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
Bankroll Management 101
Bankroll Management Calculator The above tool will help determine which buy-in level you should be playing at, based on the size of your current bankroll. It will give you 3...
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.
Beginner’s List of Poker Leaks
Poker is a complex, difficult game, so it’s only natural for beginners to make a lot of errors. The problem is in identifying these errors — if you knew what they were, you wouldn’t be making them! Take a look at these common leaks to see if any of them are present in your game.
Taking the Next Step
In poker, it’s important to keep improving your game so that you can move up in stakes. By carefully considering bankroll management, studying the player pool at your new level and approaching the bigger game with the right mindset, you can increase your chances for success.
The Psychology of Losing
You can’t win every hand or tournament when playing poker. But an extended losing streak can often have severe emotional repercussions that may compound over time, causing you to lose even more. Learn how to break out of the cycle and start winning again.
Most Recent Poker Psychology Articles
Babysitting Blunders: How Not to Treat New Players
During my time at the tables, I’ve had a chance to observe an extensive amount of human behavior. Thanks to the growing popularity of the game, I’m seeing more and more diverse personalities sported by players operating on a variety of skill levels.
But with the ever-expanding pool of competitors, I find many of my brothers and sisters who’ve been around for a while are forgetting some of the cardinal rules of the game. I’m talking, specifically, about the treatment of new players at the tables. It happens both at live events and when surfing through the online card rooms. There are veterans (and even more who think themselves to be veterans) who, by carrying themselves in a certain fashion, do themselves a disservice and consequently reduce their own level of play.
Poker Thoughts for Beginners
I've been through all the ups and downs of poker. I just thought I'd share some things with some of the beginners to help them not make mistakes early on. We all make mistakes starting out and I was making the same mistakes over and over and for far too long. These...
Understanding the Importance of Shania (theory post)
I think I just had a really cool epiphany. Danny and I just watched the new movie 21 tonight (meh). Obviously, when two poker players see that movie there is going to be some gambling discussion afterwards. One thing lead to another and I brought up the subject of why...
Rules for Table Selection
There are many things you can do to increase your poker skill and you should do them. However, it is unlikely that you will do anything between now and your next poker session that will dramatically increase your skill. Reading the right books, studying some articles,...
Emotional Mastery Over Poker Tilt
Here's a fun topic I spent some time working on. It's incomplete but this is an endless topic. Does it make sense to anyone else, or just me? (To give credit where it's due, this is my take on Anthony Robbins - you can do a search for his books.) Realizing Emotional...
You Can’t Make Your Opponent Fold
A lot of people ask how to make opponents fold so they cannot suck out. Here is a long story. It will be meaningless to some. To others, it may resonate and really help. In my 20s and early 30s I practiced an old, particularly brutal martial art. For those who have...
Comfort Zone
We’ve all fallen prey to the common ills of online poker – playing while you’re too tired, playing for too many hours, forgoing meals or hydration, or sitting at the table with too many thoughts swimming in our heads. Here are a few simple tips that are guaranteed to make you feel better at the digital felt.
Building Your Bankroll
Even if you’re an experienced player, you should still give some thought to how you can build your bankroll so you can move up in stakes and increase your winnings. From avoiding tilt to taking advantage of bonuses and rakeback, this article gives meaningful advice about building your bankroll.
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 thing ever....
Your Bankroll and You
There are many things that are important in Poker; your position during a hand, your starting hand (cards), your opponent tendencies, the odds for a certain draw to hit, how that draw fares versus your holding, bluffing opportunities, recognition and exploitation of...
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....
3 Extremely Useful Methods to Recognizing a Read
Goal: to know the cards of your opponent. If you can obtain that information (through legal and accepted means!), you are on your way to making a lot of money. The study of reading your opponent is a never ending endeavor, because making your reads is going to be...
Nine Noobie Myths About Microstakes NLHE
I feel like tons of the noobies in the BC have serious misconceptions about microstakes poker. Here are a few I've seen lately. 1. The micros are just too fishy to be beat for any decent win rate. 2. The micros are too hard to be beat since UIGEA. 3. The FTR regs at...
Bankroll Management: A Basic Concept Revisited
Every serious poker player knows that bankroll management is a huge part of the game regardless of what variant they’re playing. What are the keys to it? Playing at the highest stakes you can beat and ensuring your bankroll is large enough to give you a reasonable shot at winning over the long haul.
Poker and Life
All serious poker players are familiar with the idea of tilt. Tilt is a change, for the worse, in our poker play due to emotions. Most players recognize tilt as a negative reaction to play on the felt: a bad beat, a cooler, or even winning a large amount of money can...
