Champion of Poker

Sometimes in a game like no limit Holdem poker, it can only take one player who is throwing a party for the game to be profitable. When you are sitting in a $1-$2 game of no limit hold’em and a live one buys in for $200 and plenty more in his account in which to reload then the game can be very good indeed. More than likely you will notice a waiting list in the lobby of players who are all waiting to take a seat in this particular game.

Being able to win one hundred big blinds in one single hand of poker makes many games that would be otherwise negative expectation games profitable. Quite often I have sat in a no limit game myself where everyone has been playing well. But there might be one player who I know from having played with him before who has the capacity to tilt after a couple of beats or who has a certain weakness with laying down big hands and in my mind, this makes the game potentially profitable.

But limit hold’em or even Omaha is not like that, you extract the money in limit piece by piece rather than in one big blow. You have to continually make better decisions over the weaker players and slowly but surely bleed their bankroll while also enduring many beats along the way. But the capacity to only be able to extract a very tiny amount of money from any one situation or pot makes game selection much more important in this form of poker.

Do not get me wrong here, I am not saying that game selection is not important in no limit hold’em. It is critical in all forms of poker and you simply cannot win in any game unless you have some kind of superiority over at least some of the players in your game. This is why it does not necessarily matter how good a player you are or how much you know about the game. That is only part of the overall equation. What matters most is how good you are and how much you know compared to the other players who are seated in your game.

This principle that most players ignore applies to all forms of gambling and not just poker. If you do not choose the correct time and place in which to do battle then you will lose not only the battle but also the war.

There will be many people who buy this book expecting to be told or taught about software like Poker Office. Well I am sorry to disappoint you but you will not find much by way of software my articles. Much of the material regarding cash games in my articles deals with live play anyway so discussing trackers would be pointless. Plus, I am not the world’s greatest expert on it so it would be unfair for me to tell you basic simple stuff or to rehash some previously published material. This is not my style, I want to write my own poker articles using my own methods and theories and not other peoples.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Author – “Winning Cash Game Poker”