Using Poker Room Stats To Your Advantage
May 5, 2008
Any good (almost certainly all) poker rooms will always give you some basic stats when you are in the main lobby.
Some rooms have more stats than you could ever digest but all of them will feature 2 key stats:
Flop Seen Percentage
This will give you an idea of how often the flop is seen by the players. The higher this stat then the more loose the players are, on average.
This will mean that there are a lot of players who don’t mind throwing their chips in to see if their hand will improve on the flop. As you and I know, this is a dumb strategy employed by many fish who just don’t like to fold if their hand is not any good (or lack confidence to force others to fold).
Take advantage of this but also be prepared to find a lot of “calling stations” too – see The Different Types Of Poker Players And Why You Need To Know Them.
Average Pot Size
The average pot size stat is very good for a number of reasons. You should generally aim to find a table that has at least a medium average pot size.
If the pot size is small then it means that you have a lot of tight players who aren’t willing to play aggressive and go in with the chips. Actually, these types of tables are good for “stealing the blinds” (see Stealing The Blinds – Effective Blind Stealing In Texas Holdem) but in general, don’t expect to walk away rich.
Far better are the tables where the average pot size is pretty high. This means that you have a lot of loose players. Watch out though because it can also mean that there are some very good players here too. I have been at tables where the average pot size was very big and you basically had one half of the table who were sharks and the other half were a rotating line of fish ready to part with all their cash. Beware the sharks and don’t become a fish yourself!
Poker – Discipline, Discipline and Discipline
May 4, 2008
I use the term 3 times because it is so important in poker.
Over time, you will learn that your mindset is so important in poker.
Poker is ultimately a game of logic over emotions. A game of self discipline, if you like.
So how do you consistently apply logic and not your emotions?
First, you can decide what to do in the most common and basic situations. There are a lot of books out there that will tell you what to do with various starting hands – whether to fold or how much to bet etc.
But then in poker there are so many different situations, many of them unique and not occuring often. Experience will teach you how to detect these situations and how best to play them. But without discipline, you will ignore your experience and play with your emotions and inevitable lose money.
If you are not yet playing your best poker on a regular basis, then it’s best to start playing very cautiously at first. Let other people go gung ho and lose their money quickly.
Some of the best winners at poker are the more patient ones and if it takes you 20 minutes to find your game then so be it, at least you will not have thrown away your entire bankroll inside the first 5 minutes of playing.
But remember, the best poker players are not just tight, they are also aggressive. So when the time comes and you have found your natural disciplined rhythm, then start to get more aggressive in your play.
