Poker Strategy: Poker Psychology
The power of the mind in poker: There is no spade.
It’s well-known among poker enthusiasts that using psychology to get inside the head of your opponents can really give you an edge over them. What some people forget though is that it’s equally important, if not more so, to understand how your own psychology plays a role in your results. Many people who have solid overall strategies nevertheless fail to live up to their potential as players due to a lack of emotional control. Tilt – including “winners tilt” – the desire to get “unstuck” while in the midst of a losing session, playing while tired, and off-table habits can threaten your ability to earn a profit from poker. The articles below discuss some of the psychological problems that affect poker players and ways of dealing with them. Before long, you’ll be able to make calm, dispassionate decisions, and you’ll therefore be able to play your A game for extended periods of time.
Featured Poker Psychology Articles
Most Recent Poker Psychology Articles
ISF – General Hand Reading
When it comes to getting better in an early stage of your career, hand reading is a premium. You can understand poker as much as you’d like, but it’s not going to help if you can’t read hands well. It’s hard to know what to do when you have no idea what your opponents...
Optimizing Your Sessions With Simple Routines
Establishing a set of routines to perform before you begin playing poker will produce long-term, positive results. By properly training your body, you’ll be able to condition your involuntary responses to make you calm, focused and ready to play whenever you want to.
Poker Goals
There are several similarities that you can find between the game of Poker and Life in general. One of these would be to compare a poker player to a major league baseball pitcher. Every at bat is a world on itself, and you have to keep a cool head through all of them....
The Value of a Bankroll
I think that the concept of bankrolls in poker is something that is misunderstood by the vast majority of poker players. In fact I have read more opinions and articles on the subject of bankroll management and earn rates than I can remember. I find most of the...
The Greatest Obstacle in Poker
I really do not think that reading poker books or watching coaching videos can prepare you one hundred percent for the mental trauma that professional gambling can throw at you. There are many similarities with regards to poker with many other fields and one such...
Poker, the Beautiful Woman
Yes, poker is definitely like her. It can give you feelings of great exhilaration, and then bloody annoy you, all within the space of a few minutes. When you first meet poker, you just want more. You can’t stop playing with her, and think she’s the best...
Psychology of a Tilting Player
pokerfanatic has been a member of FTR since August of 2004, and has over 1,400 posts in the FTR Poker Forum. Below pokerfanatic discuss thetopic of tilt, which as you know, is one of the worst enemies of the poker player. pokerfanatic’s Psychology of a Tilting...
Playing Long Sessions
By learning how to play longer sessions at the poker tables more effectively, you can increase the amount of money you win. By carefully choosing the right tables and using lobby filters to your advantage, you can keep yourself in good +EV situations for extended periods of time.
Poker Discipline
Anosmic’s Year One post inspired me to do something for my first FTRnniversary. It’s been a great year for me, poker-wise. I started last February playing $10 SNGs and 25NL ring with a $300 bankroll and am now playing 200NL with a $8k bankroll. I’ve...
Bless the Beats
It’s never easy to shrug off a losing session. We’ve all taken our share of beats, both good (if there is such a thing) and bad. Sometimes, they can effect us so deeply that they permanently alter the way we play. But, even in the midst of these trying ordeals, there are lessons to be learned. Each hand we lose becomes a teaching opportunity, and the careful student of the game will gather up these bits of knowledge like so many invisible chips. Here now are some of the best ways I’ve found to recover from a rough stretch at the tables.
Top Poker Tell Tips From 5 Pros
Poker tell: “A tell in poker is a subtle but detectable change in a player’s behavior or demeanor that gives clues to that player’s assessment of his hand. A player gains an advantage if he observes and understands the meaning of another player’s...
Finding the Motivation to Improve at Poker
Poker motivation can be difficult to find to say the least, and having a strong support system is one of the best ways to keep pushing forward.
Mindset, Technique and Money Management
I am going to reveal something that I think is of immense use to any poker player. While it is critical to know how to play the game well, this is only a tiny part of being a successful poker player. Playing poker has so many similarities to financial trading that it...
Dealing With Bad Beats
Recently I have seen a number of posts by newer players complaining about bad beats and suckouts and perhaps even suggesting that certain sites deliver a greater proportion of bad beats than others. There is already a sticky in the bad beat forum about this but I...
Expanding Your Pre Flop Range
After familiarizing yourself with key poker fundamentals such as bankroll management, positional awareness, and aggression, there are a few other aspects of your game you can improve to take the next step in your poker playing career. One of the best ways to improve...
