Ok… you have read a few books, and you are pretty good at calculating odds, and you have an insert that you cut out of Lindgren’s book “Making the Final Table” that you keep tucked away in your wallet so that you can recall hand percentages to gain a statistical edge. You have lots of beer flowing to convolute the minds and thoughts of your 8 closest enemies… I mean friends, and the football game is blasting in the background in hopes to draw the focus off their game and off of your game. Everything is perfect for you to have a fun night of poker, and knowing you are by far the best player, you feel confident in pocketing the 20 dollar buy-ins and the 5 dollar bounties. A couple of hours later you think, shaking your head, you must be the most unlucky player ever to belly up against the felt. Even more unlucky than the self proclaimed MOST UNLUCKIEST PLAYER OF ALL TIME… Mike Matusow. You reevaluate your play, and in the end, you come to the conclusion that you were just unlucky and that when the money went in you had the best of it, and that’s all you can do, as the rest is up to the Poker God’s. Then reality sets in as your buddy yells at you to get him a beer, since you are obviously not playing you have been reduced to beer bitch. It’s time to quit serving beer and understand why you continue to be unlucky against inferior opponents and how to increase your survival rate in a game of survival of the fittest and to ultimately start winning at your home donkey game.
We all
understand that getting lucky in poker is part of the game. It’s equally
important to understand how to not get unlucky, or most
importantly, how to not put yourself in a position to get unlucky.
Getting your money in good is ultimately what you will have to do if you
want to win. That said there is a time to push and a time to be
conservative regardless of what you think you might be holding over your
opponent. Here are a few ideas to help you increase your chances of
survival in games begging to hand you a bad beat:
1.
First let’s understand why we are a statistical favorite to fall victim
to a bad beat in this arena. This is simple, your hand requirements when
pushing it all-in are higher than your opponents therefore you usually
will be holding the best hand thus not giving you to many opportunities
to hand the bad beat, but to receive it instead.
2. Let’s
assume most of the time you do not get your money in any better than
2-1. Well you statistically have 8 other players that you will have to
weather these odds to so statistically you are still going to lose to 2
out of 8 of the remaining players in an all-in situation.
What you need to strive to do is try to get your money in when you
are greater than a 2-1 favorite, fight the urge to get your money in
when you do not have your opponent covered, try to play smaller pots,
bluff less often and always be weary of your chip count. Playing
smaller pots is probably the best advice I can give you. Try and give
yourself as many opportunities to outplay your opponents post and
pre-flop. Since you consider yourself to be a better player, you should
be able to gain an advantage by adopting the small pot poker concept.
Since you are better than your opponent you will have ample opportunity
to get your money in good and since your opponents are often “Calling
Stations” you should bluff less often. Try making more calls when you
think you might be beat; your friends will be bluffing way more than the
ideal amount. Play your draws more often than percentages say you
should. The reason for this is your opponents, the “Calling Stations”,
will be chasing with lesser hands and thus, when you do hit your draws
you will be paid off handsomely for your efforts. Being weary of your
chip stack is a key in determining when to push raise or fold and so
when you do get it all in you still should be better than a 2-1
favorite.
Keep these tips in mind, adopt the small pot poker concept, try to stay out of all in situations and you will not only survive but start to conquer your home donkey games. Best of Luck!
BD
Article contributed by: JC
