Champion of Poker

Here I want to teach you something that I feel is very important with regards Texas Hold’em poker. While the subject of not falling into identifiable patterns is crucial, what is also important is to recognise those patterns and tendencies in other players.

Whenever I sit down in any poker game I am watching my opponents like a hawk. But it is sheer naivety and ignorance to think that at least SOME of them are not watching you as well……of course they are. The level to which they are watching can vary from the very keen players who take notes to the player who is merely subconsciously observing.

Whenever I play poker, I do not try to create a particular image unlike many players. I just play my normal poker game and let the natural flow of the cards do that for me. If for instance I sit down at a table full of players who I do not know and get dealt four premium raising hands on the spin and I win those four pots without a showdown then the rest of the table is hardly going to believe that I am playing normally are they.

They are going to be seeing me as a loose maniac who they cannot wait to play back at and put into line. Yet I have been playing entirely normally but unless your opponents have seen that then they cannot possibly know. But I need to be aware of how much I have been raising and betting because the rest of the table are going to be basing SOME of their decisions around what I am doing or what I have done, this concept applies whether you are playing poker tournaments or cash games.

So in this instance, I will back off from playing a marginal hand or attempting a bluff because I feel that the probability of me being called has increased. This is what I call “Speed” and it falls into several categories. When certain players sit down to play, they sit down with a set system and never deviate. If the poker game is very weak then you may earn money doing this but be advised, the ONLY poker game that you are capable of beating by playing this way is a very weak one.

People who play at the same speed are easy to beat. Passive players who stay that way are easy meat, the very aggressive players can be beaten although these types can be dangerous in the short term. I am constantly watching my opponents and the overall speed of the game. If there is a lot of loose calling and raising going off then I change speeds and slow down. What is the point in bluffing if you are going to get called or raising with marginal hands if they are going to get re-raised.

Professionals refer to this as “changing gears” and you may have come across this expression either in a book or magazine or by hearing it on TV. I do not go into ANY game with a set plan in the strictest sense of the word. My plan if you can call it that is to mould my play around what is happening on the poker table RIGHT NOW.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson