as a player who transitioned from chess.

1. The Prevalence of Money

Alex says the number one thing that shocked him about poker culture was the prevalence of money. Money sits at the heart of poker success (and failure), yet many recreational players have no problem losing money in exchange for the opportunity to play the game. 

In Alex’s words:

“Why should (money) be the only measurement tool? Why should recreationals be happy to lose, let’s say, $200 on a Friday night? Why should they think that is better than going to the cinema ten times, or something like that?”

Over time, however, Alex formed his own answer to that question.

“Because (poker) is a beautiful game,” Alex says. “Because it is fantastic; they will be cognitively challenged. There will be psychology. There will be feelings; their heart will pump, their blood will flow.”

The prevalence of money in poker contributed to an overall culture shock effect for Alex when coming from the world of competitive chess.

2. Lack of Individuality in Poker

Alex contends that most people who try to achieve success at poker copy what works for other successful players. They watch videos and take courses that feature poker pros explaining their own methodology, and the student is trying to replicate that as closely as possible.

“People aren’t ambitious enough to try to do something new,” Alex says. “But also, very often, they aren’t curious enough.”

“Poker isn’t seen as an art, but more as a science. The difference in chess; every player in chess wants to create a novelty. Every player on Earth is trying with a computer to find something new. There is the quest of excitement and curiosity. Whereas in poker there is a lot of copying.”

“If you think about Isildur’s overbets, or Linus introducing the 10%-pot bet, they invented something and they stayed. And that is a way to be happy that doesn’t exist in poker enough, making the poker theory advance.”

3. Lack of Happiness

The world of competitive chess can be extremely stressful. The best players are often already competing for world championships and tens of thousands of dollars by the time they’re teenagers, and that stress persists throughout their careers.

Poker doesn’t have to be like that according to Alex.

“You have the pleasure of working at home and trying something, or being able to read your opponent, calling with queen-high and it’s working. Both of these elements will give you a spring of dopamine.”

“The ultimate goal is to combine both. To work on something at home, but also be able to adapt it.”

Precision Poker Launches February 19th

Alex’s upcoming Masterclass on Poker Methodology goes live on Upswing Poker later this month.

You can get on the waitlist now for this course, which aims to be unlike anything seen before in the realm of poker training:

Keep an eye out for more of Alex’s free content on Upswing Poker in the run up to the February 19th launch.

Numerous strategies exist that can help poker players refine their key cognitive choices, and with any slight edge in the game being huge in 2024, we’ve taken a look at some of the ways you can take your decision-making in poker to the next level.

KEY MOMENTS WHERE THE PRESSURE IS ON

Every poker player worth their salt sits down at the table prepared to bring their A-Game, and in the key moments, make the right decisions. Not everyone can do that, of course, but the first thing to establish is what those key moments actually are. It is impossible to remain focused for a 12-hour day at the poker felt, so ascertaining what makes an important decision is vital.

Chess players often speak about focus being a movable scale rather than a binary ability that, like a switch, is either ‘on’ or ‘off’. Focus can be soft or hard in poker too. An example of soft focus might be the sort of spot where you’re not involved in a poker hand, but when the players who are reach showdown and have to display their hole cards, you make sure to look up from your phone and take note of these shown cards. Hard focus might be an all-in hand you’re involved in where either your stack or your opponent’s ends up being totally at risk.

Determining what should demand your total focus is a personal opinion, but it can often be summarized as a decision that has a big effect on your own place at the table or someone else’s. The biggest moments in your favorite poker shows are likely to tell you what those are. We’ll all remember where we were when Vanessa Selbst couldn’t quite find the fold with a full house in the first level of the WSOP Main Event against Gaëlle Baumann. We can probably all recall the first time we saw Erik Seidel’s call after Johnny Chan’s infamous ‘Look to the Sky’ in the 1988 WSOP Main Event.

The big moments require total focus. Would Selbst or Seidel have acted differently with a better ability to focus? Those hands are tough to formulate a cohesive plan of attack in and marginal when it comes to the final decisions, so it is unlikely. But unless you find yourself deep in an event you could win millions in, your own ‘hard focus’ moments are likely to be simpler – if you put yourself in the position to make optimal strategic decisions.

Emotional Control: Pre-Match Preparation

Every poker player must prepare for a poker tournament or cash game in the right way. For some, this will be a large bank of sleep to preserve their mental energy for the big moments. For others, such as Tight Poker columnist and former champion ultra-runner Dara O’Kearney, it could be invigorating the mind and body with a long run in the days before a major event.

Whatever your method, pre-match preparation to put your mind, body, and soul in the right place is vitally important. Poker decisions made by a tired mind will be lacking. Physical stamina is important late in days when events are won and lost or when the biggest cash game pots are scooped. Feeling comfortable and in the right mental state to execute decisions effectively is pivotal to making a profit in poker.

There are any number of ways of preparing yourself, but few are better than the old adage that you are the sum of two vital human basics – what you eat and how you sleep. Mastering a good routine in both respects is crucial. With nutrition and rest, the twin pillars upon which to base your preparation, how you plan for a cash game session, multi-table tournament (MTT), or live event is almost a case of trial and error. You can read about what others do, but your own gauge of how each process refinement affects your performance (short-term) and results (long-term) will be key.

I once asked an elite player who won a lot of money playing online poker how he prepared for a final day in a big SCOOP, WCOOP, or other such MTTs. He replied with one of the most unique answers I ever heard to such a simplistic kind of question. He said that around an hour before the final day – or any poker session! – kicked off, he would go out into his garden armed with a blindfold. He would scatter a selection of items in his garden and take a mental picture with his mind.

Then he would put the blindfold on and attempt to walk to the end of the garden, touch the fence, turn around, and come back to his back door. If he struck an object in his path, he would have to start again. When he made it all the way to the fence and back without striking any objects, he would remove the blindfold and be ready to play.

The Power of Mathematics

The 17-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth once responded to questions about his mathematical capabilities by confidently declaring that he knew the odds of any poker hand to within two decimal places. The answer may have owed a little bravado to the formative era of The Poker Brat, but there was an element of truth to it too. Hellmuth’s math knowledge was so good that his victory in the WSOP Main Event of 1989 changed the game and allowed those who focused on numbers to take incrementally large steps forward in the game of poker.

In this fresh era of GTO (Game Theory Optimal) play, mathematical ability is infinitely more important to this day. Poker, by its very definition, is a sum game that relies on incomplete information being interpreted by the players involved, and only by understanding the odds and probabilities of certain cards coming can you make correct mathematical decisions.

From push-fold charts to post-flop strategy, studying the numbers is often time-consuming and a difficult theory to immerse yourself in. Breaking it down into bite-sized pieces of advice to digest is important, as is taking in the information in a format that your brain responds to positively. From video training to strategy books, via tactics discussed on podcasts to online articles such as these, doing the work is vital, so make sure you do it well.

Adapting to Opponents: Examples of Key Decisions

Poker is full of tough decisions, but if you build up a list of questions in your mind ahead of those decisions approaching then you’ll be best prepared to deal with them when they come along. The first consideration you should make is towards your opponent, with the player more important than the cards you’re taking on at all times. Ask yourself how they are playing, whether they have been aggressive or passive and whether they are stepping out of character with their behavior in the current hand.

Once you have a handle on your opponent(s) emotionally, consider your own perceived image to them. Are they displaying any tells or behaving in a way that is dramatically different from their previously demonstrated patterns? Also consider your table position in relation to your enemy – then you’ll be able to appraise the situation in a more strategic manner and take advantage of any weakness.

Poker is all about gathering relevant information and making the best decision based on that data. Using logic, you’ll then be able to make that key decision with as much confidence as you can possibly have. From there, the cards will decide.

Being a Hero

Key decisions are often those moments where outside observers will look back on and say either ‘How did they make that call?’ or “What a great fold – how could they lay that down?’ Making the Hero Call or the Hero Fold is tough and will often be decisive in how your major result came around. Look at the past WSOP Main Events and you can probably remember an amazing fold or hero call that the champion made.

Making a big lay down is essentially laying down a really good hand when you have worked out that your hand is still beat by one that is even better. While it is hard to have any kind of strategy that declares ‘I’m going to make a hero fold/call today’ at the beginning of the action, you should certainly be confident that should it come down to it, you can make that tough decision. These often come from the gut, that part of you that just knows you’re losing or winning in a certain spot.

I once spoke to the great Sam Razavi, a British poker professional who has made a career making huge plays. In one particular tournament, he won solely the title and around $50,000 in prize money purely because he made one great bluff at a key moment. He’d worked out his opponent’s hand down to almost the exact cards and followed through on his gut feeling with total conviction.

Sam told me that gut feeling was really the accumulation of knowledge over time and your brain then telling you that for reasons based on cognitive ‘muscle memory’, you can make the right call. Should you be wrong, that supposedly impulsive instinct is then refined over time, and your gut feelings then become more informed, often without you being fully conscious of the thought process.

We’d all like to do such things but jumping across that ‘Execution Gap’ between believing we are doing the right thing then actually pulling the trigger is much harder than it sounds.

Taking on Tilt

Let’s talk about tilt. Not just in your own game, but in that of others too. Tilt in poker is reacting emotionally to a poker hand and letting that emotion affect the next hand or even several after. This is often associated with taking a bad beat. Let’s say you are all-in with pocket queens against the pocket sevens of a player with three-quarters of your stack in a big live event. As all the chips are committed pre-flop, another player tells the at-risk player with sevens that they folded a seven too. Then, a seven lands on the river, and you’ve lost a huge chunk of your stack to a one-outer.

That kind of bad beat could easily affect you thereafter. Down from possibly 200 big blinds to under 30, you’ll have to adjust your play accordingly and have fallen a long way back down the ladder despite playing the hand perfectly. Overriding the sense of justice is difficult, and you will need to strategize completely differently, possibly for hours or days of the event. Getting over this ‘tilt’ feeling is hard, but it can be just as hard if you go on a series of hands when you’re winning. Can you still play your A-Game and not dust off chips needlessly through a sense of overconfidence? It’s crucial that you do, but ‘Winner’s Tilt’ is a thing, having recently been referenced in Daniel Negreanu’s look back at why he had a losing 2023.

Getting a handle on your emotions is crucial to success at the poker table. One thing that many players don’t consider, however, is how to exploit this tilt in others’ behavior. If you notice someone tilting, either from winning a pot or losing one, make sure that you take advantage. Charge them more with your bet-sizing if they’re splashing around with newly won chips. Punish their loss-chasing mentality if they’ve been on the wrong end of a bad beat, particularly if it was to you.

It is pivotal in poker that if you are to have any success, then the greatest strategy is to separate the decision you’re making from the outcome of that action. Being as objective as you can while retaining an emotional balance is going to help you stay on the right side of tilt in your own mind and crucially, take the maximum in chips from those who are unable to do so.

In Conclusion

Understanding negative triggers to your own A-Game and exploiting those weaknesses in others’ games is the optimal strategy when making key decisions. Being comfortable in those marginal moments can often come down to a ‘gut feeling’ that is refined over time by your own experiences at the felt.

Executing key decisions at the poker felt comes down to a focus – both hard and soft – on making positive decisions and not focusing on the consequences but refining the process of your decision-making skills. The 10-time WSOP bracelet holder Erik Seidel was coaching the comparatively inexperienced poker player and author Maria Konnikova.

When she told him about the decisions she was making and the result of the hands, he asked her to leave out the part where chips were won or lost. All that mattered was the decision, the process, the execution, the work. The chips will fall where they may, but if you keep improving your strategy in making key decisions, over time you’ll always win more than you lose.

Poker is perhaps the most popular card game in the world, and over the years it has undergone changes that have adapted it to the technological boom of modern society. That has led to the proliferation of online poker rooms, creating a loyal community of players who enjoy the game from the comfort of their homes from their smartphone or computer.

But, how exactly did online poker come about, and how has it evolved since the early days of digitization? Read on to find out.

How long is the history of online poker?

The history of online poker began in the 1990s, ushering in a revolution in the way people play poker. Although poker has been played in various forms for centuries, the ability to compete online completely changed the dynamics of the game. The first online poker platform was established in 1998, when Planet Poker launched its website. This event marked the beginning of a new era in the poker world.

During its early years, online poker-faced significant challenges, such as lack of regulation and players’ distrust in the security of transactions and the fairness of the games. However, as technology improved and stricter regulations were established, online poker began to gain popularity.

Who is Chris Moneymaker and why is he important for poker online?

The year 2003 was a turning point in the online poker history. This was the year that an accountant from Tennessee named Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the most prestigious poker tournament in the world.

His victory was an extraordinary event because, instead of qualifying through an in-person tournament, Moneymaker had gained his entry into the tournament through an online satellite on PokerStars. His triumph inspired thousands of players to follow his example and play online poker.

Chris Moneymaker’s online poker player history lies in the importance of the fact that his victory proved that anyone could compete with the pros and win. His success story inspired numerous online poker players to pursue their dreams in the game. In addition, his path to victory began with an online qualifier, which further emphasized the impact of online poker on the poker scene.

His online poker player history has got a huge legacy: the well-known “Moneymaker effect”, which has translated into a massive increase in the popularity of online poker. Many players began playing online in hopes of replicating his success. This led to an explosive growth in the number of online poker websites and platforms. The media exposure Moneymaker received also contributed to the online poker boom.

Differences between online poker and conventional poker

Conventional poker, played in physical casinos or at gatherings of friends, has significant differences from online poker. Below, we explore some of the key differences and we explain some of the most important online poker facts you should have already learnt:

Accessibility

Online poker is extremely accessible. Players can participate in games anytime, anywhere, as long as they have an Internet connection and a compatible device. This means there is no need to travel to a physical casino or stick to a fixed schedule to play.

Variety of games

Online poker offers a wide variety of poker variants, from Texas Hold’em and Omaha to Seven Card Stud and more. This allows players to experience different styles and rules of play, which may be less common in land-based casinos.

Anonymity

In online poker, players can maintain a certain degree of anonymity. This can be beneficial for those who wish to avoid public exposure or keep their identity a secret.

Speed of play

Online poker tends to be faster than conventional poker. Hands are developed more quickly, as there is no need to shuffle cards or count chips manually. This allows players to participate in more hands in a shorter period of time.

Safety and fairness

Although there were initial concerns about security and fairness in online poker, technological advances and proper regulation have improved player confidence. Online poker platforms use random number generators and advanced security measures to ensure fair play.

Social interaction

Conventional poker encourages in-person social interaction, with players sitting together at a table, allowing communication and reading opponents’ reactions. In contrast, online poker is played in a virtual environment, which can limit face-to-face interaction. However, many online poker platforms offer chat and real-time interaction features to compensate for this lack of physical presence.

If there’s a poker play we haven’t learned, then up-skilling to a better strategy can feel great. Improving our luck, however, is impossible. Luck doesn’t care about how hard you’ve been working on your game, whether you’re having a good day or a bad one, or whether you’ve lost your last ten coin flips.

Luck is an unfeeling acquaintance we cannot escape and must be treated as such. Dealing with a ‘bad beat’ can be difficult, but with our helpful hints below, you’ll be in the best possible place to get over that slice of bad luck and play your A-Game in the next hand:

• Keep Some Perspective
• Understand the Odds
• Put Bad Beats to Work
• Find Your Focus
• Post-Match Analysis
• Perform a Ritual
• Focus on the Next Hand
• Know When to Fold ‘Em
• Stay Calm and Walk Away
• Check Your Account(ability)

1. Keep Some Perspective

While all the following tips and hints apply and can help, it’s important to remember your place in the world. If you’ve lost a hand of cards, you’re already lucky. The chances are pretty high that you’re reading this on a $400 smartphone, laptop, or tablet. Given that 50% of the world’s population lives on less than $7 a day, you’re already in an immensely privileged position. Understanding that in the game of life, you’ve basically been dealt a premium pair can go some way to reducing the magnitude of your feelings about any given bad beat.

Before you play poker, think of the worst situation that could happen. Let’s say it’s a $5 entry tournament, and at the final table, you’re all-in with pocket aces for a chip-leading pot with 6 people left. If you win, it’s very likely that you’ll go on to win $1,000. If you lose, you’re going out for just under $100. That’s a $900 swing, or to put it another way, 180 buy-ins.

I’ve been in this position. I was playing someone with pocket tens, and they hit a ten on the river. Then another player showed their hand with a ten in it. They hit a one-outer to effectively cost me the best part of a thousand dollars in equity. So, what was my takeaway here? Did I stay calm? Not at the time. Do I still recall how it felt? Absolutely, it stung like a wasp on a hot summer’s day.

But taking a look around me helped. I was sitting at a laptop I owned, in a house I could afford to rent, with food and comforts all around me. Getting some perspective isn’t easy when you’re in the moment, but it can help you immediately focus on the game as just that – a game. You’ll still have whatever you had before you set aside the buy-in. Losing at cards will happen, losing at life is, for some, inescapable. Gratitude is the pathway to bad beats hurting less.

2. Understand the Odds

What is a bad beat in poker terms? For such a popular expression, the actual boundaries of qualification for the phrase to be justified are blurry, to say the least. If you qualify a bad beat as a committed pot where you are the favorite with all your chips in the middle, and then the other player overtakes your hand to win, then you’re going to experience bad beats a lot of times, possibly over and over in the same tournament or cash game session.

If you get your chips into the middle with aces against kings pre-flop, then getting beaten is an outrageous piece of bad luck, right? Well, not really. You’re a 4:1 favorite before the five community cards, which means one time out of five, you’re meant to lose. That’s not the case in every hand, of course, but to truly appreciate the odds, you’ve got to look at the long-term picture.

If you can understand the odds for situations you’ll frequently find yourself in, then the individual bad beats won’t feel so impactful. They should start to become more of a consistent pattern and part of a larger truth, that poker is essentially one long game. Over time, luck will even out.

That’s the certainty of probability added to time, or rather the sample size of your situation getting bigger over time. If you can find peace in bad beats through understanding the chances of it happening again over time, things can really improve. Before you thought of it in those terms, what were the chances of that happening?

3. Put Bad Beats to Work

One of the biggest gifts we can give you about bad beats is almost not looking at them as bad beats. If you’ve just been one-outed, we can appreciate that sounds pretty crazy. But it’s not. If you never get a bad beat, you never check the odds, look at the perspective you have on the game of poker, or appreciate a bad beat.

That’s right, we said A-P-P-R-E-C-I-A-T-E. Here’s the twist: if you don’t get it in good, then you can’t be bad beaten. If you’re the outside chance, then you’re the one doing the dirty. That should feel better, right? Wrong. It only feels better when you win a bad beat, and since you got it in bad, you’re going to lose most of the time. You got a bad beat? That means you got it in good, meaning you’ll be winning most of the time.

That feels better already, doesn’t it? Phil Hellmuth once said, “If there weren’t luck involved, I would win every time.” While The Poker Brat might have been stretching the truth a little, he has a point. The bad beats hurt the 17-time WSOP bracelet winner because he tries to put himself in positions where he’s the favorite. Without fortune, poker would be like chess, a game based entirely on skill.

While this would still be interesting, it would hardly make it one of the most popular and entertaining games on Earth. As Rick Bennt once said, “In the long run there’s no luck in poker, but the short run is longer than most people know.”

4. Find Your Focus

This is one piece of advice that you may well have heard before, but definitely need to hear again. Regaining your focus after a bad beat can be a difficult, sometimes dizzying experience. So many emotions flood your senses when you face a bad beat that processing them can be very tough.

Someone else is raking in your chips, for a start. They’re overjoyed at having won a big stack of chips through luck alone. Their feeling is euphoria. Despondency is a natural opposite that you must welcome into your system, process, then overcome as quickly as possible. In order to do so, you may well struggle to find a mental foothold, but the image of trying to place your feet on solid ground after falling is an apt one.

A bad beat can feel exactly like that. You’ve climbed the mountain, gone your opponent all-in and at risk with the worst hand, then they make a set with their underpair, and you ask yourself why you worked so hard to put yourself on that pedestal.

Picture yourself up a literal mountain. You’re about to reach the peak when someone comes up behind you and trips you up. Hey, maybe it’s even the wind or uneven ground. But it’s not like you tumbled all the way to the ground. You’re still up the mountain, you’re still climbing.

Even if you busted a tournament or lost a cash game session’s buy-in, you haven’t lost everything. Pick yourself up, stand your ground, learn what you can do better, and accept that you fell, but now you’re back on your feet and going to keep moving forward.

5. Post-Match Analysis

All the other ways you can get over bad beats deal primarily with the physical or mental senses that are knocked off balance after you are dealt a dose of bad luck. Rebalancing focus, leveling your emotions, appreciating your privilege. Each of those deals with improving your overall mood. That’s very important. It will aid you in the long term in dealing with bad beats. But there’s something else you need to hear, and you’re not going to like it.

You might have made a mistake. Even in a hand where you were bad beaten, there are ways you could have changed the course of the hand. Let’s use an example here and adjust where the chips go into the middle. Let’s imagine that you have 25 big blinds and are holding pocket jacks. The chip leader – your enemy in the hand – has pocket tens. In the first scenario, you shove pre-flop, they call and hit a ten on the river to knock you out of the tournament.

Bad beat, huh? Awful luck, and you need to go into all those recovery scenarios you’ve already read about. Now imagine that instead of shoving pre-flop, you plan a ‘stop and go.’ You know that the chip leader likes to flat call with middle-ranking pairs a lot of the time and almost never plays ace-high. When the flop lands A-4-2, having three-bet rather than shoved pre-flop, getting a call, you then shove the flop.

Pocket tens now don’t look so good for the chip leader, and he folds, never getting to the river, never hitting the ten, and losing a substantial pot to you instead. You just rewrote a bad beat. The good news is that in almost any scenario at the poker table, there’s a different way to play it.

Maybe you don’t know the chip leader’s ranges as well as we just described. Maybe it’s aces against kings. Not every bad beat can be avoided. But some can. Admitting that to yourself and considering different ways to play out the scenario you just endured is elite-level thinking. So why not do it?

6. Perform a Ritual

“If you’ve come this far, maybe you’re willing to come a little further.” Do you know who said that? It wasn’t a poker player, but a character in a movie. Still need another clue? It’s perhaps the most popular movie of all time. Well done at the back with your hand up; it’s the line that Andy Dufresne writes to his friend Red when he is guiding him from prison parole to the mystical Zihuatanejo on Mexico’s Pacific coast.

We say the same thing to you now. If you’re prepared to take our advice, then we’d encourage you in the direction of a ‘recovery ritual.’ Many athletes practice this. Think of the tennis player who bounces the ball seventeen times before he serves. Or the footballer who taps his helmet three times before waiting for the snap. Elite athletes have rituals, so why not poker players? It turns out they do.

Often these will center around breathing, cognitive tricks, and positive affirmations. Mindfulness, yoga, and other breathing exercises can assist you in doing this too. Whatever your ritual, it’s worth remembering that this needs to be something you can call on wherever you are. If you’re at home playing online poker, then performing ten star-jumps and reciting the words to Viva La Vida might work for you.

At the live felt in a casino, this same ritual could lead to you being escorted from the premises, especially if they’re not a Coldplay fan. Maybe it’s to breathe deeply three times, consult a few words of encouragement on your cell phone, and clench and unclench your toes. That’s what Bruce Willis does in Die Hard when the plane is coming in to land. If it’s good enough for Bruce, it’s good enough for us.

QUICK TIPS:

7. Focus on the Next Hand

If you want to overcome a bad beat quickly in poker, then playing the next hand well as quickly as possible can sometimes be the answer. Investing the chips might be painful, but that immediate switch of focus on new cards and possibly new opponents is a naturally cleansing thing for a poker player. Right back on the horse, you could win the next hand, of course, but you might also distract yourself successfully enough to process the bad beat’s emotional hit without realizing it.

8. Know When to Fold ‘Em

Kenny Rogers once sat on the set of a mocked-up train carriage surrounded by antiques and with a straight face, told us that we needed to know when to fold them. This is simplistic advice in the music video for The Gambler, but while the slightly Wild West-tinged guidance should come with a heavy dose of salt, there is some truth in it. If there’s the potential for a bad beat and you’re not sure how to play a hand other than to put yourself in the firing line of it, it might be worth folding the cards and walking away. Just don’t hit the whiskey bottle like the old man in the Kenny Rogers song.

9. Stay Calm and Walk Away

If you’ve tried everything else in our guide to overcoming bad beats and still need a solution, there is only one that remains, and that is to walk away. Pick up your remaining chips if you have any, keep your dignity, act polite and friendly, and leave the table. The renowned poker writer Tommy Angelo once said, ‘Quitting is the easy part. The hard part is standing up.’ You have to leave the felt and commit to pressing the quit button to do so. Sometimes it really is the only sane choice.

10. Check Your Account(ability)

Do you have a special poker-playing friend in your life who you can unload a bad beat on and get great advice delivered in a sympathetic manner? If not, then you should try to find one, but we’ll spin this on its head and suggest that you should be the friend you’re after. Then whoever you help is more likely to be there for you when you’ve just bubbled a poker tournament, lost a cash-game buy-in, or lost with aces against pocket deuces again to the same guy who did it one orbit ago!!!! It always helps to share a problem, and it can be so much easier to dissect it with someone next to you.

Conclusion

Dealing with bad beats in poker is a challenge that every player faces at some point in their journey. However, by keeping perspective, understanding the odds, putting bad beats to work, finding your focus, and following a recovery ritual, you can not only weather these storms but also use them to your advantage.

Post-match analysis and seeking accountability from fellow players can further enhance your skills and resilience. And, remember, it’s crucial to stay calm and know when to walk away when the going gets tough. These strategies not only improve your poker game but can also have a positive impact on your overall outlook on life.

So, the next time you face a bad beat, take a deep breath, regroup, and get back in the game – because the journey is often more rewarding than the destination.

Pocket52 Poker Sports League Season 5 – Bigger and Better Than Ever!

Posted by Laksh Pal Singh on 2023-08-23 at 9:41 PM

That was what the Poker Sports League management promised us this year, and that is exactly what was delivered. This edition of PSL was grand in many ways, and I’d first like to thank everyone who made this event possible.

Nitesh Salvi – founder and CEO of Pocket52, title sponsors of PSL, Pranav Bagai, Siddharth Mishra, and Prajit Gambhir, the three musketeers who started this wonderful concept of PSL and have worked endlessly over the last five years to grow this mind sport!

Prajit, you legend. God only knows how many roles you have at PSL! From being COO to the auctioneer to commentary to ensuring that the show goes on every single time, big shoutout to you, brother, and to Vidur also for making sure every pre-show and every stream was super smooth. Sid and his production team, wow, man, I don’t even know what to say. You guys are so good at what you do! This year the production team of PSL has really outdone themselves. From every reel to every Instagram story to every update, I have to say the content was fabulous.

Obviously couldn’t have done it without your ever-so-talented team! Dashank, Madhur, and Pandey Ji, big shoutout to the three of you for doing such a great job and just being awesome people in general. I’m really fond of the entire PSL team and of course the man himself, the mastermind Pranav Bagai for making this happen on Jio Cinema- working day in and day out to achieve his vision for poker in India.

I want to thank all the owners for supporting this league every single year and spreading their love and passion for poker. This league would not be possible without you!

The Experience

Pocket52 PSL Season 5 was something else only. Everyone together on land in the same resort under the same roof, with no hassle of going onto the ship, everyone bonding and interacting.

Personally, for me, the highlight was interacting with the qualifiers from all teams, it’s really nice to talk with someone when you know they look up to you and whatever you’re saying has an impact on them.

It was really heartwarming to meet the Massani brothers, these boys were the heroes of PSL, and that’s another story to tell. Taking a domestic flight for the first time, these two brothers have come from Bhopal and won all our hearts. What gems of human beings, so much confidence, so much energy, I just loved it, to be honest. I had a great time with all my friends and all the other captains who I’m so close to off the felts!

The competition was heavy, and everyone was so passionate and into it. So yeah, GG to my boys – Dirty (Dhaval Mudgal) and Shardul (Parthasarathi) for also taking podium finishes, I had already told Shardul I was going see him heads up and win this time.

Big shoutout to Gaurav Sood, one of the best poker players in India, for playing the finale like an absolute boss man and ensuring I’m shitting myself on the rails while he’s reducing the chip deficit. Love you, Mozzie unlucky one, and you’ll be back stronger we all know it.

Shoutout to Romit (Advani) and Vaibhav (Sharma) for being fantastic team leaders- you win some, you lose some, and I am sure we will see you guys in the top 3 next season!

Now coming to my team, oh man, I don’t think I’ve ever felt such a sense of comradery and team spirit in my life. PSL adrenaline just hits differently. I’ve played a lot of tournaments in my life and hit a lot of one-outers for big money, but I’ve never jumped the way PSL made me jump and shout and scream, and it’s a different kind of excitement altogether.

Bringing a team format and making an individual sport a team game is honestly a genius concept! I would like to thank my team owners, Mr Puneet Mehra, Mehul Shah, and Rishi, for trusting me to lead this team again despite a not-so-great performance the previous year. Special shoutout to their families as well, Toral ma’am Divyansh and Prerna, for cheering on the Mumbai team and making sure our rail was the loudest and full of energy. Really happy that Mehul and Rishi also came down and really felt it with the team and were involved and there from start to finish.

Speaking about my team, I want to say I’m so proud of you guys – every point earned by each of you was crucial to us winning and reaching the finale. I remember the day we reached Goa and had our first team meeting, I was really impressed with Puneet sir because he gave a really inspirational team talk on Day 1 itself, which had a big impact on our team. I have to say one thing about my team, though, everyone was really into it, The togetherness and team spirit was really evident, and I think from Day 1, we manifested the win when we took that picture near the trophy.

Humaara wildcard kaisa ho, Alok Birewar jaisa ho! I think the best decision I made this PSL, other than my obvious retentions of Akshay Nasa and Honey Bijlani, was to sign Alok as my wildcard. I knew Alok wouldn’t do it for the money; he wanted to play PSL, he loves strategizing, he was railing every table every tournament, his team spirit was unparalleled, and the best in the league, so kudos bro I’m proud of you, and you did a great job.

Akshay Nasa, my player, said I am born ready when I asked him if he was going to play the finale. Our strategy was simple, get 250 BB in the finale, send Nasa, and ship it!! Shoutout to Ankit, our 2nd pro, for a great performance joining Nasa in the finale, and also getting the ever so-crucial points in the live MTT, but also for declaring that we’ve won before the league even started.

Honey Bijjlani, for doing more work than the captain, bhai this team would not have won without you, I openly state that you are going to be retained every year for Mumbai Anchors. Nitin Gulati for his passion for this team, getting merchandise and hoodies made for the entire team, thank you, bhai! Simran Malhotra, my fellow Pocket52 team pro, for never disappointing me, for being the number 1 woman player of the league, and for her spirit and love for the team.

Dhirendra Kumar and Avinash Tauro for being on top of things, speaking to the new boys, railing watching the stream making notes, top top performance guys. And of course the new boys Shravan and Nikaas, who I couldn’t believe, played live poker for the first time. They both killed it and got super important points for the team. Every single point contributed by each of you was crucial to this team’s success.

It was a rollercoaster of three days, with ups and downs and highs and lows; the excitement and energy were high, and it was the best three days of my life. Humne bahut chipkaaya, 3 straight days chipkaaya, but you gotta spike to ship, and there was no way Mumbai was not winning this season. Also, a big shoutout to my first mentor and dear friend Sahil Mahboobani for top-notch performance and taking down the Player of the Series, so happy for you, bro!

Lifting that trophy was a great feeling and something that’ll stay with me for life, I hope to recreate many more memories with PSL and Mumbai Anchors!

GG everyone, until next time!

Aaamchiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Mumbaiiiiiiii

Même pour un joueur qui connaît déjà parfaitement les règles du poker, le concept des nuts au poker pourrait être surprenant et encore plus la façon de les utiliser de manière stratégique au cours d’une partie. Avoir les nuts veut dire avoir la main la plus haute possible autour de la table à un moment donné du jeu, rendant ainsi ses chances de gagner très élevées. Ceci ne veut toutefois pas dire qu’une telle partie de poker ne pourrait pas être le témoin d’un retournement de situation inattendu offrant un final dramatique et contre tous les pronostics, mais une telle volteface ne serait due qu’à la chance pure et non au talent de l’adversaire.

Le terme de nuts a une étrange origine qui remonte à plusieurs siècles auparavant, quand les cowboys américains sillonnaient le Vieil Ouest. Déjà au cours du XIX^ème siècle et au début du XX^ème siècle, on jouait au poker aux frontières des États-Unis. Il n’y avait rien de surprenant à y trouver de petits tournois entre amis dans les auberges des villages, et des parties de cartes étaient souvent à l’ordre du jour autour des tables des saloons. Jouer au poker était une manière de passer le temps, mais aussi un moyen d’effacer ses dettes.

Ainsi, les mises des cowboys ne se faisaient pas qu’à l’aide de pièces sonnantes et trébuchantes mais aussi avec des objets qui leur permettaient de prolonger leur présence autour de la table. Ce qui était le plus cher aux yeux des cowboys était l’élément basique de tout gardien de vaches, à savoir leur charrette. Les charrettes étaient hautement considérées à cette époque, et elles avaient pour habitude de disposer d’un écrou dans leurs roues que l’on appelait le « nut ». Sans ceux-ci, un chariot ne pouvait tout simplement pas avancer. Et c’est pour cela que les cowboys les utilisaient comme garantie autour de la table, la garantie que personne n’aurait le moyen de fuir si le jeu tournait en sa défaveur.

Et c’est aussi pour cela que, si un joueur déposait ses nuts sur la table, ses opposants pouvaient être certains que celui-ci disposait de la meilleure main imaginable. Ils se montraient immédiatement méfiants, bien qu’il pouvait toujours s’agir d’un énorme coup de bluff. Tout dépendait de la « poker face » du joueur misant ses nuts. Cette histoire de nuts a ensuite traversé les époques pour devenir un terme récurrent du poker actuel. Un concept aussi bien important dans le poker en live que dans les tournois de poker en ligne et qui, comme toujours, dispose d’une stratégie propre.

La stratégie des nuts

La première chose à avoir en tête est que jouer les nuts est a priori très simple, du moins en théorie. Si un joueur a la meilleure main possible, ses possibilités de victoire sont énormes et donc son objectif sera de faire en sorte que ses adversaires paient. Pour cela, il faudra savoir garder son calme et attendre le bon moment pour dévoiler ses intentions, sinon tous les autres joueurs vont se rendre compte du pot-au-rose et se coucher immédiatement. Et tout ceci dépendra toujours du type de joueurs se trouvant autour de la table, sachant qu’il y en aura souvent un qui pensera aussi avoir les nuts. Contre lui, vous pourrez vous montrer offensif dès le début et sans la moindre réserve, car il paiera.

La théorie la plus simple nous dit qu’il faut réaliser un mouvement de diversion lors du pré-flop ou du flop, de faire une petite mise lors de la turn et d’y aller à fond à la river. Avec des nuts en main, la logique veut que le tour se termine par un all-in. Bien que pour ceci, il faut encore faire une distinction entre les nuts. D’un côté, il y a la nut actuelle, qui est la meilleure main possible à un moment précis de la partie, mais qui n’enlève pas la possibilité qu’elle puisse être battue par surprise par une autre main grâce à une river imprévue par exemple. Et d’un autre côté nous avons la nut absolue, qui est la meilleure main de tout le poker, est qui est la quinte flush royale et non pas le carré d’As. Pour tout cela, savoir classer les mains de poker sera primordial.

Là où les nuts seront clairement incertaines sont les mains où les cartes communes à tous les joueurs semblent offrir de nombreuses possibilités de couleur ou de full house. Dans ces cas-là, il sera fondamental de bien analyser la situation pour déterminer si, oui ou non, nous disposons des nuts en main ou si au contraire cette très bonne main a au final de grandes chances d’être battue. Et savoir reconnaître les nuts dans les mains d’un autre joueur sera aussi essentiel. D’ailleurs, il existe quelques joueurs qui aiment à fanfaronner en clamant qu’ils ont les nuts. De deviner s’ils disent la vérité ou non sera votre unique objectif.

Et, le plus important, ce qu’il ne faut surtout pas faire est de continuellement penser que notre adversaire dispose des nuts et qu’il est impossible de gagner contre lui. Psychologiquement, un tel raisonnement ne pourrait que nous démoraliser. Et il faudra savoir aussi analyser différemment la situation en fonction du type de nos rivaux, entre ceux qui jouent beaucoup de mains et ceux qui suivent les standards du jeu soft.

Sekitar 31 tahun yang lalu, saya ingat dengan jelas diberitahu bahwa saya harus pergi tidur dan bahwa orang dewasa (dan sepupu saya yang lebih tua) akan memainkan permainan bridge yang serius. Saya mengamuk dan pergi ke kamar sambil menangis.

Saya berusia lima tahun, dan tidak dapat memahami mengapa saya tidak diizinkan untuk begadang, sementara sepupu saya yang berusia tujuh dan sembilan tahun diizinkan untuk bergabung dengan orang dewasa di meja kartu. Meskipun usia saya masih muda dan berjuang untuk mempertahankan 13 kartu, saya telah mempelajari aturan bridge dan sudah memiliki keahlian dalam permainan kartu.

Musim panas berikutnya, dan di semua musim panas berikutnya, saya diberi kesempatan untuk berpartisipasi dalam permainan jembatan itu. Seiring waktu, saya mendapatkan reputasi dalam keluarga sebagai salah satu pemain yang lebih agresif. Sebagai jembatan, tim yang berhasil menjadi tunas dan mencapai grand slam atau slam kecil (di mana Anda dan pasangan Anda memenangkan semua atau hampir semua 13 ‘trik’) diberikan sejumlah besar poin.

Meskipun ada hukuman karena gagal beralih ke slam, saya sering percaya bahwa potensi imbalannya lebih besar daripada risikonya, yang membuat anggota keluarga yang lebih berhati-hati kecewa. Maka, lahirlah seorang penjudi.

SEORANG PENJUDI LAHIR

Tumbuh dewasa, bermain bridge selama berjam-jam setiap musim panas dan berkompetisi dalam turnamen catur nasional memainkan peran penting dalam membentuk identitas masa kecil saya.

“Sebelum menganggap diri saya sebagai pemain poker, saya mengidentifikasi diri sebagai pemain kartu, dan bahkan sebelum itu, saya melihat diri saya sebagai pencinta permainan. Saya selalu tertarik pada game yang melibatkan pemikiran strategis, dan yang paling membuat saya terpesona adalah aspek psikologis dari game tersebut.”

Saat bermain bridge, saya menemukan diri saya sama tertariknya, jika tidak lebih, dengan mengamati bagaimana lawan saya bermain dan gaya unik mereka, daripada hanya berfokus pada teori permainan konvensional. Meskipun membaca buku tentang teori jembatan cenderung membuat saya bosan, saya tidak pernah bosan mendiskusikan gerakan potensial dengan rekan satu tim atau lawan saya.

Saya terus berusaha memahami perspektif dan alasan mereka, selalu ingin tahu tentang pendekatan apa yang akan mereka ambil dalam situasi tertentu. Misalnya, saya sering merenungkan mengapa bibi Laura tidak memilih opsi kemahiran ketika tindakan agresif diperlukan.

Ketika saya menemukan poker bertahun-tahun kemudian, keingintahuan psikologis ini berperan dalam cara saya mendekati permainan. Saya selalu terpesona oleh outlier permainan, pemain yang tidak mungkin ketatatau tidak mungkin longgar – mereka yang tampaknya benar-benar mengabaikan kesadaran posisi, dan mereka yang sangat berhati-hati kemungkinan besar dibentuk oleh faktor-faktor yang ada dalam hidup mereka bahkan sebelum mereka belajar cara bermain kartu.

Saya selalu mencoba untuk memahami dan menilai seseorang terlebih dahulu, dari perspektif kemanusiaan mereka, dan kemudian mencari tahu bagaimana “tipe karakter” itu akan bermain kartu.

Pertumbuhan Permainan

Beberapa faktor telah berkontribusi pada lonjakan popularitas poker langsung baru-baru ini dalam beberapa tahun terakhir. Faktor penting pertama adalah rasa bosan yang banyak dialami selama pandemi Covid-19. Selain itu, kemunculan streamer poker dan ketersediaan game streaming dengan taruhan tinggi telah menarik perhatian para penggemar.

Selain itu, operator poker telah terlibat dalam persaingan yang ketat, berusaha untuk menawarkan rangkaian turnamen yang unggul dengan hadiah yang dijamin lebih besar. Perlu juga mempertimbangkan pengaruh dari crypto booming, yang telah memberi pemain profesional dan rekreasi sarana keuangan yang meningkat.

Sebagai hasil dari ledakan poker ini dan proliferasi permainan di saluran media sosial, ada banyak diskusi seputar peran pemain profesional dalam menciptakan suasana meja yang menyenangkan. Mereka diharapkan memiliki kehadiran meja yang positif, terlibat dalam aksi, bermain dengan kecepatan tinggi, memiliki keterampilan percakapan yang baik, dan berkontribusi pada dinamika sosial permainan secara keseluruhan.

PERMAINAN SOSIAL Poker

Sementara banyak yang berpendapat bahwa kualitas-kualitas ini sangat penting untuk pertumbuhan poker jangka panjang, yang lain berpendapat bahwa poker adalah permainan zero-sum, bahwa tidak semua kepribadian tertarik pada obrolan ringan atau bersosialisasi di meja, bahwa beberapa orang (termasuk profesional) membutuhkan lebih banyak waktu untuk berpikir, atau bahkan banyak profesional yang bersosialisasi dan memberikan tindakan sebenarnya palsu dan / atau manipulatif.

Sebagai seseorang yang selalu tertarik pada aspek sosial dan psikologis permainan, saya pasti berada di kubu yang percaya bahwa membuat permainan lebih menyenangkan (apa pun artinya bagi Anda) akan membuat poker lebih baik dalam jangka panjang.

“Bagi saya, tujuan jangka panjang saya tentu saja mencari nafkah dengan bermain game, tetapi saya lebih suka menikmati lingkungan saya saat melakukannya.”

Ini tidak berarti saya pikir setiap profesional memiliki tanggung jawab di arena ini – dan saya tahu bahwa untuk beberapa introvert atau mereka yang berasal dari latar belakang online, sebagian besar dari ini tidak akan datang dengan sendirinya. Setidaknya bagi saya, saya menemukan bahwa memberikan tindakan dan memiliki kepribadian yang ramah di meja adalah sama-sama menguntungkan. Bagi banyak orang nonprofesional, mereka tidak berharap menang dalam jangka panjang, dan salah satu tujuan utama mereka adalah bersenang-senang.

Bagaimana saya berhasil Memasukkan Psikologi di Poker

Kenikmatan inti terletak pada berpartisipasi dalam permainan di mana pemain tidak hanya terlibat dalam gameplay tetapi juga secara aktif membina suasana sosial yang penuh dengan tawa dan persahabatan. Terlepas dari investasi finansial saya dalam permainan, saya menemukan kepuasan besar dalam tindakan bersosialisasi.

Selain itu, dari sudut pandang strategis, alasan terbesar saya menikmati jenis permainan ini adalah memungkinkan saya untuk memanfaatkan dan mengembangkan apa yang saya anggap sebagai bagian terkuat dari permainan saya – pemahaman psikologis saya, dan kemampuan saya untuk menyesuaikan diri dengan tipe lawan yang berbeda.

Dengan melibatkan lawan saya dalam percakapan tentang kehidupan sehari-hari mereka, mendorong batas mereka dengan 3 taruhan berturut-turut, dan menggunakan berbagai teknik ukuran taruhan seperti taruhan rendah dan taruhan berlebihan, serta menampilkan tebing dan tangan yang kuat, saya dapat secara efektif mengekstraksi informasi berharga dari reaksi mereka.

Saya selalu terbuka untuk mengungkapkan banyak tentang gaya bermain saya sendiri selama satu tangan, menaruh kepercayaan pada kemampuan saya untuk menyesuaikan diri dengan cepat atau memanfaatkan informasi yang diperoleh untuk keuntungan saya.

Pelajaran Hidup Dari Meja Poker

Saya memahami dan menghargai bahwa beberapa profesional tidak akan merasa seperti ini, dan mereka memiliki hak untuk bermain dengan cara mereka sendiri dan berperilaku di meja. Tetapi sementara saya secara pribadi membenci politik permainan pribadi, saya juga memahami alasan mengapa uang tunai bergerak ke arah itu, seolah-olah saya adalah pemain yang kalah, saya setidaknya ingin bersenang-senang dengan kerumunan yang bersama saya.

Bersandar pada aspek psikologis permainan dan menyadari sisi-sisi yang dapat diperoleh hanya dengan memahami kepribadian lawan Anda dengan lebih baik dapat melayani tujuan meningkatkan tingkat kemenangan Anda dan membuat lingkungan di meja lebih menyenangkan bagi semua orang.

Lihat pemikiran Alex tentang dunia poker setelah menempati posisi ke-3 di Acara Utama WSOP 2019:

Kesimpulan

Sebagai seseorang yang dibesarkan dalam permainan kartu, saya mengembangkan daya tarik untuk gaya dan pendekatan yang unik dari sesama pemain. Keingintahuan ini terbawa ke poker, di mana saya menemukan pentingnya memahami lawan di level yang lebih dalam. Saya sangat percaya bahwa membina lingkungan yang menyenangkan dan menarik dapat berkontribusi pada pertumbuhan jangka panjang dan kenikmatan poker.

Kami menggunakan cookie dan cookie pihak ketiga. Anda dapat mengubah pengaturan dan mendapatkan informasi lebih lanjut di kami Kebijakan Cookie. Anda menerima penggunaan cookie dengan melanjutkan navigasi Anda.

© 2019 BES SAS, perusahaan terdaftar di Prancis dengan nomor 521353235, dengan modal 148.260 Euro, terdaftar di Paris Trade and Companies Register dengan nomor 521 353 235.

Seluruh hak cipta.

Nomor lisensi: 0001-PS-2010-06-07 | 0001-PO-2010-06-07
Sertifikasi n°: 0001-PS-HOM-2010-06-07 | 0001-PO-HOM-2010-06-25

OPERATOR RESMI

LARANGAN SUKARELA PADA GAMES

Siapa pun dapat meminta untuk dilarang berjudi. Permintaan ini ditujukan kepada National Gaming Authority. Larangan ini berlaku di kasino, di klub game, di situs game dan taruhan online yang dioperasikan oleh operator game berlisensi di Prancis, di situs game lotre online yang dioperasikan oleh La Française des jeux serta di terminal game yang dapat diakses dengan akun pemain yang dioperasikan oleh operator yang memegang hak eksklusif, khususnya La Française des jeux dan Pari Mutuel Urbain. Larangan ini diucapkan untuk jangka waktu yang tidak boleh kurang dari tiga tahun. Ini dapat diperbarui secara diam-diam.

Pikirkan Anda memiliki masalah judi? Studi Train-online dapat membantu Anda.

Pusat Penelitian Epidemiologi dan Kesehatan Penduduk Bantuan Publique Hôpitaux de Paris saat ini sedang melakukan penelitian yang bertujuan untuk membantu para penjudi yang ingin mendapatkan kembali kendali atas perjudian mereka.

Komunikasi dari tim Train-online – APHP – Pusat Penelitian Epidemiologi dan Kesehatan Penduduk:

“Ini adalah uji klinis yang memungkinkan Anda memperoleh manfaat dari pelatihan kognitif online, yaitu latihan menyenangkan yang dapat diakses dari internet, yang bertujuan membantu Anda mendapatkan kembali kendali atas praktik permainan Anda. Jika Anda tertarik, silakan kirim email kepada kami dan kami akan memberi Anda semua informasi yang diperlukan untuk berpartisipasi dalam [email protected]“.