Poker
is a truly unique gambling game. Other
casino games are made up entirely
of mathematics. Poker’s foundation
too, is rooted in the math and the
odds. But you’ll never be a winning
player if you can’t understand
and use its vital
psychological aspect. That’s what
makes you more money with your
winning hands and saves you money with
your losing hands. Here’s a good
example. Say you’re playing Texas
Hold’em, $10/$20 limit and
sitting in a late seat,
you’re
holding:
A/10
The
player under the gun (first to act) is
wild, loose and losing. He comes
into the pot raising it to $20 as he
often does, and everybody else
folds up to you. If this were a solid
player, you shouldn’t even call
him with a hand like A/10, he most
likely would have that beat going
in. You wouldn’t even want to flop an
ace, because you’d be likely to
have kicker problems (be against A/J or
higher) against a sound opponent.
But a
wildman who is “stuck” (losing)
could also have a whole flock of
other, weaker hands like A/5, 9/8, 6/5
suited, 4/4, etc, which the solid
player wouldn’t play from that seat.
So, you should give him a call
because on average, your hand might well
be better than his.
Viva La
Difference: Already, we can see that the
card game of poker has an
important facet that doesn’t exist in
the card game of blackjack. If
you’re dealt 14 in blackjack and the
dealer — any dealer is showing a
5, you should stand every single time.
It doesn’t matter which dealer
you’re up against because every dealer
in the world must play that 5 the
exact same way. So there’s absolutely
no psychological analysis in
blackjack, but only the odds. In poker
however, your correct play varies
according to how your opponent plays.
Okay,
let’s proceed with our Hold’em hand
and take a look at the flop:
A-7-3
You
flopped “top pair,” a pretty good
hand against a “steamer” (a
loser who’s playing poorly). Chances
are, you’ve got the best hand.
Wildman checks and you bet the $10. He
calls. The turn card is an offsuit
deuce making the board:
A-7-3-2
Wildman
checks again. You go ahead and bet the
$20 on your pair of aces — then
Wildman check-raises it to $40. Now stop
and think. If Wildman was just
steaming, he probably would have bet $10
right on the flop and just kept on
betting all the way. But no. He checked
and merely called your flop bet,
then checked again to you on the turn.
Now after you’ve already put a $20 bet
into the pot, he cuts loose with
the check-raise. This time, I’m afraid
Wildman has a big hand. Your pair
of aces with a suspect kicker are no
good. Save this $20 plus the $20
bet that’s sure to come on the river,
and fold. He’s most likely got
either “Big Slick” (A/K), or a
pocket pair of 7s or 3s. The
steamer got lucky on you.
Somebody
who doesn’t use psychology to make his
decisions would normally go all
the way with a pair of aces when
there’s no 3-flush or pair on
the board, because they’ll often be
good. But you can save $40 here by
reading the situation. Just muck your
hand with the confidence that if
the hole cards were reversed, Wildman
would call you all the way down
with his pair of aces.
There
were a couple of psychological keys that
played a part in the play of this
hand. The first was that since the
raiser was a loose player who
doesn’t need much of a hand to raise,
you don’t need that much of a
hand to have him beat. So you can give a
pre-flop call to a player like
that, where you’d normally have to
fold against a solid performer.
The
second, and overriding key was the point
where the check-raise was made.
When a check-raise comes right on the
flop, your opponent is usually not
all that strong. At that point, he’s
usually just trying to intimidate,
or desperately wants to thin the field
with a vulnerable hand. Some of
those times he will merely have a flush
draw or an open-ender. But if he
plays it soft and slow until the bigger
bet has already been made on the turn,
then lowers the boom, he was most
likely setting a trap with something
serious. At these times, you must
have the presence of mind to realize
this and get away from your hand.
There
are countless other ways to use
psychology to improve your
performance at the poker table. Knowing
the odds is fine. But in poker,
just playing by the odds is more of a
fallback — something you resort
to when you don’t have anything
better to go on. Sometimes though, often
in fact, the play of the hand will
reveal that it doesn’t matter what the
odds are. This time around your
opponent has to have a particular kind
of hand regardless of those odds.
- Fred
Renzey is a poker and blackjack
expert, author and gaming
columnist. For a copy of his
218-page poker manual, 77 Ways to
Get the Edge at Casino Poker,
send $17.50 to: Fred Renzey, P.O.
Box 598, Elk Grove Village, IL
60009.
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