The Great Poker Myth Part 2: How to avoid being a victim

In Part 1 of this series I detailed the big myth in the poker world -That you are a good player-and offered up a little insight on why really good players don’t overly mind if you gain a little bit of knowledge. In this part of the series I will offer some ways for you to avoid becoming one of these exploitable players, and continue to work your way up the poker ranks; building on the solid foundation you learned from books.

There are basically four stages in a poker player’s development:

Complete Novice - These are players who do not understand the game of poker from the word go. They don’t know how to calculate pot odds, they don’t understand the importance of position on all of your decisions, and so on.

The Book Player - This is the stage I was referring to in Part 1 of this series. Book players tend to do things in a very consistent manner, and use static strategies that they have memorized. Unfortunately they have a hard time adjusting since their understanding of these strategies is only skin-deep.

The Thinking Player - The Thinking Player is basically a book player who has taken their game a step further, and instead of just implementing strategies learned from others, they are actually thinking about how these strategies can be adjusted to different players, and which strategies work best in different situations.

The Professional - Many people might think the Thinking Player is the apex of the poker world, but there is another step on the ladder -a step very few people take. Professional players research opponents, create multi-street strategies with contingency plans, and basically eat, sleep, and breathe the game of poker.

Since 80%+ of the poker world inhabits the first two levels, this is likely where you are residing. (especially if you’re reading this article). So to take the next step, and move beyond being a book player you need to start unlearning some of the strategies and theories you have been relying on up to this point.

To become a thinking player (and thinking players win) you need to be willing to experiment with different strategies, and you need to start learning the psychological aspects of the game of poker. Thinking players understand what their opponents are doing so they can stay one step ahead of them, and they also understand the motives behind these decisions.

Thinking players no longer automatically check-raise with the nut-flush draw and an over-card, but have a clear reason for why doing so is the best play available against this specific opponent. Going a step further, a professional player does the same thing but also has the entire hand played out in their head from this point on, with different lines based on the next card, and what may come on this river.