Toasty's Beginner's Guide 3 - Conclusion
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Welcome to the third and final part of the new player guide. This section is a collection of essays
written by myself (Toasty!) which should hopefully bring your game together enough to put you on the right track.
TILT - The Poker Demon
As I've stated before, one of the most important skills needed to be successful in poker is discipline. Without it, sooner or later you're going broke, it's that simple. Perfect discipline is playing every hand in every given situation correctly and always aiming to put your money in with "the best of it" (i.e. as a favourite to win).
But just because you are putting your money in as a favourite doesn't always mean you will win, if you
rolled a dice and won on a roll of 1-5 but lost on a 6 you wouldn't be too amazed if a 6 rolled as you know the dice sometimes rolls a 6. It amazes me how some people react online when they have AA beaten by a far inferior hand, they act like it’s a statistical improbability and the site is fixed. Personally my AA wins the pot around 70%-80% of the time, it hurts when it loses but most of the time I don't even blink at the bad beat (bad beat = losing as a big favourite).
Now you know that AA losing isn't uncommon but quite the opposite (I consider 1 in 5 times to be common)
what about AA losing the last 3 times you have it or 5 times etc. This is less common but isn't rare,
if something’s statistically probable to happen it probably will happen.
For instance QQ (which isn't as strong as AA but is still a powerful hand) finished a months play down
(I would have been better off that particular month folding QQ PF every time I was dealt it)
after being dealt the hand 28 times. KK was also a losing hand half way through the month but recovered
towards the end. Although it's frustrating, it's all part of the swings.
If AA wins roughly 75% of the time, you could lose 5 straight and win the next 15 straight.
Although this is only the basics on swings I want you to understand that favourite hands do not always win and it's important to get used to bad beats as they happen more often than you think. People rarely keep track of how often AA wins but once it loses they soon notice. Bad beats are also a good sign of a good table; people are willing to gamble against you with the worst of it (matching your bets with a lower chance of winning).
If you fail to take bad beats eventually you are going to hit TILT. TILT is basically your emotions playing poker
for you as opposed to your head. "How the hell could he call with 72o?!", "Grrrr, that's twice AA has lost in the
last hour!". Before long you will be playing more hands as your patience disappears and raising weak hands due to
frustration leading in turn to more bluffs. Once people spot you're on TILT it won't take them long to start calling
those raises with better hands and calling your bluffs with weak hands which will only increase your TILT.
People will even start berating players who deal them bad beats to the point of even educating them on
how many outs they had and how they shouldn't have called???? This is just plain madness!!
Going back to the dice example, if you had someone who was willing to play you at dice - a 1-5 lands
you win $1, a 6 rolls they win $1. You wouldn't berate them and explain how they only have a 1/6 chance of
winning when they rolled a 6 against you. If anything you would congratulate them "Nice Roll,
you can sure roll those sixes" knowing that you are going to win 5$ for each $1 you lose over time.
Receiving bad beats is exactly the same thing, although it hurts and can sometimes
even be devastating, it's a good thing. Do you want people to only call you when they are the favourite to win?
With the main cause of TILT covered the second one is also important chasing losses (or even chasing wins).
That is you find yourself down x amount and you are "trying to win your money back". This is also described as
being "stuck" - the obvious reason because you won't move until you have made it back. i.e. - "He's stuck for $200".
You can also chase your losses "I just want to get back up to x amount" when you have had a good win and
lost some if it. It can be very hard not to think in these terms but you will have to overcome them to
succeed in poker. Chasing your losses can lead to jumps in stakes where two things will happen:
1 - You will lose at a higher rate (which you can't afford to lose at) or
2 - You will win which will weaken your discipline for the future and
leave you with the wrong strategic impression. There is no room for progressive betting within
Hold'em Poker using the higher stakes to recoup losses. This is worse for your long term development.
Once you start thinking more about the long term rather than individual sessions,
you will be a step closer to being a successful poker player. You will make your poker career/hobby
very difficult for yourself if you overly concentrate on short term results.
You can play a losing session perfect and play a winning session poorly.
If you sense TILT coming on take a break and return once you have calmed down, no one expects you to be a robot, taking bad beats hand after hand is going to effect you emotionally, make a drink (non-alcoholic) to relax for a few minutes. You can also introduce stop limits to reduce your day to day variance (please note this makes absolutely no effect to long-term win rates but can help you avoid getting stuck). For instance, if you were to lose $50 you should end your session. The main benefit of this method is to avoid tilting when you lose x amount and start chasing your losses.
That's it for TILT even knowing all this you will still have TILT and sometimes lose due to TILT but you must recognize it and manage it. I currently have a high TILT tolerance, but I'm not immune and occasionally decide to stop playing until I'm in the right mind-set.
Sit n' Go's or SnG's
These one table tournaments can be an excellent and safe way to build your bankroll, the players at the lower limits are very weak and consistent tight play is usually all that is needed for an ITM finish (ITM=In the money). You're strategy needs to change slightly from your cash games strategy as you can't reload once your chips have gone. There is lots of great advice in the (INSERT LINK TO FORUMS) forums concerning how to play these and I won't go into great deal on how to play them. I'll just explain a few pros and cons about them.
Pros:
Once you have managed to become a winning player at these the variance is very low and you should be able to make a steady profit without any wild swings to your bankroll.
You can begin building experience that will come in handy later when you start playing the bigger Multi-Table Tournaments
There are currently no books available on single table tournaments so unless the other players are active in poker forums you can have a big advantage over them due to your superior strategy.
In my opinion, easier to beat than cash games.
Cons:
The bad beats hurt a lot more in tournaments, especially if you are eliminated with one.
You can play for up to an hour, only to get eliminated by a single bad beat.
On some poker sites the later stages of the tournament can turn into a crapshoot - that is whoever gets dealt the best hand wins as the blinds are so high you have to play almost any hand.
Limit Holdem
Some people call this a game for "old men with no balls", but I prefer the saying that "No-Limit Holdem is an Art and Limit Holdem is a science". In Limit holdem there is usually always a right move to make as bluffing is extremely hard due to the bets being limited.
This means 99% of the time the best hand wins, it also means that a lot of people will stay to the river card (especially at the low limits) and this is where the other saying "No Fold'em Hold'em" comes from. This can also increase your bad beats, due to so many people staying in hoping for and hitting miracle cards and at the same time when your hand does stand up (doesn't get outdrawn) you will win a big pot. The variance can be quite big in Limit and it's widely accepted that you need at least 300BBs.
If you choose to play Limit Vs No Limit I would strongly advise you buy and read Lee Jones "Winning Low Limit Hold'em" before you start to play and keep re-reading until you know the book inside out. It is a great book on how to beat low limit holdem.
Limit Holdem is a very analytical game if you find no-limit holdem isn't your game and prefer your decisions to be more precise maybe Limit is for you.
If you have any questions on this part or any other part of the guide you can ask me in the FTR forums.
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