Some Good Advice
Along time ago, I got some of the best poker advice that I have ever had even to this day. One of the older pros and consistent winners tracked me down one day after I busted from a cash game. He said he noticed that I was frustrated with my game, and wasn’t doing so well lately. I was a bit embarrassed but invited the idea of him helping. “Your style should never change because of the amount of money in front of you,” he said, “It should change because of the players around you.” He continued, “ I noticed that when you are down, maybe at $600 from your original $1000, you tend to tighten up and play scared. The more experienced guys know this too and take advantage of it.” I thanked him for his honesty, bought him lunch, and then went home to think.
He was right. After taking a beat and being down, that’s all I could think about. I would constantly count my stack, seeing how many bets I was down, and it affected my game. I realized other players would come over the top of me a lot more when I would bet. In most cases, if I didn’t have a monster, I would reluctantly let the hand go, worried that they had me beat. I went back the next day, and when I dropped below my buy-in, I continued to play tight aggressive poker. My opponents were caught off guard and I ended up having one of my biggest cashes to date.
The reason I bring up this conversation is not to gloat about my big win, but because I see this a lot in both inexperienced and good players. How you play, should be based on the players around you, not the money in front of you. As well as tightening up when down, I see players do the same type of thing when they are up. Often I notice a player who, after winning a few pots, separate their original buy-in into different stacks from their profit. They feel very comfortable playing a bigger range of hands and seeing more flops with the money from their profit, but when that money runs out, the go back to tight play. In most cases, the reason they are back to their original buy-in is that they didn’t observe the other players at the table. They didn’t realize that the style they were using when they first sat down was a better suited for the table, and the loose aggressive style they were using when they were up was not. Don’t end up like this player, loosen up when the game is tight, tighten up when the game is loose, don’t let the chips in front of you justify how you play.
-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #222
