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In poker it is always vitally important to be patient with yourself, your opponents, and most importantly the cards.

In hold’em for instance you only receive decent starting hands a small percentage of the time. Only a small percentage of those good starting hands will improve with the flop. Mostly poker is a game of waiting for your shot. Waiting for the circumstances to be just right for you to take advantage and prosper. If you are someone who has a very limited attention span or must have action 90% of the time then maybe poker isn’t for you.

Patience is also very important when playing in tournaments. One large mistake I see quite often is people making panicky moves at the table when the blinds are still relatively low in relation to the chip stacks. There is nothing more detrimental to your tournament life than over-betting pots. Throwing in monster raises when a much smaller raise could have accomplished the same goal with much less risk. There is a certain point in a tournament where you are the short stack and it becomes an all in or fold type scenario. Another mistake I see is people shifting into this mode way to early.

In many ways poker is a lot like fishing. Some days you get lucky and don’t go more than a few minutes without a good bite. Some days you find yourself waiting hours for a nibble which turns out to be nothing more than a guppy. There is always the possibility that the next big one is only minutes or seconds away.

In many cases the most profitable way to play poker is by going against the flow of a game.

Here are two situations and examples of what is meant by this.

You sit down and find that the table you have chosen is pretty tame. Not a whole lot of re-raising, bluffing, crazy play etc going on. Everyone is having a good time. Not many confrontations taking place. Raises are always the standard three times big bet. 80% of the time the raiser picks up the pot with no resistance. Even the confrontations that do take place are for the most part anticlimactic.

The most profitable thing for you to do in this situation is to expand to fill the void they leave by going against the flow. Start splashing around in pots. Check raising and stealing pots often. When your opponents are playing like docile lambs you must be like the wolf. A famous quote by Bruce Lee comes to mind.

When the opponent expand, I contract,
When he contracts, I expand,
And when there is an opportunity,
I do not hit–it hits all by itself.
– Bruce Lee

Poker, like life, is a delicate balance of Yin and Yang, light and dark, up and down, aggressive and passive. When a poker table regresses to such a passive state, there is a huge void left, this can be exploited in a big way.

The second example draws from the same basic principle. If when you sit down at the table you find it is a mad house of activity. People are itching for confrontations. People are making plays for just for the sake of getting under someone else’s skin. A few people are on tilt because of the pace. People are playing and raising with any two cards. Calling everything down to the river.

In this situation we once again go against the flow of the table. The table has swung so far to the aggressive side that the most profitable play is to tighten up, or “contract” as Bruce puts it, and wait for the perfect time for it to hit.

Here are a few tell tale signs that a players who are new to the game are missing the point of poker.

1. Wearing sunglasses to a $1-2 (or lower) no limit holdem game. Seriously they are not fashionable and they have no practical purpose at this level. Most of the opponents you will face have little or no reading ability anyway.

2. Spending more time working on chip tricks than studying the game. I have never seen a chip trick win a hand.

3. Call call call call call. A call never forced anyone off a hand.

4. Utilizing some over-the-top gimmick. Crazy hair, crazy shades, hiding in a hoodie, quacking like a duck, running of the mouth, etc. Some of the pros choose to do these things. So what? You are not a pro. It does not make you a rebel or unique it makes you a cheap knock off.

5. Bluffing way too often and for far too much money. The better players can smell this tendency from a mile away and will exploit it.

6. Throwing chips in or mucking cards in some over the top fancy way. Just makes you look silly.

If you find yourself doing any of these things it may be time to reassess your game and spend some time thinking of what you expect to get out of the game of poker.

Position is one of the most important yet far too often overlooked concepts in poker.

Regardless of which poker game you prefer the most advantages position you can have is the last position. It is the position where you literally have all the possible information regarding your opponents and how they have behaved up to this point. You get this info before you put a single cent into the pot.

Being in last position affords you the comfort of being able to call an earlier position’s raise with a wider range of hands with no fear of a raise coming in behind you. Playing from middle position forces you to be more selective when it comes to hands as you are susceptible to a raise from behind. Playing questionable hands from middle position then having to fold them to a raise is one of the big leak points in many players’ games.

Acting last also lets you take advantage of one of the most basic concepts in poker. The fact that an opponent with unpaired hole cards will miss the flop roughly 65% of the time. In most cases if it is checked to you after the flop, a decent bet is the way to go. If you get re-raised you just dump it. In most cases you will win the pot right away. This fact also affords you the last opportunity to bluff at the pot. If the table goes check, check, check then bring it in for a raise in last position. If everyone missed you pick up the pot and if someone is slow playing then you identify their tendency to do so for future reference.

The strength of a strong hand is magnified even more from late position. The best possible scenario is having an aggressive player in early position making a raise having two callers all while you are sitting on a monster. The chip plow effect. In this spot be sure you are raising enough to drive out the drawing hands by throwing their pot odds off.

Mediocre hands in position are also stronger based on prior actions by other players. Take for instance an early position raise and three callers. Even with a hand like 88 you are most likely getting pot odds to call this. If you happen to flop a set you are winning a large pot. The same hand in first position would usually be folded to any moderate bet.

The vast majority of your hands >75% should be played from position. If you are playing with very strong players it is advisable to avoid playing out of position altogether.

Moving Up

Many times I hear newer players complain that the players at their current level play too crazy or too loose. They then try to use this fact to justify a move to a higher limit. This is incorrect. Regardless of how your opponents are playing there is a wrong way to play and a right way to play. If you have not yet learned how to deal with different types of play at your current level you are not ready to move up.

Now that we have that out of the way here are some things you should be taking into consideration.

Bankroll Size

This of course is the most important of all these. You need to be sure that your bankroll is sufficient to withstand a few losing sessions at the next level. In some cases the transition is simple and has little effect on your bankroll. In other cases you may find the transition much more difficult. You need to be sure that your bankroll is an adequate size so you can play comfortably and not be as effected by short term variance. Scared money is lost money more times than not.

Players

I have always found it useful to observe the players at any level. Pay attention to how they play and try to get an accurate picture of the difference of skill level. Keep in mind that you will most likely not be the best player at the next higher limit however there should be players that are not as good as you. This is where your money will come from. Take advantage of the weaker players and learn all you can from the better ones.

Comfort Level

You need to be honest with yourself in regards to how comfortable you are at the current level. If you are a break even player at this level you will most likely be losing money at the next level.

Moving Down

Moving down is usually harder to convince yourself of than moving up. Good players know when it’s time to retreat a little bit and regroup. The above points should be a good indicator. If your bankroll has recently taken some serious hits it may be time to take a step down to a lower limit to re-evaluate your game and how you are doing.

If you are finding that you are consistently the worst player at the table it’s time to set your ego aside and be honest with yourself. There is no shame in saving money. Poker is a learning game. No mater how much you know there will always be people who know more. It is better to face the facts than to lose your entire bank roll by being in over your head. Know your limits and know when it may be time to step down and get your game back under control.

Resist the Urge

Resist the urge to sit down at a much higher limit with your entire bankroll expecting to catch a double up. You may very well double your bank roll. You might also loose every cent of it and have to start from scratch. This is far too similar to gambling. Imagine all of your hard work wiped out in one session.

Here are some other bankroll articles that may be of interest:

Part 1: Bankroll Size - Part 2: Moving Up - Part 3: Coming Soon