Hand: UTG open raises. Fish calls from big blind. Flop is A-J-8 rainbow. Check-Pot-Call. Turn is an offsuit 6. Check-Pot-Call. River is a 5. Check-Pot-Call.

Result: UTG turns over AAKK for top set. Fish turns over 7422 for the straight.

Aftermath: The UTG shark berates the fish. “You’re an idiot!” “How could you chase with that?” and “You f**ing moron didn’t even know to re-raise on the river with the nuts!” The fish leaves.

My Chatbox Entry: “So, he was a terrible player, right? And you told him so and chased him away from this table with insults. So, honest question: If you don’t want to play against terrible players, then who exactly do you want to play against?”

Lesson: Quit getting angry at the bad players. Learn to weather the ups-and-downs that come along with fish. And exploit the hell out of them. This can be an easy game— if you let it be.

“When I was young, people called me a gambler. As the scale of my operations increased I became known as a speculator. Now I am called a banker. But I have been doing the same thing all the time.” — Sir Ernest Cassel

Imagine we have a drawing hand and someone bets into us on the flop. How do we decide whether to call or fold? Should we chase the draw or not? Remember that poker is a game of decisions, not results. If we can make the right decision, we will win the hand, regardless of the actual outcome. So, how do we do this?

Answer: we have to compare the probability of hitting our hand and getting paid against the price we’re offered to chase and potentially miss. If the reward is greater than the risk, we should call. If it’s not, we shouldn’t. So, how do we know if the price is right to chase? 

Answer: There are several ways of making this comparison, but one of the simplest is to count your outs and determine what the probability of making our hand is. There are two ways to determine the probability. The first is via a standardized chart, like the one shown here in the image. The other is to use the so-called “rule of 2 & 4.” Let’s look at both approaches.

How to Use the Chart:

Imagine that we have A♣2♣ on a Q♣K♥5♣ flop. The pot is $100 and our opponent moves all-in for his remaining $50. We are relatively confident he has a moderately strong hand like top pair. We have him covered. Is it correct (read: profitable) for us to make the call or not?

Given our read of the villain, we assume that if we hit a flush, we will win the hand. There are nine unseen club cards, or outs, available to make our flush (K♣, J♣, T♣, 9♣, 8♣, 7♣, 6♣, 4♣, & 3♣). 

After the villain shoves, the pot is $150, and it will cost us $50 to call. We’re getting $150:$50, or 3:1 on our money to make the call. Converting this to a percentage form gives us: 1/(3+1) = 25%. This means we need more than 25% equity to make this a profitable call.

Per the chart, the probability of making our hand with nine outs and two cards to come is 35% (i.e., we can make our hand on the turn or the river). Since our equity (35%) is greater than the pot odds (25%), this is a profitable call to make. In fact, not making the call is a mathematical mistake. Even if we don’t make the flush, we will have still made the correct “+EV” decision. This is all that matters in poker: making the right decision. The results of a single hand don’t matter a whit. The only thing that matters is that we make +EV decisions, over and over. 

In this situation, calling $50 on the flop is correct. But imagine that our opponent shoved on the turn instead of the flop. Here, we still have 9 outs, but per the chart, the probability of us making our hand on the river (i.e., with just one card to come) would drop to only 19.6%. And since 19.6% is less than 25%, this would not be a profitable call for us to make. The most positive EV play you can make in this situation would simply be to fold.

A Shortcut to Memorization: The Rule of 2 and 4

The ideal approach to outs and odds is to memorize the key probabilities of the most common situations, like flush and straight draws, hitting a set, and so on. Armed with this knowledge, we can make instant, on-the-fly decisions with relative ease. We simply calculate the pot odds and compare to the memorized probabilities.

Instead of memorizing numbers from a chart, however, there is a simple shortcut that approximates the probability of making our hand. This is called the “Rule of 2 and 4.” Here’s how it works:

Imagine that we are on the flop and plan to stick around and see both coming cards (turn and river) if we call. To calculation our probability, simply multiply the number of our outs by the number four. The result is the approximate probability of making our draw. In the first example, above, we’re facing a shove on the flop with two cards yet to come. We’re on a flush draw with nine out, so we multiply 9×4, which equals 36, or 36%. Note that this estimation of our equity is very close to the actual correct value of 35%. 

Similarly, if we will only see one card (e.g., we’re on the turn and there’s just the river card to come), multiply our outs by two. Again, the result is a rough approximation of making our hand. For the second example, with just one card to come and facing the shove, we would multiply the number of outs by two, which gives us: 9×2 = 18%. Again, this is pretty close to the correct value of 19.6%. While not exact, most times, this will get you close enough to make the right decision.

The Bottom Line:

Learning to count outs and determine the probability of making a draw is one of the most basic skills every poker player should be capable of doing at the table. Taking the time to memorize key percentages from a table, or at least learning the rule of 2 and 4, can and will make the difference between long-term profit or loss. Poker is a game of math. If you’re not doing the math in real time at the tables, you’re just guessing.

"When you know your why, you will know your way.” — Michael Hyatt

Knowing why to bet in poker is just as important as betting the correct amount. In fact, some would say it's more important. Knowing the why means you can and will make the correct adjustments to your line as the hand progresses. In this post, I discuss the two primary reasons we bet in poker, some secondary reasons that are also valid, and one important reason not to bet, too.

What is Our Why?

Every single decision we make—and every single action we perform—at a poker table should have a sound, logical, +EV reason behind it. For example, imagine that we are dealt KTo on the button and the action folds to us. The standard play most of us would make is to open-raise. 

But why? 

If you were to pause the action and ask a beginner why he or she is raising in this situation, they often can’t give you a reason. They might be new to the game and are working from a starting hand chart. The chart says to raise in late position if the action is folded to you when we hold KTo, so this we do. While this approach is fine when we’re first learning poker, it's not sufficient. If we want to master the game—and actually start winning consistently—we have to dig deeper and understand why the chart says KTo is an open-raising hand in late position.

I’m an advocate of beginners using starting hand charts. Newbies have to bootstrap their game, and a reasonably tight starting hand chart is a good place to start the poker journey. But we can’t continue long following a rote chart without understanding why it recommends raising or calling or folding. Nor can we progress to playing without the chart. Knowing the why in poker is much, much more important than the what. 

When we know the why, we can adapt to the flow of the game. We can tighten- or loosen-up based on the types, tendencies, and actions of our individual opponents. Knowing the why means we can learn to adjust our starting hands based on information about the game state and the villains’ actions. Knowing the why means we can tweak and improve our decisions to maximize our expected value, such as by adjusting our bet sizing. And knowing the why means we can minimize the amount of money we lose when we find ourselves up against a villain holding a better hand than ours. 

The why always leads to more positive EV decisions.

Okay, fine. So in the example above, why is the standard recommended play to raise with KTo when the action has folded to us preflop? Standard answer: because there aren’t many people left to act, so it’s likely so they will fold, allowing us to win the blinds uncontested. 

While KTo is a moderately strong hand, we’re primarily open-raising as a bluff steal. If someone calls our raise, however, we will have position on them post-flop. And, because KTo is moderately strong, it has a reasonable chance of holding up as the best hand on a flop. 

Further, if someone re-raises us, knowing that the reason we were open-raising the hand was to bluff-steal allows us to do something as radical as fold. Yes, fold. If we forget the why, we might get stubborn, calling or re-raising with that KTo and then likely finding ourselves in a world of hurt post-flop.

There Are Only Two Ways To Win:

There are two—and only two—ways to win a poker hand. The first is to turn over the best hand at showdown on the river. The second is to have everyone else fold, leaving only us as the last person in the hand. These two ways to win a poker hand lead us to the conclusion that there are two—and only two—primary reasons that we should bet in poker:

1. Value. We bet because we think our opponents will call with hands weaker than ours, and therefore help build a pot that we can win at showdown.

2. Bluff. We bet to cause our opponents to fold better hands than ours, which allows us to win the money currently in the pot without having to show our cards.

If neither of these reasons applies, we probably should not bet. Let’s repeat that for clarity: if we can’t justify either a Value or a Bluff bet with our hand, we probably should not be putting any more money into the pot. 

In the KTo hand example, we open-raised to accomplish the second result, bluffing: i.e., we would be quite happy if everyone else folded and we won the blinds uncontested. This type of preflop bluff bet from late position is called a “steal.”

If our hand had been something much stronger, like KK, with significantly more preflop pot equity, we still would have open-raised if the action folded to us, but our reason now would have been very different. We would actually want a call or two from the blinds, as this puts more money into the pot while we hold what is most likely the best hand.

The "what" was the same, but the "why" is quite different. In the KK hand, we would bet for Value, while with KTo we would bet as a Bluff. This means we might consider betting a slightly different amount to induce either a call or a re-raise. It also means we're going to react differently if we get a re-raise from one of the players in the blinds.

Other (Sometimes) Valid Reasons to Bet:

Besides Value and Bluff, there are sometimes valid secondary reasons we bet:

• Semi-Bluffing. Sometimes our hand lies somewhere between a pure Value hand and a pure Bluff hand. For instance, we might hold KJs in late position and decide to raise when the action folds to us. Our hand may or may not be best, so we’re betting as a combination of Value and Bluff. Poker players says that our hand in this situation has only moderate "pot equity” (i.e., the probability of being the best hand) but the situation also gives us reasonable "fold equity" (I.e., a reasonable chance that the remaining players to act will just fold), so we bet. Our hand might improve and become the best by the time we get to showdown, but we also don’t mind if our opponents just fold now. When we’re betting as a combination of moderate value and bluffing, our bet is known as a “semi-bluff.”

• Isolation Bet. If a weak player to our right enters the pot preflop, we can sometimes raise to discourage other players from joining the hand. This is called an “isolation” raise, and it allows us to play heads-up in position against the weaker opponent all by ourselves. But even in this situation, our hand should still have some reasonable amount of pot- and/or fold-equity.

• Protection Bet. We can also bet if our hand is probably best, but is also vulnerable; i.e., we suspect our opponent has a drawing hand that can beat ours if he makes his hand. Here, we want to make our opponent pay the price to see any further cards. Said another way, we want to offer our opponent the wrong odds to call with his or her draw. This is called a “protection” bet, or sometimes “betting to deny equity,” but in reality it's nothing more than a specialized type of value bet; we probably have the best hand, and we want to build value and have the other player call, but we also want to give them the wrong mathematical odds to do so.

A Bad Reason to Bet: Information

We should never bet for the primary reason of trying to figure out what your opponent’s hand is. This is called an “information bet,” a “probe bet,” or “betting to find out where you are in a hand.” And it is dumb poker.

Some old school poker players still believe this is a valid reason to put money into the pot, but the math doesn't support the play. While the information you glean from betting is beneficial, it should not be the reason to bet. You should almost always bet because you have a Value hand, are on a Bluff, or are Semi-Bluffing. In cash game, you should never bet for information alone.

Common Pitfalls & Mistakes:

A very common mistake that beginners make is they slow play and/or “trap” with their Value hands. Usually, the best outcome of doing this is we don’t win as much money as we could have if we would have simply bet and built the pot (i.e., get called by inferior hands). The worst outcome of slow playing is our opponent gets to see relatively cheap (or free) flop, turn, and river cards that can improve their hand to better than ours (e.g. if they are drawing to a drawing to a better hand). There is a saying among winning poker professionals that nicely sums this up: “It’s a sin in poker to give your opponent a free card.”

Another common mistake beginners often make is trying to bluff too much at lower stakes tables. Unfortunately, many of the opponents you face at low stakes tables are “calling stations,” i.e., if they have any kind of made hand, weak or strong alike, they will not fold. Worse, many of these players are blissfully unaware of what hands we are representing with our bluff bets. The saying among professional poker players for this situation is: “You can’t bluff a bad player,” and the low stakes games are rife with bad players.

The Bottom Line:

Before we bet, we should always ask ourselves two questions: 

1. First, will we be able to get an opponent holding a worse hand than ours to call if we bet (i.e., Value)? 

2. Second, will we be able to get a villain holding a better hand than ours to fold (i.e., Bluff)? 

If we can accurately answer yes to at least one of these questions, then we should bet. If we can’t answer yes to either of these questions, we probably should not bet.

For a beginner, answering these questions can be difficult. This is because we may have not yet learned how to hand read and determine the likelihood that our opponents hold better or worse cards than ours. And this means that bluffing is particularly difficult, and we should focus more on waiting for good cards and betting for Value than we should try Bluffing. This is especially true at small stakes tables, because the players we want to fold when we’re Bluffing are often not good enough to recognize that they should in fact fold.

The bottom line to all of this is we need to know why you are going to bet. If we don't know our “why”, we are guessing at the correct play to make. And guessing should not be some third reason you're betting.

“Don’t need a gun to blow your mind.” — John Lennon

Over the past few posts, we’ve talked about losing poker hands. We covered the three ways to lose a poker hand, and why all of them can actually be positive things if viewed correctly. But there was a bigger, more important takeaway in those posts you may have missed. In fact, this is perhaps the most significant concept in all poker to understand. And it may blow your mind when you finally get it: RDM.

You win or lose in a hand of poker at the moment that you check, call, bet, fold, or raise—not when the hand actually plays out. In fact, the results of the hand itself are irrelevant. And yes, I’m serious.

Imagine that a friend offers you a wager based on the flip of a fair coin. If the coin comes up heads, pay your friend $1. If the flip comes up tails, however, your friend has to pay you $1.50. 

You take the bet—and, before the coin is ever flipped, you’ve already won. The actual outcome of the coin flip doesn’t matter. Let’s repeat that for clarity:

The Results Don’t Matter.

Because you made a positive expected value (+EV) bet, you won. In poker (and other gambling games) we say that you’ve “taken the best of it.” And when you take the best of it in any gambling decision, you automatically win, regardless of the outcome of the bet. RDM, baby, RDM!

When you get your money in good, you’ve “won” in the long run. If you take the best of it over and over, the laws of probability will ensure you make money. In contrast, if you get your money in with the worst of it over and over many times, the laws of probability will ensure you go broke. We can’t control the outcome of a probabilistic event like a coin flip, but we can control the decision to enter a wager on that coin flip. Because the decision is all we control, that’s where the winning and losing actually takes place.

Viewing Poker as an RDM Endeavor

Every poker decision you make should be viewed through the RDM lens. For example, let’s assume a tight and nitty player opens with a strong raise UTG. You know, from past tangles with this person that they only open in that seat with powerful hands, like AA-QQ. Now, let’s further assume you have a pair of deuces on the button. The UTG villain has a small stack (less than 25bb). The action folds to you, and it’s clear the blinds are both going to fold. Should you call the raise and try to hit a set, or not?

You currently know you’re behind in terms of equity against the range of the villain. The only reason you would call is to hit a set. But because the stack depth is so shallow, you aren’t getting the correct mathematical implied odds to call and attempt to hit a set.

If you call, you lose. If you fold, you win—regardless of whether a deuce comes on the flop, and you take down the hand. Heck, it doesn’t actually matter if the flop is a miracle that gives you quads; by calling without the correct odds to do so, you have made a negative EV play—so you lose.

In contrast, every time you call with a small pair in this situation with the correct implied odds to set mine, you win. Again, it doesn’t matter whether you hit your set. You will make money in the long-run. The short-term outcome of this specific hand is irrelevant. Results Don’t Matter.

Or, here’s another one that will blow your mind: Every time you open raise UTG with a hand like QJo at a tough full-ring table, you lose. It doesn’t matter if you get six callers, hit the nuts on an A-K-T rainbow flop, and win everyone else’s stacks—you already lost the EV game the minute you entered the pot. You made a bad, negative EV decision, which means you put money into the pot with the worst of it. So, you lose.

Or, how about this one: Let’s imagine you get your entire stack into the middle preflop with A-A. Here, you’ve won. The results simply are not relevant; if some yahoo calls you with 7-2 offsuit and hits runner-runner for some improbable backdoor hand that bad beats your rockets, it’s fine because you got your money in good. You actually won, and the villain lost. The results of this one hand are irrelevant.

The Long View:

Poker is a game of the long run, of making +EV plays over and over, of forgoing -EV situations, and—especially—of ignoring the results of any one specific hand. When you take the best of it in a poker bet, you win. With time (and a properly sized bankroll), you will become rich.

And when you take the worst of it, you lose. Instantly. How the hand actually turns out is irrelevant. With time (and yes, even with a properly sized bankroll) you will go busto.

To win at poker, you must begin accepting the fact that individual hand results really, truly, honestly don’t matter. If you can embrace this idea, then you quickly realize that decisions are everything. And if you can do this, you’ll begin to a) focus on making only plus EV decisions, and pass up negative EV situations, and b) be able to shrug off bad beats and coolers… because they don’t matter. 

The Bottom Line:

Don’t sweat the results of any poker hand if you got your money in good. The results of a single hand literally mean nothing. Decisions and Expected Value are everything in poker. RDM, Baby, RDM.

“Love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.” — Carol Dweck

In our previous posts (here, here, here, and here), we delved into the three ways of losing at poker and why they should not be considered detrimental, particularly in the grand scheme of things. In this last installment, I’d like to give you five actionable steps you can take to convert losses into wins and cultivate the mindset of a winning poker player:

1. Embrace the Why: Before you sit down, during play, and after you get up from the poker table, you should constantly remind yourself of the primary reason you play poker in the first place: for the sheer enjoyment of the game. Yes, we all want to make money when we play, but that better not be the primary reason you play. There are many easier ways to make money than grinding on the felt. No, we play poker because it’s fun. It’s our passion. It’s the best game ever invented, and we can’t help getting excited when we post that first ante or blind and the cards are dealt. And yes, even losing during a session can be part of that fun. When you accept this part of poker, you acknowledge its inherent short-term volatility that often lies beyond your control. If you struggle to accept this reality, it might be time to pursue another hobby. However, if you can wholeheartedly embrace it— well, then embrace it! Bad beats, coolers, and mistakes are all frequent occurrences in the game you willingly play. There’s no excuse to get upset about a loss.

2. Value the Bad Players: Over time, most of your profits in poker will come from less skilled players who make errors. Occasionally, these players will get lucky. Interestingly, it is this perception of poker as a game of luck that entices them to return. As a skilled poker player, this is actually beneficial for you. Remember that if you would rather not play against poor players, then who exactly do you want to play against? 

3. Trust in the Math: Poker is a long-term endeavor. Over time, the number of coolers will even out, and bad beats will eventually translate into profits. If you repeatedly make sound decisions and get your chips in with a statistical advantage, you stand to make substantial gains. Don't fret over the opponent's momentary stroke of luck. I would choose math and the long-run over a player's short-term luck any day. You should too. Embrace opponents who play questionable hands and rely on long-shot odds, as they can and will be a lucrative source of income for you.

4. Reflect, Don't Dwell: In the words of Rooster Cogburn from the original True Grit, "Looking back is a bad habit." What's done is done. Sure, evaluate if you played the hand correctly. If you didn’t, write it down and learn from it and improve. If you played the hand correctly, remind yourself that individual results hold no significance, regardless of outcome. You are immune to the caprices of short-term luck. Your bankroll is robust enough to weather these sporadic variances. What truly matters, and the sole focus of your play, is making optimal decisions. Strive to make sound choices, period, and then let the chips fall where they may.

5. Take a Breather: When everything else fails and you feel yourself tilting because of the dumb luck of an unskilled opponent or a big avoidable mistake you just made, take a break. Step away for a round or two. Take a deep breath or go for a walk. Then return to this list and rediscover your inner fortitude. Get back in the game with renewed determination.

The Bottom Line:

Losing a poker hand may not be enjoyable, but understanding that there are only three ways to lose, and that each of them has a silver lining when approached with the right mindset, can provide valuable perspective. Embrace bad beats as evidence of your sound decision-making. Let coolers wash over your psyche as mere fluctuations inherent to the game. And learn from your mistakes so that they don’t happen again. By adopting these three principles, you can transform individual losses into overall victories in the long run.

“Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” —Thomas Wayne, Batman Begins

In the last two posts (HERE and HERE) we talked about losing via bad beats and coolers, respectively. In this post today, we’re going to look at the third, final, and potentially the worst way to lose a poker hand: Bad Play. Everyone makes mistakes during play. Misreads, errors doing the math, making a bad decision, failing to follow through… there are a myriad of ways to screw up a poker hand. Amateurs and losing players tend to beat themselves up for mistakes. Professionals, on the other hand, understand that losing due to bad play, while painful in the short-run, can lead to improvements. But this requires a specific winner’s mindset.

Losing due to bad play happens to us all, even expert players. A lot. Poker is a game of incomplete information and deliberate deception. Making mistakes during play is common. Leaks and errors and -EV decisions happen to even the best of poker players regularly. But what separates the pros from the mere mortals of the game is that they strive to learn from their mistakes.

The better players take time after every session to review their hands. The goal of these session “postmortems” is to understand both what they did right (so they can reinforce that behavior in future sessions) and figure out what they did wrong (so they can correct their mistakes). Of the two, the latter is by far the most important.

During these reviews, winners strive to understand where they misread their opponents. They recalculate and re-run the math. They review their decisions. They reevaluate their bet sizing. They check how deceptive they were. They ask themselves whether they were tilting or not. They don’t walk away from the tables angry at their mistakes, they look forward to reviewing and learning from them. Winners endeavor to get even better. They improve. And this strengthens them in the long run.

Poker commentator Jamie Kerstetter once remarked, “The fact that our planet will one day be consumed by a giant black hole helps take the pressure off of tough turn decisions.” This is an over-the-top-but-still-profound statement. The game of poker is, well, just a game. It’s not life or death. Nor are you risking financial ruin by playing poker (at least not if you’re exercising good bankroll management and playing within the limits of your ‘roll). If you make a mistake, the Earth will keep spinning and the Sun will still rise tomorrow. You will live through it.

It’s not only silly to beat yourself up over mistakes, it’s actually harmful in the long run. Instead, put that energy into learning from your errors. Poker is challenging, and you’re going to make mistakes. Lots of them. So turn those lemons into lemonade. So, how do we do this?

First, recognize that Everyone Screws Up. Mistakes are plentiful in poker. Even the best players in the world make dozens of errors in a single session. Nobody is perfect, including you and me. We’re going to bluff shove the river when, in hindsight, it was obviously a big mistake to do so. We’re going to call down with the losing hand. We’re going to completely misread a villain’s hand range and stack off all our chips. We’re going to mis-click and bet way-too-much/way-too-little when we should have bet far-less/far-more. We’re going to miss out on value by not raising hands in which we were clearly ahead but didn’t realize it. We’re going to be too afraid to bet-fold the river. We’re going to screw up the math, tilt, lose heart, not be prepared, play distracted…and so on…

The trick after any mistake in poker (heck, in life, too) is to ask yourself what are you going to do knowing that you screwed up? You only have two choices:

1. Feel Bad. Option one is, we can get angry at ourselves for the mistake. Moan, cry, or shout. We can beat ourselves up. Kick the dog. Sulk around the house. Whine, whimper, and complain like a snowflake baby.

2. Learn. Option two is we can learn from the mistake. We can take a breath and reflect, asking ourselves why we bluffed-shove on the river? Did we not take the time to read the villain’s range and line correctly first? Why did we think he was going to fold a better hand? How did we get fooled? What can we take away from this (expensive) lesson? We can do the opposite of whine, whimper, and complain: we can learn.

The Bottom Line:

Poker is a game that takes minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master. And to master it, you have to work at it, which means identifying and reviewing the things you do wrong—and working to ensure they don’t happen again. And remember, the Sun will always come up tomorrow… well, at least until some giant black hole lurking out there consumes the Earth… 😉

“I waited all night for a playable hand. I finally pick up Kings but—of course—run right into Aces!” — overheard during any poker session.

Sometimes in poker, we are dealt a strong hand, but our opponent gets an even stronger one and we lose. This is not a bad thing. In fact, it can lead to good things. To understand why this is so, let’s return to the previous post on Bad Beats. A bad beat is whenever a dominating hand gets beaten by an inferior hand. For example, we have Kings, shove, the villain calls and turns over 3s-2h, and they win. That’s a bad beat. But occasionally, our strong hand runs into an even stronger hand: e.g., we have Kings, shove, the villain calls and turns over Aces, and we lose. This is known as a “cooler.”

The difference between this situation and a bad beat is that neither opponent made a mistake in the hand; in fact, we both played our hands correctly. We just got unlucky to run into Rockets when we held the Cowboys. We had a very strong hand and were justified in getting all our stack into the pot. Our opponent did, too. That’s poker, friend. Professionals embrace this kind of loss, knowing it’s a good thing in the long run. And, yes, I’m serious. Here’s why:

1. You Played the Hand Correctly. First, you did everything right. That’s all you can do in poker. Usually, playing a hand correctly is not easy. Here you did. So, you need to congratulate yourself. Making consistent, +EV decisions and following through with them are the hallmarks of winning, professional play. 

2. Results Don’t Matter. The results of an individual cooler are the same as the results of any other specific hand in poker. I.e., they mean essentially nothing to a player’s bankroll in the long run. It’s just part of the long-term nature of poker. This time, your Kings ran into Aces. The next time, you will be the one who holds the Aces. Winners understand coolers even out, meaning the long-term results are zero EV. You will make no more money—and lose no more money—over time because of coolers. Every time you flop a set that loses to a bigger set will be offset by the reverse situation in the future. All the coolers in poker even out with time. They add (and subtract) exactly a big fat zero from your bankroll. Zero. Nada. Zip. Null. Nothing. If your bankroll is sized correctly for the stakes you play, coolers are meaningless in the long run.

3. Coolers Tilt Lesser Players. Winners understand coolers can cause tilt. They themselves are hardened to the effects of tilt, but the amateurs they play against aren’t. Many poker players focus on the results of a hand. And then they tilt when they lose to a cooler. And tilt makes all the difference in these kinds of situations. Winning professionals kind of just wryly smile, nod, and shrug off coolers—win or lose, it doesn’t matter. They don’t feel superior when they win. And they don’t whine when they lose. Professionals know that both extreme mindsets can lead to bad play. But amateurs recoil at the loss. They feel its sting. They howl at the injustice of it all. And as a result, they often tilt. Said another way: when your opponent gets upset with a cooler and slips off their A-game—well, you win. They make non-optimal decisions, while you continue making good, +EV decisions. Over time, you can and will profit greatly in these situations.

The bottom line with bad cards, a.k.a. coolers, is they’re just a natural part of the game. They even out over time, so their results are negligible on your bankroll—unless, of course, they cause tilt in your opponents, in which case coolers can be very profitable. Learn to embrace coolers.

“Few players recall big pots they have won, strange as it seems, but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career.” — Mike McDermott, Rounders

Note: This is a continuation of a recent post on The 3 Ways To Lose A Poker Hand.

My first poker coach had a rule. You paid him $5—immediately on the spot—whenever you told a bad beat story in his presence. Not only are bad beat stories boring, he would say, but they show you don’t understand poker. By telling a bad beat story, you are whining about a poor result to a well-played hand. That’ll be $5, please…

The very definition of a bad beat is when you get your money into the middle with a dominating hand, but it loses to a grossly inferior hand. Aces cracked by a lower pair. Ace-King losing to Ace-Ten. A flopped set falling to a runner-runner straight. These are all brutally painful bad beats. But please don’t tell me about them. You played the hand correctly but just got unlucky. Get over it already.

Don’t like it? You know where the door is. By now, in your poker career, you should understand this is a game of probabilities and statistics. It’s a game of the long-run. It’s a game of running bad and running good alike. Play long enough and the bad beats will all even out. Our Aces will get cracked just as often as the next guy’s, and we’ll just trade that money back and forth—assuming we’re playing correctly and getting our money in with the best of it.

Let’s repeat this for clarity: the definition of a bad beat is a hand in which you get your money in well ahead of your opponent (i.e., you have superior equity), but then the bad guy gets lucky and wins. You made all the right decisions in the hand, but still lost. Ask any of the Phil’s, and you’ll see they couldn’t have played the hand any better, nor would they have had a different result.

Bad beats are frequently called suck-outs. At the time they happen to you, you know exactly why they’re called that: they suck. Bad beats sting. They make amateurs shake their heads, utter obscenities, or want to punch someone. Bad beats can cause tilt.

But winning players react differently. This is because they understand that the results of an individual poker hand are not relevant. What does matter is whether they’ve made well-reasoned, positive expected value decisions or not. What matters is whether they got their money in ahead or behind, whether they folded when they should have, whether they made the right decisions and acted on them or not.

And that’s all you really can do in poker; make good decisions repeatedly. If you do this enough times… well, you’ll make a lot of money at this game. Of course, you’ll occasionally lose to ugly suck-outs. And at the moment one of these bad beats happens, you may feel that you suffered an injustice.

Okay, fine. Let that moment come and go. Then remember something very important: you played the hand correctly. You did everything you were supposed to do. In the long-run, you’ve won. Smile, you’ve had a bad beat. It may sting a bit, but it really is a good thing. It’s literal proof that you’re playing the game well.

Still don’t like it? Fine, tell me your tale of woe. And then fork over five bucks, please.

“You learn more from losing than winning. You learn how to keep going.” —Morgan Wootten

No one likes to lose at poker, but with the right mental approach, losing a poker hand can be refashioned into a good thing. To understand this, we need to first recognize that there are only three ways we can lose a poker hand:

1. Bad Beat. The definition of a bad beat loss is one in which we were a clear, dominating favorite to win when the money went into the pot—but our opponent got lucky, sucked out, and took down the pot. Poker is a game of statistics and probabilities. The best hand doesn’t always win. This is baked into the game. For example, imagine we’re dealt Kings in late position. A loose player open-raises in mid-position and the action folds to us. We re-raise, they shove, and we call. We’re surprised when they turn over 5c-4c. We’re even more surprised when the flop comes out 5-4-4 and our Kings go down in flames. We lost to a bad beat. Congratulations! We’re playing good poker, which is all about decisions, not results. We got our money in preflop with a dominating hand. We recognize we did everything right in the hand, but got unlucky. That’s just part of poker.

2. Bad Cards. The second way we can lose is because of bad cards. Like bad beats, bad cards are just another normal part of the game. Imagine that on the very next hand after the bad beat, that same opponent open-raises and we look back down at Kings again. We re-raise again, they shove, and once again we call, getting all our money into the middle. This time, however, the opponent turns over Aces. Worse, we don’t get lucky by spiking a third King. We lose another full stack. We call this type of situation a “cooler,” which essentially means that—*again*—we did everything correctly in the hand, but just ended up on the losing side of two powerful hands. Neither opponent played their hand wrong; we just got coolered with the second best hand. That’s just part of poker. Next time we’ll have the Aces and they’ll have the Kings.

3. Bad Play. The third and final way we can lose a poker hand is because of bad play. Everyone makes mistakes and errors. Amateurs and professionals alike. When we lose by misreading our opponent, for instance, we’ve lost to bad play. Losing this way means we did something wrong in the hand and were punished for that poor decision. We now have two options. We can feel the sting of the hand and get mad, potentially going on tilt, and losing even more money. Or we can feel the same sting of the loss, but use that pain as fuel to examine what we did wrong. We can lose and whine, or we can lose and learn. When a professional poker player loses because of poor play, you can guess which option they choose. Poor play becomes improved profits in their future.

And that’s it; these are the only three ways to lose a hand of poker. In upcoming posts, we’ll look at each of these in a little more depth—and we’ll show how all of them have silver linings that can make you more profitable in the long-run.

“Knowing [what to do] starts with ranging the villain and ends with executing a positive EV line against that range.” —Phil Laak

In the first part of this hand example, we found ourselves on the button holding a medium suited connector against an elderly, early position (EP) player who seems to be a tight, passive, level-1 ABC player. He opened-raised to 3bb preflop, the action folded to us, and we asked what should we do next?

If you answered with something like “call,” I’ll give you partial credit because the question itself was a bit of a trick one. Specifically, I asked, “what should we do next? Yes, skipping ahead, the correct decision to take in the hand is, in fact, to call, but the point of this “simple” hand example was to emphasize the importance of systematically working through a hand before arriving at that decision. In all my years of coaching, writing, and teaching this game, one of the most prevalent problems that I see struggling players make (beginning and intermediates alike) is to jump to answers without taking the time to logically and systematically think through the situation. Said more simply: most players act before thinking.

A few posts ago, I introduced the concept of a systematic approach to winning at poker. Element 1 of that process centered on logical hand analysis and decision-making, which is shown in simplified fashion in the image:

Systematic hand analysis is all about taking the time to logically and, well, systematically, work through the details of a hand to arrive at a logically deduced action to take. There’s a lot baked into this process, but at its core are four basic steps you should always work through:

1. Read. The first step in the 4-part RED-X analysis and decision-making process is to Read. This means paying attention and mentally reviewing the game and hand situation. It means noting the traits and tendencies of an opponent. And ultimately, it means using both explicit and implicit clues like bet sizing, known cards, and “tells,” to put that player on a logical and accurate collection of probable cards they hold. We call this collection of cards their “range”. And besides the range, we also try to determine what an opponent is attempting to do with those cards; we call this their “line.” For example, in our OMC hand example, we have a player who, up to now, has been very passive, limping and calling down even hands as strong as Jacks. He’s now open-raised for the first time, in early position no less, and has exhibited some classic tells that would indicate a strong hand. I won’t go into the entire hand reading process here, but to make a long story short, we can confidently put this player on a tight, strong range that includes Queens, Kings, Aces, and maybe AK and AKs. We’ll also assume his line is one of cautious value; i.e., he probably doesn’t want more than one caller and would likely be happy to just take down the pot now. 

2. Evaluate. The second step in the RED-X process is to mathematically evaluate the risks and rewards of different actions we might take in a hand, such as checking, calling, raising, or folding. If the potential reward is greater than the risk, it’s a profitable action to take. The problem is that poker is a probabilistic game; e.g., Aces (which are the best possible starting hand in Texas Hold’em) will still lose around 15% of the time against a random hand heads-up. Therefore, we need to evaluate risk and reward in a statistical, or “averaged long-run” manner. We do this via an Expected Value, or EV calculation, in which we estimate how much, on average, we will win if we make a certain play, and subtract how much we’ll lose on average with that play. If the result is positive, we say the play is profitable. If it’s negative, we shouldn’t make that play. The more positive an EV of a play is relative to another, the more we should consider making that play. Now, exactly how we do this EV calculation is the topic for another blog post, but the bottom line is that we require a means of determining our “equity” in the hand. In fact, there are two equities we have to calculate: (a) our pot equity, which essentially is how often our hand will win against the opponent’s range if we, say, call and go to a showdown; and (b) our fold equity, which is a measure of how often the opponent will fold if we bet or raise. Now, there are several shortcuts we can apply to simplify calculating these equities and, ultimately, the EV of the situation. For example, counting so-called “outs” when on a draw can help us estimate our pot equity. Similarly, being able to calculate odds and things like stack-to-pot ratios will also help short-circuit and simplify the EV calculation. These types of things are lumped into the general topic of “poker math,” which is essentially what we’re doing in this Evaluate step. For our simple OMC example, in which we’ve established that our opponent has the strong range of AA-QQ & AK+, we can safely assume that our fold equity is near zero; i.e., if we raise, we can expect the opponent to either call or re-raise, not fold. This leaves our options to folding or calling. Mathematically, the EV of folding in poker is always zero. The EV of calling depends on our equity, which is 31.8% in this situation (again, we’ll cover this in a later post). 

3. Decide. The third step in the RED-X process is to use the results of the mathematical evaluation we just did to work through our options and help us decide on the most profitable line to take in the hand. In poker, the aim is to make so-called “plus EV” decisions over and over. If we can do this repeatedly, we can and will ultimately ride out the up-and-down variance of poker and crush the game, making consistent money with time. This is how casino owners get rich; they set the odds in their slots and table games to ensure they are in the plus EV catbird seat. Sure, they can lose in individual situations (and in fact, this is good advertising for them) but eventually, slot machine players go broke and the casino wins. In the OMC example, we saw that raising was a bad idea and folding was neutral, or zero EV. That leaves calling to consider. Now, strictly speaking, the nominal EV of calling is actually slightly negative, but there are other factors that mitigate the situation. For example, there are “implied odds” benefiting us; i.e., the effective stack size is large enough to make gambling worthwhile. This is amplified because we have pegged our opponent as somewhat blind to board texture and will call down in an obvious losing situation; i.e., he’s ripe to pay us off if we hit. Further, we will have the added advantage of position in the hand and can play nearly perfectly against the OMC, depending on the flop. So, in this situation, our best option is to call and try to pick up two pairs, a straight or a flush draw. 

4. Execute. Finally, now that we know what our chosen line is, we need to execute that choice in a way that gives little information away about the strength of our hand or what our line is. At higher stakes, this execution step can include things like giving off so-called “reverse tells,” raising draws and semi-bluffing, slow-playing strong hands, and so on. In low stakes games, however, and especially against weak, inexperienced, or otherwise exploitable players like the OMC, the most optimal execution lines are often the most straightforward. We bet aggressively when we have a strong hand, and we play more passively when we’re weak or on a draw. In this example, before we act, we look left to ensure the one player remaining to act after us (i.e., the small blind) isn’t behaving as if they will raise us if we call. If we’re satisfied that we won’t get “squeezed” out of the pot, then we simply call the OMC’s bet and see the flop. Similarly, if we had decided that raising was more profitable than calling, we would have determined the most optimal raise size to make and then execute that raise. 

All long-term winning players—whether or not they consciously realize it—follow some variant of these four RED-X steps in essentially every hand they play. Sure, some situations are so familiar, obvious, or “rote” that the player can quickly fast-forward to the correct action to take in the hand. But for essentially everything else, the best players always slow down and “R-E-D-X” the situation before acting. Taking the time to read, evaluate, decide, and execute correctly during play is one of the most important elements that separates the winners from the losers.

And so, with that in mind, the correct answer of “What should we do next?” in the hand is not to call. Yes, that’s what we eventually should do in this situation, but first we have to Read our opponent's hand range and line. In fact, if you look at the readers’ comments posted in the original hand post, you’ll notice that each correct answer also started-with/contained an estimate of the range of hands that the opponent likely holds. Folks, this is good poker: Reading your opponent before anything else. And then Evaluating, Deciding, and eXecuting, too…

“Slow down, you move too fast…”—Simon & Garfunkel, The 59th Street Bridge Song

The Situation:

Imagine that we’re playing in a 9-handed $1/$2 Texas Hold’em cash game at a local casino. It’s mid-morning on a weekday, and the table is populated with middle-aged and elderly players. Most of these players are men who seem to be killing time with cash play until the daily noon knock-out tournament starts. The stack sizes vary between 50bb and 150bb. The play has been relatively tight and passive. The standard opening bet sizing that we’ve observed is 3x the big blind, but more often than not, players are limp-opening their hands.

The primary villain in this hand is an elderly gentleman who is dressed conservatively, including a thin gold wedding ring and an old Timex watch with a worn leather strap. He appears to be a typical “OMC,” or Old Man Coffee, meaning an elderly player who is likely on a fixed income and is playing poker more for social interaction than as a serious pursuit. True to stereotype, he is nursing a second free cup of coffee that was just brought to him by a table server. He has been chatting amiably about the weather and sports with a couple of other OMCs, most of whom seem to know him by name, as does the dealer.

We’ve been at the table for about an hour, and the villain has played only three hands in that entire period. In two of the hands, he called behind in late position to an open-limper, then folded on the flop after apparently missing his draws. On the third hand (which he also limped in preflop) he led into a low, wet and connected flop, and then check-called down when his opponent didn’t fold. He then folded his losing hand of Jacks face-up on the river, complaining audibly that he never wins with “damn fishhooks.” (Which, of course, spurred a series of jokes from the other players about losing with Jacks.) Based on these factors, we classify the villain as a tight, passive, somewhat unimaginative player who can get married to an over-pair, regardless of board texture.

A few hands later, the OMC villain is first to act under-the-gun. He currently has around 110bb in his stack. He open-raises to $6. Before he bet, however, we noticed he glanced briefly down at his chip stack. He also stopped chatting with his neighbor, and seems a little anxious as he waits for the rest of the players to act.

All the other players fold to us. We’re on the button and look down at 7c-8c. We have a 120bb stack. The player in the big blind, two seats to our left, folds out of turn. The only other player remaining to act in the hand (i.e., the small blind) already seems poised to toss his hand into the muck pile.

Before we decided what to do, we ask the OMC how much they have behind in their stack. The villain starts to answer, but then shuts up abruptly mid-sentence and doesn’t finish his reply. The action is on us.

The Question:

What should we do next? (Please provide your answer in the comment section below. Cheers!)

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” —James Clear, Atomic Habits

Whether you play poker for fun or as a profession, your aim is to win. However, achieving consistent success in the game is no simple task. It requires a combination of skill, strategy, discipline, and a winning mindset. In this blog post, I will delve into the seven primary elements that separate winning poker players from their losing counterparts.

As someone who has coached, written, taught, and played poker for decades, I've accumulated extensive knowledge and experience on the subject. I've read most of the serious works on poker, have watched countless hours of professional players' training videos, and have played millions of hands of poker myself, ranging from micro- to high-stakes. I've been coached by a variety of winning professionals, and I have coached hundreds of students of my own.

One thing that has always stood out to me when comparing losing and winning players is that the latter have what I call "complete" games. The best players in the world approach poker from a holistic standpoint, both on and off the tables. They constantly refine their fundamental skills and abilities, maintain strong study habits, manage their bankrolls effectively, and do everything else within their powers to maximize their profits.

Winning players strive to have no significant holes in their game. They may not excel at any one particular poker skill, but they aim to be highly well-rounded and to consistently execute all the techniques necessary to dominate the game. They don't avoid nor neglect any aspects of the game because it’s too difficult to learn, not interesting, or because they feel they have already mastered a particular skill set. Rather, long-term winning players view poker as a disciplined vocation, treating it as a kind of calling that requires constant vigilance and never-ending improvement. By doing so, they leave nothing to chance. Sure, it’s tautological to say, but winners are complete poker players because winning poker requires a complete game approach.

The Seven-Step Lifecycle of a Winning Poker Player

Successful players view poker as an ongoing cycle that spans both on- and off-table periods of time. They implement specific, well-considered strategies and tactics on the felt to make the best decisions possible in every hand played. But their work doesn't end when they leave the table, too. Instead, they continue to engage in discrete, pre-determined activities and actions off the table to improve their overall edges and increase their likelihood of winning when they return to the game. 

Over the years, I’ve identified seven key things, or steps, that winning poker players consistently take in their journey to maximum poker profits:

1. Systematic Hand Analysis & Logical Decision-Making. Winning poker players use a systematic approach to analyze their hands during play and arrive at the best possible decisions to take. They evaluate their hand strength, position, and the actions of their opponents logically. They consider the pot odds, implied odds, and equities their current and future situation in a hand. They then focus on deciding on—and acting upon—the maximum expected value, or +EV, path based on the available information and their analysis of that data. The best players understand the concept of range analysis and the power of mathematics. They use this information to make informed decisions and gain a consistent edge over their opponents.

2. Constant Adaptation and Adjustments During Play. Winning poker players are constantly adapting and adjusting during a poker session. They observe their opponents' tendencies and adjust their strategy accordingly. They are flexible in their play style and can switch from an aggressive to a passive approach, depending on the situation. Likewise, they adjust their bet sizing and bluff frequency based on their opponents' playing style, and how those players are adapting to them. As players come and go from the table, and as those players are making their own adjustments to changing table dynamics, the best players are striving to stay 1-2 steps ahead. They approach adaptation and change in a proactive manner that maximizes their edge.

3. Mindset Management. Winning poker players understand the importance of a calm and rational mindset during play. They avoid tilting and maintain a decision-based and focused mentality. They have a positive attitude and maintain a healthy balance between confidence and humility. Not only that, but they understand that poker is a game of variance, and even the best players dealt the best cards will experience losses. And they don't let those losses affect their decisions. They maintain a long-term perspective, knowing that individual results don’t matter, but making good, +EV decisions do.

4. Systematic Post-Game Shutdowns. Winning poker players exit their games—winning or losing—by following a prescribed shut-down process. They record their results and use this data to adjust their strategy and tactics. They update their notes on their regular opponents, capturing important habits, tendencies, and tells for use in future sessions. And they eliminate any residual tilt with techniques like post-game journaling and de-stressing exercises. The best players understand that their next session begins by systematically shutting down their last session in an effective and efficient manner.

5. Off-Table Learning and Skills Development. Winning poker players invest time to learn and strengthen their skills when away from the tables. They study the game through books, videos, and online forums. They discuss hands with other players, join coaching cohorts, and seek feedback on their play. They also analyze the games of other players, incorporating winning strategies into their game and identifying weaknesses to avoid. Winners understand that there is always room for improvement and they strive to become the best player they can be.

6. Improvement and Protection of Poker Foundations. Winning poker players better and safeguard their financial, physical, and mental well-beings. For instance, they proactively manage their bankrolls. They take care of their physical health by getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, and eating a healthy diet. They also schedule breaks from the game to prevent burnout and maintain their mental focus. Winning poker players also prioritize their mental health by managing stress and anxiety. They have a system of friends and family to provide emotional support and maintain a healthy work-life balance. And they strive to improve mental acuity and performance via mediation, mindfulness, and a variety of brain activities and exercises.

7. Systematic Pre-Game Preparations. Finally, poker players perform systematic pre-game preparations prior to sitting down to play. They plan their session in advance and set goals for their game. They review their notes and previous hand histories to prepare for their specific opponents at the table. They take care of practical matters such as ensuring their equipment is in working order, having sufficient funds for their buy-in, and arriving at the casino or online poker site on time. And of course they exercise effective game, table, and seat selection prior to play.

The Bottom Line:

Winning poker players possess a complete combination of skills, strategy, discipline, and a winning mindset. They use a systematic and logical approach to hand analysis, adapt to new information and changes at the table, manage their mindset during a session, perform systematic post-game analysis, consistently learn and elevate their skills, improve and protect their foundations, and perform effective pre-game preparations.

By incorporating these seven key elements into your game, you can increase your chances of winning consistently and achieving long-term success at the game of poker. If you want to transition from losing (or even break-even) play to consistent, exceptional winning, you must ensure your game is “complete” with all seven of the aforementioned elements. Goals are important, but they’re not enough. You need a logical & systematic approach to the game. These seven steps are the building blocks of complete-game winners.

You’re playing heads-up Texas Hold’em. What is the worst possible starting hand you can have if you shove all-in preflop against an opponent who will call with any two cards?

• 7-2 offsuit?

• Q-2 offsuit?

• 3-2 offsuit?

Answer:

3-2 offsuit.

Analysis & Explanation:

I was actually a little surprised at the result back when I ran the numbers. Very often you’ll read that 7-2 offsuit is the weakest possible starting hand in Hold’em. Heck, I’ve read entire blog posts and poker articles about just how bad 7-2 is. People call it the “beer hand” (as in: fold it and go get a beer), the “hammer” (as in: you’ll get hammered if you play it), or sometimes just the “W.H.I.P. hand” (as in: the Worst Hand in Poker).

But 7-2 offsuit ain’t the worst.

When heads-up against a random hand, 3-2 offsuit is worse than any other two card combination in the deck. For example, when pitted heads-up preflop against our old friend the 7-2 hand, 3-2 offsuit is a whopping 2:1 underdog. Yes, the 3-2 hand can make a tiny straight, but the odds of that happening are incredibly low. And yes, the gap between seven and deuce means that the 7-2 hand can’t flop a straight, but it has the advantage that seven is a significantly higher card than three, which more than makes up for the unfillable gap.

The Takeaway:

Don’t believe something without checking the numbers yourself. Three-deuce offsuit is the real preflop W.H.I.P.

…ah, but this assumes you know how to spot fishy behavior. Identifying bad players is the first step to exploiting them. In this post, we look at some common things fishy players do. If you see any of this behavior within the first couple of laps of play, then you’re probably at a good table that is rife with profit opportunities:

1. Playing Out of Position (OOP). After just a few orbits of a poker table, you can often tell which players don’t understand position. They’re the ones playing JTs and Ax from under-the-gun (UTG). Your job is to isolate them and get heads-up in position.

2. Defending Their Blinds Too Much. You may hear a player say, “You’re attacking my blinds!” Or maybe, “I’ve already got $X invested in this pot. I’m not going anywhere!”  News flash: they’re not your blinds, nor have you invested anything. Posting blinds and antes is simply a regular sunk cost of doing business at a poker table. Pound these players when they’re in the blinds– they eschew folding, even when they know they have a bad hand, and by definition you’re going to have position on them.

3. Playing Suited Cards. Ten-deuce is a terrible hand, right? “Not if they’re suited!” exclaim the poor players. Yeah, right, keep telling yourself that, and then come sit next to me. Besides suited cards, these players also like any two Broadways, any non-suited connectors, Ace-anything… well, you name it, these players have a reason for playing it. Listen to them when they turn over some bizarre hand and tell the table that they always play it because it’s their “favorite hand.” Suh-wheet. It’s also my favorite hand–when you’re the one playing it, that is.

4. Open Limping and Cold Calling Pre-flop. There are two—and only two—ways to win a poker hand: show down the best hand, or get everyone else to fold. When you’re chronically passive preflop, you’re actively choosing to forgo the latter method of winning. Instead, you’re solely employing the “I hope I hit my hand!” approach to poker. This is losing poker, folks. Look for sizeable gaps between VPIP and PFR if you’re playing online with a tracking program to spot the loose-passives. Otherwise, just watch for the folks that rarely, if ever, raise. Hint: they’re the ones that are re-buying and re-loading.

5. Under-Betting Post-flop. When I see a no-limit player betting like he’s in a limit game, I know I’m at a profitable table. These players are often OMCs (Old Man Coffee players), weaned on $2/$4 limit Hold’em or stud games played at the local casino before the early bird tourney. Their sole purpose in life is to dribble their money away to you, one min-bet at a time. Their tiny post-flop bets accomplish next to nothing. They don’t build their owner a pot when they have a good hand. They don’t price you out from calling when you’re on a draw. And they apply essentially no pressure to get you to fold. I love these players sitting at my table.

6. Getting Married to Top-Pair, Top-Kicker (TPTK). These are the guys who overvalue big one-pair hands and won’t fold to any amount of aggression on even the wettest of boards. Aces only come around once every 220 hands, they think, and by-God they’re going to go to the river, come hell or high water. I love stacking these players because, besides getting paid off the first time, they often re-buy and then go on tilt after getting their Aces or Kings “cracked.”

7. Buying-In With Weird/Small Stack Sizes. I was sitting at an online $50NL table the other day and a player sat down with a starting stack of $18.48, which screamed that this was his entire bankroll. Within 30 minutes of passive spew, he busted out, typing into the chat box that “this site is rigged! I quit this bleeped game!”  Yep, it’s rigged– rigged in favor of the skilled players, and yes, I’m sad to see you go. Please reconsider.

8. Posting Late Blinds OOP When They Sit Down. These are the players who are itching to play. They literally cannot wait the few minutes it’s going to take for the blinds to come around to their seat. They want to play, and they want to play now!  They can’t wait to get involved with far too many hands–and give all their money to you. Your fish-finding sonar should ping away when you see this impatient behavior.

9. Explaining Why They Lost.  When a player turns over a losing hand and then spends the next five minutes telling anyone who will listen why his play was the correct one, you know you’ve got a live one at your table. Yes, they might be semi-educated at poker, and they’re trying, but they’re still a fish. Listen closely, and over the next few hours, this player is literally going to tell you their entire poker strategy, skill level, and point out their leaks, free of charge. No, let me correct that: it’s better than free; they’re going to pay you for the pleasure. 

10. Showing Their Losing Hands. When a player repeatedly folds his losing cards face-up, he’s trying to get validation that he’s playing correctly. Uh, he’s not playing correctly. Instead, the only thing he’s validating is that he’s willing to give away valuable information about how he plays the game. Attack him relentlessly.

In the world of engineering, we often say you can’t solve a problem until you’ve identified and isolated it. Poker is no different. Spotting the fish at a poker table is the first step to exploiting their weaknesses. Look for any of the behavior listed above—and reel in some easy poker profit.

Call to Action:

What’s your favorite fishy behavior to see in an opponent? And how do you profit from them? Please leave a comment below and let me know! Cheers!