The confidence, the competitive spirit, the egos; that’s what we love to see at the poker tables. But it is also essential to show intelligence and good manners at the poker table, or anywhere else for that matter, though not all poker professionals act professionally. Here are a some guys that will forever go down in poker history not for their good manners, big wins, and bracelets, but for their attitudes and reputations on and off the felt.
#1 “THE MOUTH” Mike Matusow. Does he have any friends? It doesn’t take too much time in his presence to realize why he is called “The Mouth.” Who else would walk right up to the WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollach and tell him he was running the illustrious tournament into the ground? He talks incessantly at the tables and berates his opponents. Mike does have talent as a poker player, it’s just so lame that we have had to witness “Matusow Meltdowns” in which he seems to be playing great and at the top of his game, and in a matter of a few hands, he has lost all his chips and his cool at the same time. Anyone who can win $1,000,000 (2005 WSOP Main Event) and lose it all 3 days later, needs therapy and a financial adviser. Mike has said that he has had his meds checked and after winning his WSOP bracelet in 2008 seems to be leveling out. We’ll see.
#2 “TONY G” Antanas Gouga is a very talented poker player. In his own words, he says “Some people find me interesting, some people find me obnoxious.” I’m pretty sure Ralph Perry “The Russian” finds him obnoxious. After beating Perry at the Grand Final of the 2006 Intercontinental Poker Championship, Guoga let out a yell, leapt to his feet, and started to berate Perry by pointing to his cards and shouting “Look how ugly this is! You’re a terrible player, this is disgraceful!” And before sitting back down, Guoga ranted “Feel the power, baby!” Tony G’s biography says that he was born in Lithuania. I read recently that Lithuania has officially made poker a sport. I wonder how many of his fellow poker pros would chip in to buy him a one-way ticket back home.
Floating is a profitable strategy in many different types of poker. Whether you are playing limit or no limit holdem, or even Omaha, floating is an effective way to pick off your opponent’s bluffs. A float is when a player calls their opponents bet on one street because they think they are bluffing. The call is made not only because they think their opponent is bluffing, but so a bet can be made to push them off their hand later on.
For example, pretend you are playing a pot in position and didn’t flop much of anything. Your opponent had raised pre flop, but the flop came 2h 6d 7s. If your opponent leads out on the flop, there is a legitimate chance that they are making a continuation bet and don’t really have a made hand. In order to combat this c-bet, you can either raise, or call and try to take the pot away on a later street. Raising would be an OK option, but it can also be quite risky. If you raise and get called, there is little wiggle room on later streets. If you raise and get re raised, your bluffing suspicions might have been correct, or they might be very wrong. As you can see, raising in a spot like this is very tricky and risky. The better play is to simply call and float.
Bluffing is a requirement in poker. If you are playing poker and never attempt even the smallest bluffs, your opponents are usually going to eat you alive. Bluffs are not always what they are made out to be, however. On TV and in movies, bluffs are dramatized as these big courageous acts where everything is on the line. In reality, bluffs can be as simple as a continuation bet. Any time that you are making a bet, raise, or even a call with nothing, you are bluffing. Most players don’t think about small continuation bets as bluffs, but if they are not done for value, what kind of bet are they?
There is a lot of money to be made with consistency in bluffing. Multiple successful continuation bets are going to pay off far more than an occasional monster bluff. The problem with big bluffs is the risk of ruin. If you run a bluff that spans across the entirety of a hand, the odds of your opponent(s) folding decrease with each street. To some, this is obvious, but to others it is not. Some people think that it only makes sense to fire a monster bet on the river when their bluffs did not work on the flop or turn, but this is a very flawed strategy. Sometimes it is better to just give up on a hand. It can be easy to convince yourself that bluffing is a good idea, even when it is painfully obvious that your opponent is not going to fold.
The early stages of a tournament call for a relaxed approach that keeps risk at a minimum. In the later stages of a tournament, however, risk is maximized out of necessity. Players who sit around waiting for fantastic hands are often times eaten alive. Aggressiveness is rewarded because there is no other choice.
This doesn’t mean that a passive player can’t get lucky and catch a hot string of cards, but it certainly is not the best way to try and win a tournament. Your stack size and image will always play a role in the late stages of a tournament, so you need to be aware of both at all times. There isn’t anything simple about late stage tournament play. Sometimes it might be a matter of either going all in or folding, but even this requires advanced knowledge of the game. If you don’t know exactly what types of hands are worthy of a push, it can be quite challenging to make profitable moves. On the other side, if you don’t know when to fold, your money and equity is going to be drained in no time.
Online poker players like to make fun of live poker players. Live poker players like to make fun of online poker players. So which one is right? The online players of course! Live poker is, without a doubt, infinitely easier than online poker. Where online poker can take hundreds of thousands of hands before any profitability is seen, live poker is like printing money.
Maybe you think I’m joking, maybe you think I’m exaggerating, but I am not. Years ago, online poker was just as easy as live poker. Maybe not quite as easy, but it was not a challenge to make tons of money. Today, however, online poker is the definition of a challenge. Few players actually make money, despite what many think, and dedication is a prerequisite for success. So why do people still play online poker if live poker is that much easier? There are many reasons, though some make more sense than others.
Online Poker
Online poker remains popular primarily due to its convenience. You don’t have to drive to a casino, get on a long waiting list, buy chips, and go find a table when you play on the internet. Once you log on, you are pretty much ready to go. Anyone with a shred of common sense can see why online poker is favored by so many.
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