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Are you an up and comer in Poker?

If you are an up and comer in the Poker World, If you are desperate to learn how to put your game on a higher level. If you have ever been confounded by what is said on TV poker, or in comments after a big game. You must get Gus Hansens book. Even if you consider yourself a Professional Poker Player. Get off your high horse and get this book.

Why do I say this? Well, first, just because some one is a pro, doesn’t mean there isn’t something to learn. Look at Mike Matusow. He has fantastic talents, yet he occasionally blows up, at least as far as Daniel Negraneu is concerned. Although Mike is a pro, he admits he could do better in this area, and indeed has made great strides. How did he make these great strides, true he started using the idea that cards have minds of their own, and if he is negative about the outcome of an all in, well he will lose. But that is a start. Maybe it goes a little too far into mysticism, but he had at least some way of making progress.

Books by great authors are good for this. But in my opinion, books by great players are a must in the library. And there is a big difference. Some of these authors that I have been reading do a real good job of re-hashing the basic poker ideas. But, poker pros of the highest caliber, enlighten us in ways that are unexpected. A book that is like this is “According to Doyle”. A really fun little book that depicts situations in poker, many of which never change, where poker players never seem to get it. This little book is a treasure by the way. It is filled with wisdom, truth and knowledge that is distributed uniquely by a top level player. These are ideas for instance that are usually a little beyond the right now thinking of the average player. For instance, in Doyles book, he discusses whether just anyone should be a poker player. He discusses, something that he has learned, that a top poker player never really loses control. If he gets a bad beat, well he has seen it before, and it is within the realm of possibilities. So, it is accepted graciously. The poker pro usually knows that with his superior playing powers, he can recoup any short term loss. He also knows that if the amateur did not have the “luck” factor he probably wouldn’t play. After all, what amateur would take beating after poker beating without any relief?

Then, poker would just be a few pros playing each other. Like, in the good old days. And that isn’t as good for the Pro now is it? So, Doyle,s point is, hey poker pro, be damn glad that there are bad beats. That the amateur occasionally takes his and your money home. Yes, it may be due to a bad beat, but so what? It’s the price you need to pay. So be happy, not sad. Anyway, you get the bad beat pendulum to swing your way too pretty often, so….lets be happy that there is a little justice in poker. And lets get on with the next hand.

Gus Hansen,

Sorry for the little diversion into Brunson territory. Um, let me say that I am so glad that Gus’s book came along. I might not have noticed it, if the local Hastings didn’t put it on the shelf. It is like a guide of “How to really think like a top pro”. Except, it isn’t a rehash of the general oatmeal prridge of information. It is instead, Gus is in this situation, and here is what he thought about. Yes, probably to follow it, you need to have read a few books, including the incredible Sklansky titles. All pros seem to reference these highly acclaimed volumes.

I am an amateur, don’t get me wrong. But, I bust my hiney, to learn all I can, where I can. Many people put poker blinders on, and just cannot accept reality. Doesn’t this sound strange? But it is totally true. Back, in the first real home game that I played on a regular basis, a few things happened, they might have happened to you in your home game. Here goes:

I had learned to play Texas Hold’em, and found it as fascinating as just about every one else. But, I didn’t have unlimited funds to play. I was a single dad. So, I had to make sure I didn’t lose much. To top it off, I lived in a small community, and jobs were not plentiful. So, Much of my income was from internet advertising. And that can swing up and down at any time.

Well, after a while of playing in this home game, that was played with local business people, and their staff, I noticed I had some sort of block. I wasn’t winning a lot ot losing a lot. I was a very careful player, only taking the most obvious winning bets, then leaking them back into the game with the blinds. Sound familiar to anyone?

Well, one night, I won . But, I did something that few poker players do. I went to the local book store and bought worth of poker books. The first book I read, and I will review it soon, was Phil Hellmuth’s book, “Play Poker Like the Pros”…Phil was and is in all the news all the time. Poker brat extraordinaire etc. And, I actually like him. He is a marketing genius as well, but we will discuss that later.

To make it short, Phils book recommends that when you are a new player, just play the top ten hands. They are AA, KK, QQ, AK, JJ, 10-10, 9-9, 8-8, A-Q, 7-7. Now, you can find this table on page 31 of Play Poker Like the Pros. Phil goes on to say that he crushed the games in Madison Wisconsin with this strategy and little else. So I adopted it myself, and why not? It at least gave me something to think about. I like it for another reason, once you get this idea down totally, you can add to it and expand it. It is a good place to start as a poker player.

Well, needless to say I tried this system with my local group. At the time I didn’t realise it, but my entire local poker group were like me, horrible poker players. We just didn’t know it, and we reveled in our bliss.

To make a long story short, I won 0 the next time we played! An unheard of amount for our poker group, and me personally! Trust me, once you do this as a poker player, you realize that information and experience are what matters in poker. So, you strive to find both. One place you can find this is online. The good thing about playing sit and go tourneys online is that you will do poorly at first, because your concept of the game is horrible. Even you can’t avoid the issue. You must agree that you should learn more, or quit. As expected, I fear that most players in poker, are just like their counterparts in chess, do the very same thing.

What do they do? They over rate their abilities, and cry about the luck of their opponents. This is a recipe for disaster my friend. We can’t really accept the truth very easily, but these games are all about truth. So, admit your weaknesses and fix them. Don’t try to hide, poker truth, (and chess truth) will find you quickly, and the world will know, even if you don’t. Get books, get practice against very good people, and if possible ask pros questions.

So back to Gus’s book. By the way, sorry for going on and on, but, I love poker! And, I remember how long I went between inspirations and understandings that propelled my game. And it was too long! So, telling you how I overcame the worst of it reminds me of how far I have come, and how glad I am not to be where I was.

So, what I found out about Gus was, I have a lot of the same basic ideas as he. One thing you must know. Many people will not bluff. That is hard to beleive.  I was just reading an old Card Player magazine, and it talked about this issue. Many people, feel bad when they bluff, or try to. It comes from child hood, and the liken bluffing with stealing. So when they get caught bluffing, they over react, and feel bad. And if it should happen that they try to bluff several times in a row and fail, they may just give it up completely.

That would be tantamount to giving up poker. I say that, because Scott Fischman told me )in an article) told me to bluff 5 times in a row and see what happens, Erik Lindgren in his recent book about tournament play and the WPT, said that he loves to bluff. He says that bluffing has an overall positive expected value for him, and that I as the reader should pursue it. (This is probably the best idea in his book, and it put me in a new category of play when I realised how to do it correctly). And the Gus Hansens book, where he says he considers bluffing on any hand he doesn’t have the best hand.

So, conclusion?

Bluffing IS POKER! Period. You can’t bluff? You can’t play. You won’t win a big tournament ever. And that is my goal. Maybe even in the 2009 World Series of Poker.