Player's Stories

The Ten Commandments Of Poker
By Steve Ruddock

Every poker player knows it, it is ingrained in all of our heads; that the number 1 thing you must do at all times to be a successful poker player is, always play your best. But how does one make sure that they are playing their best at all times? There are 10 traits that a winning poker player must possess, or as I call them, the 10 commandments of poker. Breaking even 1 of these commandments will significantly cut into your profits, and will keep you from playing your best poker.

The 1st commandment of poker, thou shall always make rational decisions. This rule holds true for all of your poker decisions, from game selection, to playing within your bankroll, to check raising your friend on the river. When you allow a reason other than bottom line results to affect your decision making you have made in irrational poker decision and are costing yourself money. For instance if you choose to play in a $40/$80 game with a very tough lineup because it is the biggest game being spread, instead of a much softer $20/$40 game where you would be the best player, you have allowed your ego to make an irrational decision that is going to cost you money. Another instance of an irrational poker decision is to not bet a lock hand on the river because your opponent has been drinking and you don't want to take advantage of him. In this case you have allowed your conscience to interfere with your capacity to make a results oriented decision. Successful poker player's decisions are always rational.

The 2nd commandment of poker, thou shall always think positively. In order to become a winner you must first believe that you are a winner. Thinking positively has a multitude of advantages, firstly people will presume you are a winning player and try to steer clear of heads up confrontations with you, allowing you to take some pots off of them you normally wouldn't be able to. Your opponents will additionally perceive you as a pleasant and upbeat player and won't mind losing their money to you as much as they mind losing it to the obnoxious jerk in the #4 seat that criticizes everyone's play. Most importantly you will lead a happier less stressful life both at the poker table and away. Staying positive after a bad beat can also keep you from going on tilt, which could lead to the breaking of the 1st commandment. Remember, only good players take bad beats, bad players dish them out. Successful poker players always think positively.

The 3rd commandment of poker, thou shall only play good starting hands. No matter what form of poker you are playing you must adhere to the rule of playing only quality starting hands. By being tight you will find yourself ahead pre-flop more often than not, which is precisely the position you want to be in. When you start to loosen up your starting hand requirements, even slightly, you will find yourself habitually showing down the second best hand, and in poker the second place finisher is the biggest loser. You will see bad players limping in with A7 under the gun, and quality players will win at the showdown by out kicking them with AQ. Successful poker players only play quality-starting hands.

The 4th commandment of poker, thou shall be selectively aggressive. Being selectively aggressive means betting and raising when you have an edge in the hand, or when it may influence the outcome of the hand, for example, in a situation where a better hand may fold to your bet. By playing aggressively you will maximize your profits in the game by winning the most money possible when you have the edge over your opponents, and by being selective about your aggression you will minimize your losses when your opponents have an advantage over you. To be selectively aggressive you must do things such as, value bet on the river, check raise your opponents, and semi bluff your strong draws. Successful poker players are always aggressive with their strong hands.

The 5th commandment of poker, thou shall know and play the percentages. A large part of playing solid poker is math, from being able to calculate your pot odds to figuring out how many cards will help you in a particular hand. By knowing and applying the correct odds you will always make the correct decision from a mathematical standpoint. A good example of this is folding an ace high flush draw when the pot is laying you 2 to 1 and there is only 1 opponent left in the hand, Or for instance when you call a $5 bet into a $60 pot with an inside straight when your call closes the action. A poor player will not lay down his nut flush draw in the first instance and will fold his inside straight draw because he doesn't understand how to calculate pot odds correctly or apply them to the game. Successful poker players always know and play the percentages.

The 6th commandment of poker, thou shall mix up your play. If you want to make maximum profit in a poker game you need to make people play against you when you have a strong hand as well as a marginal one. If you only bet when you have a strong hand or check all of your drawing hands your opponents will eventually pick up on this and you will become a very readable opponent. Likewise if you always play a particular hand in a certain fashion, such as only re-raising pre-flop with AA or KK your opposition will take notice of this and fold when you re-raise. But if you also re-raise with a hand like 99 or AJ suited occasionally, they will be hard pressed to correctly put you on a specific hand. Another example of a straightforward play is when you never bluff on the river, if you never bluff the river when you do bet on the end your opponents will know you have, at least, a decent hand and will fold their marginal ones keeping you from gaining additional bets. On the other hand by occasionally bluffing you will force them to call when they have a marginal hand in case you might be bluffing. Successful poker players always try to mix up their play.

The 7th commandment of poker, thou shall always work on improving thy game. Whether by reading or re-reading a book or article, or practicing with software on your computer, you must constantly be trying to become a more complete poker player. There are many ways to enhance your game nowadays; with the sudden popularity of poker there is a plethora of books on the market, as well as articles and essays in print and online. There are numerous online poker forums where you can post questions or read other peoples views on a particular hand or a certain theory. There are also software programs which enable you to practice against many different styles of opponents or run the win rate of say 9T suited verse 4 random hands. However you choose to improve your game is up to you, but to continue to grow as a poker player you must also be a student of the game. Successful poker players are always trying to improve.

The 8th commandment of poker, thou shall learn from thy mistakes. Regardless of whether your name is Phil Ivey and you're playing in the World Series Of Poker or if you're John Thompson playing in a $1/$2 home game, you are going to make mistakes. Good players will see these mistakes and learn from them, bad players will ignore them and continue to make the same mistakes over and over, blaming bad luck instead of trying to correct a leak in there game. To learn from your mistakes you must dissect certain hands and see if there was anything you could have done differently that would have won you any extra bets. By examining some of the questionable hands you played and acknowledging any mistakes you made during them you will learn not make these same mistakes in the future, where the person who doesn't examine any of their hands will continue making these mistakes. Successful poker players always learn from their mistakes.

The 9th commandment of poker, thou shall always pay attention. To be a winning poker player you must be observant of your opponents, regardless of if you are involved in the hand or not. You will want to pay attention not only to their behavior and mannerisms, but also to their betting patterns and what their starting hand requirements are. The ability to read hands and opponents body language is something that can only be done through practice and by being observant. Anytime a hand is shown down you must immediately reconstruct each round of betting to understand what your opponent was thinking. By doing this you will gain great insight into the way he plays and makes decisions. Also by being observant you will notice if the woman at the far end of the table holds her cards in a particular fashion if she plans on folding, or if the man to your left always says "I raise" when he is bluffing and just silently places his chips in the pot when he has a good hand. Understanding body language is an intangible quality that some people have and others don't, but all of us can work on learning the meaning of basic body language, and reading hands. Successful poker players always pay attention.

The 10th commandment of poker, thou shall be a well-rounded poker player. To be a great poker player you must give yourself as many prospects as you can to win. Limiting yourself to only 1 form of poker such as limit Texas Hold Em, will severely reduce the options you have to find a good game. By learning different forms of poker you will not only enhance your game but you will give yourself a better selection of tables to choose from. If you normally play $4/$8-$10/$20 Texas Hold Em, you are limiting yourself to a finite number of tables in each casino. Now if you also will play 7 card stud, or Omaha Hi, or Omaha Hi-Lo, or pot limit and no limit, you have gone from maybe 6 tables to possibly as many as 20 making it a lot easier to find a soft table. Being well rounded will also allow you to bring certain concepts from one game to another that the one-dimensional players in the game are not use to. The ability to shuffle between different games is a very underrated aspect of winning players. Successful poker players are well-rounded players.

If you follow these 10 commandments of poker you will be guaranteed to always play your best game at the poker table. If you are only following only 8 or 9 of these at the moment you must find, and plug the leak in your game or you will find yourself in poker hell, THE RAIL.