So you decided that you want to become a professional poker player? Here are some quick tips of what to expect and what you can do to make that journey a little bit easier! Pro Tip No.1 - Befriend with the odds In Poker, there is nothing more basically important to master than the mathematical concept of EV or Expected Value, that is of course if your goal is to be profitable! EV is, very simply said: the less you risk to win the hand the better! Say, for instance, playing 10-$1 buy-in tournaments, $1000 pot, gives you an EV+ since you would be risking just $10 to potentially making 200x+ on each tournament. Now in Cash Games, the more times you win $1000 pots with just $100 risks means you are making more +EV decisions. If we apply odds to real life it can give you more security in decision-making moments. Take for example the odds of dying in a plane crash are way lower than the ones dying in a car accident. I am sure the use of odds here has convinced many scared of heights to take that first flight, right? Perhaps you have heard that poker, as life, is a game with incomplete information. Odds give you information that is a lot of times key to make more profitable decisions. Pro Tip No.2 - Get ready to lose; poker is not a win-win game Get ready to look like a fool when a better poker player slow rolls you or when you bluff when you should not have. Poker has a big element that you cannot forget: luck. You will see poker players having a bad streak of luck for weeks and even months, so get ready to lose every now and then. If you become a skilled player though, through reading, practicing and using the odds there is a much higher chance of you beating your opponent. Just remember, becoming a poker pro might take you months and most probably, years! Pro Tip No.3 - Never get too excited about aces It is quite common for amateur players to get too attached to aces especially when the dealer puts out a board of possible flushes and straights to opponents. Play the player, not your hand and fold those aces when the odds of a straight or flush are against your aces. How about the ¨never fold KK preflop rule?¨ In Poker, as in life, never say never! The truth is, most pro poker players go by this rule and have gotten very good results from it but we have also seen pros sniffing pocket aces having pocket kings and folding preflop. Getting too attached to all these golden rules can also become a weakness in your game.
Pro Tip No.4 - The importance of having position in poker Having position in poker means acting last in a hand. Most beginners underestimate this situation which allows you to read an opponent´s hand by their position and action. Sometimes, players in SB and BB tend to give too much information. Pay attention to this and utilize weaker hands to outplay your opponents. Pro Tip No.5- Know who to play against Who do professional athletes want to play against? They want to play against the best, right? In poker, smart poker players want to play against the worse players and you might be one of those amateurs they look to destroy in your local casino. Chose your opponents wisely and try building your bankroll in small buy-in tournaments. If you have been playing poker for just a couple of months we don’t think it´s wise to play a $1050 buy-in Tournament; there is a very high chance of getting destroyed by the pros who have a big enough bankroll to pay those buy-ins. Comments are closed.
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