Poker
Players: How to
Beat The Bad Ones
by Bill
Burton
There will always be
Bad
Poker Players, but we can learn how to beat them
at this
How to Play Poker lesson.
As poker continues to grow in popularity, the casino card
rooms and internet poker sites have seen the
influx of new players who
want to
give poker a try.
Most
of these new
players have little or no knowledge of the game other than the basic
rules.
Many of them have gotten all of their education from
watching the tournaments on TV.
Two Types of Poker Players
Some of these poker players with their TV education sit down in a
Low Limit game and play the way the
have seen players play the final table of a televised
No
Limit tournament.
They think that they can win a
low limit game
by bluffing and raising and they play like maniacs. They are really
easy to
spot. The other type of players is a meeker type.
They are
weak passive players
who will sit down in a game and play a lot of hands but rarely raise or
fold.
Both the maniac and the passive players have something in
common. They don’t know how to play the game properly. They rarely have
any
concept of starting hand requirements, pot odds or even how to read the
board.
Some of them
will use the any two
will do strategy while others will wait for two suited cards.
Many
of the new
players think that a single ace is the Holy Grail and constitutes a
raise every
time they have one. They will cold call raises with hopeless hands and
chase
all the way to the river looking for a miracle card.
The number of new poker players has actually been a double
edge
sword for the knowledgeable player. Bad players are profitable for good
players. In low limit games, you will make more money from your
opponent’s
mistakes than you will from your own fancy play.
This is
because most of the
new players are only interested in their own cards. Few of them even
notice
what type of hands the other players are playing.
Strategy for Bad
Poker Players
In the long run, a good player will beat the new clueless
players; however, with all these new players in the game you will also
suffer
more bad beats than you would in a game full of skilled players.
This
has
frustrated many veteran players. In the last few months, I have
received
numerous e-mails from players who have been used to winning and now all
of a
sudden find that they are getting clobbered by the new players in low
limit
games.
They are angry that the damn new players don’t know
how to play the
game. They want to know what to do about it. Some of these players have
even
told me they have had heated arguments with the newbie
players.
I have witnessed this at the tables where I play. I saw an
argument break out that thought was going to turn into a physical
altercation.
A
player with pocket aces flopped a set and
lost to a straight by a player who cold called a raise with 2-5 off
suit. The veteran player started screaming obscenities at the new
player who
started
yelling back that he had the right to play whatever cards he wanted to.
The
dealer finally got the players settled down but the player who suffered
the bad
beat continued making snide remarks about the new player. A few minutes
later,
the new player who had been donating money to the table got up and left
the
game. This is exactly what you don’t want to happen.
Don’t Educate Them
Bad players are overall losers. You don’t want to educate
them at the table and you definitely don’t want to chase them away.
There
is a
wealth of books, software and other information available to a player
who wants
to learn to play the game properly. If a new player wants to get his
education
by playing at the table in a live game, you should make sure that he
pays for
this education by the money he will lose chasing down hopeless hands.
Why
would
you want to give this player any free advice that he can use to beat
you with
in the future. When a player gets lucky and wins a bit pot you should
tell him
“nice hand” and encourage him to continue to play that way.
Sure, it hurts when you are on the receiving end of a bad
beat but a good player knows how to control his emotions and not let it
affect
future hands. Avoid making any derogatory remakes aimed at the new
player.
If
you are really upset, get up and leave the able until you calm down.
When you
get angry, you are one step closer to going on tilt that can be
devastating for
you and your bankroll.
Adjust Your Strategy
When you are playing in a game filled with new poker players
you
will need to make some adjustments to your strategy. You need to adjust
your
play based on the players in your game at the moment.
If you
are in a game with
a lot of aggressive players, you will want to tighten up from early
position.
If you are in a passive game with a lot of loose poker players, you
will want
to play
a few more hands. In a game with a lot of callers, you will win fewer
pots but
you will win more money in the pots that you do win.
It is
up to you to learn
how to adjust your strategy to play and win against the new players.
Here are a few tips to
help you in these
types of games:
Play aggressively from early position with the big pairs but
realize that they won’t hold up as often. Pocket Aces will win the
majority of
times against a small field but will only hold up about 35 percent of
the time
against a full table of calling stations.
Don’t try slow play or try to get fancy. Bet the best hand
if you have it. The straight forward approach is usually the best as
there are
plenty of players who will call you. Make them pay.
Why give
them a free card
if you don’t have to.
Don’t try to bluff. If you are in the game with even one
calling station, you shouldn’t try to bluff. You will be called by some
player
who wants to keep you honest.
Play more connectors from late position. In a game with many
poker players in the pot, your drawing hands go up in value. You will
be
getting
correct odds to see the flop with these hands and when you do hit, you
will be
rewarded with a good-sized pot.
Poker
Players is followed by Poker Bad Beats
OR
How to Play Poker 1
Program
OR
Learn
Poker Games 2 with 7 Game Types
Gambling
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