#2 POKER MINI LESSON

Posts: 2913 · Posted: 18.04.2008, 23:43

#2 POKER MINI LESSON

Hello, my great scholars!

Knowing full well that to become, to be, and to stay a good poker player, you must continue always to learn.....
well,I am proud of my PCers for doing just that. I myself keep learning more because there is nothing I love more than experimenting and testing my own theories. I have a home library filled with my notebooks with the statistics and evidence of my poker research....of each of my theories.....no matter whether they tested out to be right or wrong. It is just as important to know what doesn't work as what does work!

If I did not continue to learn, I would have to make a drastic change in my lifestyle, since I am still earning my living by playing poker. Nobody ever learns it all.

There should be a "Confucious Say" about that! PokerGuru say, "One who thinks has learned all has very big lesson coming."

Today let's talk about that four-letter word, LUCK, and what it has to do with poker.

I will tell you right off: absolutely nothing or at the most, very little, such as the case of bad beats.

Since I am writing these mini lessons for the benefit of beginners as well as for the reinforcement of the advanced, I will explain what a bad beat is. It is when you hold what is almost always the nuts (the winning hand), but on the last card (the river) someone fishing goes against all odds and gets the only card that could possibly beat you. You can imagine the chance of that. It is the thorn in the side of every excellent poker player. It

is also the very thing that made me just short of being a BIG MONEY winner at last year's WSOP (World Series of Poker) and kept me from winning a gold bracelet, which is the equivalent of football's Super Bowl
winner's ring.

As an example of a bad beat, let's say you are holding a full house (also known as a boat) with 3 Aces and 2 Kings. That is one of the few times you would be justified for going all-in. Then someone with 3 deuces
gets another deuce with the last card. He/she beats you with 4 of a kind......and that, my friends, is called a bad beat!

Now I am going to try to explain to you WHY luck has nothing to do with poker, in a way so that you can explain it to others:

Over any period of time, long or short, every player will be dealt the very same number of good cards and bad cards. That is just a fundamental law of statistics and the law of averages. So why do some seem to keep winning and some to keep losing? It is because you must learn that there are right ways and wrong ways to play BAD hands, just as important as learning the right ways and wrong ways of playing good hands!

That is why you keep seeing the same faces at final tables and why we have famous players and poker champions! They are the ones who have studied and received a very good poker education! Just like in any
other field or profession, those who know the most are the ones who make the most money!

And how did they learn so much? By the hard work of studying the lessons and learning them until they are second nature, from a teacher whose strategies they have proven for themselves WORK, and continue to study, always learning more. Studying well is hard work! So those who win more than they lose DESERVE to be winners!

Even famous poker players, with great earnings and gold bracelets, each has a selected Guru from whom he continues his lifelong education!

That is why I bang my head against a wall when I hear someone say, "No wonder he became a poker pro; he ALWAYS WAS lucky. NO! He ALWAYS WAS working hard to obtain the most education about poker!

That is also why you should rarely go with "gut instincts". Altho they are powerful and hard to ignore (I know!), there is plenty of evidence that proves they are wrong in almost all cases. So stick with the proven facts instead of playing with the odds against you, giving your opponents an edge over you!

Also, I can never say often enough: Never play betting on the cards you may get to complete a great hand, because you probably won't get them. Instead, ALWAYS play only with the cards you already have! There is no doubt about them.

I hope now that all PCers understand why we always say, "Good Thinking" instead of "Good Luck". That is also why the toughest people out there to play against are my beloved Poker Crushers!

Please feel free to post questions, comments, or opinions beneath any of my poker lessons. Everything is ALWAYS open for discussion! And I pride myself on having a very open mind.

This lesson has been presented to you with that lovin' feelin' by
YOUR Poker Guru

Posts: 1825 · Posted: 19.04.2008, 03:32

Thank you for lesson Guru. I would like to request a lesson soon to imprint on my brain -what are considered good cards to bet to see the flop? I know AA, AK and all those are good choices.. what I want are the low cards, mid cards.....

If they are suited and could possibly get me a straight or obvious flush I can understand... but what really is not worth holding?

What if you have a 2s3s or 4h5h? Everyone always thinks the Ace is the be all of everything which of course is not true - though you might hit more aces or at least win with High card but I have learned not to depend on a good hand just because I may have an Ace. I will open with an Ace in my hand no matter what my other card may be.

Also when reading your stats.. what is a good percentage of won over dealt hands? 56% and up is average? bad? barely accptable? LOL

These are the burning questions I would like answered for me

Posts: 2913 · Posted: 19.04.2008, 03:42

Those are the kinds of questions I like, Valeria!

I am going to check my notebooks before answering to make sure the statistics bear me out. Hope you don't mind. One can never be too careful with these particular issues.

Again, VERY good questions and they show very good thinking!

Remember the old days when you could never be serious about poker? ROFLMBO! You drove me up a tree! Valeria, the poker player, has come a long way, baby!

Your Guru