Stay Calm

Article: Stay Calm | Category: Poker Psychology

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We all know that an important quality a poker player needs to have is patience. However, I don't think many poker players understand what it means to be patient.

When players hear the standard advice "It's important to be patient in poker" it kind of goes in one ear and out the other. They say something like "Yeah, yeah, don't play junky hands. I got it".

Well, there is more to it than that. Folding your junk and waiting for good spots is simple common sense.

There is another, more important, type of patience in poker. This article will look into situations where patience is important, but most players throw it out the window.

Most of us are so happy to get dealt pocket Aces after being card dead for the last few rotations that we are quick to raise up the best hand we've seen all day. However, this is an obvious example of players abandoning patience.

Let's face it, you have pocket Aces - your stack is about to go in the middle 9 times out of 10. Be patient, and play your hand properly.

You want to take a second to look at the limpers in front of you, the type of players behind you, your position, the blind level, everyones chip counts, and your table image before you make one of the most important decisions of the game. We would take a few seconds to think through all of this with most hands, yet most of us are so happy to see Aces that we just raise it up without thinking,

More trouble often happens when the flop hits. Yes, you are pretty much correct to fire a bet on any flop with pocket Aces, but that's no reason to just bet without thinking. You still have to pick the right bet size.

To do this, you have to decide what you want to represent, what hands you want them to call with (or fold with), and how to best accomplish this. Just firing without spending some time thinking about the right number is wasteful.

It gets even worse when you get check-raised with Aces. A lot of the time it's correct to stack off with the hand - sometimes even if you think your beat. However, before you do at least give yourself the courtesy to think about what hands could make that bet that you are beating, and compare that to the hands that are beating you. That's just good poker - it doesn't matter what hand you're dealt.

Pocket Aces are one of the most obvious hands that people rush, but the same applies to Kings, Queens, Ace King, Ace Queen, etc.

And it's not only about starting hands. Say you flop Quad Sevens - you need to slow right down. You need to get value from your big hands. Maybe you can get them to stack off, or maybe you can just get one bet out of them, but you have to stop for a second and decide the best way to play it.

Quads are a very misplayed hand in poker. It's not about losing money, it's about extracting value when you have a monster - that's where your profits come from.

Don't just start firing pot sized bets because there aren't many hands that are beating you. Think through your decisions. There is not a single hand in poker where not thinking through your decision is the correct play.

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Thinking carefully through every decision becomes even more important in high blind situations of tournaments. You may think that A5 is a good blind stealing hand, but slow down for a second.

Say you are on the dealer button and have 3,000 chips at the 200/400 blind level. It's three handed, and two places are paid. You want to steal the blinds with your Ace Five suited, and you raise to 1,200. Your opponent shoves.

You have Ace Five - you aren't beating much that can reshove. However, folding leaves you with 1,800 chips - 4 and 1/2 big blinds. Neither decision is particularly good, which means that your lack of thinking before you made the bet put you in a bad spot.

You may alternatively decide to raise to just 1,000 and fold to a shove. This can be smart against a tight opponent. Obviously this move has problems against calling stations, but the point is that there are subtle decisions you need to be making before you raise.

This same situation happens all the time with other hands, like A7, KJ and low pocket pairs. Good enough to steal the blinds with, but you're not beating much that could reshove.

So when the blinds get high think through every decision carefully. When you shorten your decision making process at high blind levels you often find yourself pot committed with something you did not want to be pot committed with. The higher the blinds, the more time you should spend on each decision.

Another situation where extra thought is required is deep stack play. When you are playing deep stacked one bad decision has the potential to cost you a much larger amount. For this reason, the deeper the stack, the more important it is to keep tabs on yourself. If you find yourself trying to rush a decision - stop yourself.

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Summary

The point is, patience isn't just a matter of waiting for good situations to play. Patience continues after the flop is dealt, then after the turn, and then on the river.

So the next time you get dealt pocket Aces, don't get excited. Tell yourself that your tournament life (or entire stack in a cash game) is at risk, and think through every decision you make extra carefully.

Tell yourself that this is probably a hand that you are going to be all-in on, and think about your options. Raising 1 bet higher could mean the difference between seeing a flop with 1 player and seeing a flop with 4 players (I'm assuming the reader understands why they don't want to see a flop five handed with pocket Aces).

By the same token, raising one bet smaller could mean the difference in winning just the blinds and convincing somebody to call with KJ (and then stack off if the flop contains either a King or a Jack).

It's really hard to control your excitement when you see a big hand in front of you. However, take that excitement and replace it with cautious optimism. This means that while you know you have a chance to make money, you also understand the danger the situation brings. Because you understand the danger you are in, you will spend more time thinking through all of the factors that need to be considered before you act.

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