Winning Poker Players

04Aug09

Pinched from somewhere.

Winning poker professionals all have a few characteristics in common—other than being 100% winners. Despite being described as tight aggressive players—the truth is that winning poker professionals rather display mastery over certain aspects of their craft—and always adapt this knowledge to suit the environment they’re playing in.
Professional poker players make sure they master four indispensable aspects of their craft; math skills, discipline, psychological skills, and absolute clarity on the risk vs. reward aspect of all poker games.

Math skills
Not something the general populace is often expert at, basic math skills, and sometimes an innovative mathematical ability seem to occur across the board with professional winning poker players. They understand percentages, statistics, ratios, and probabilities to a large extent better than non-players. These skills contribute to poker players making the best use of their cards, the hands dealt to them during the course of the game.

Math skills are the most basic requirement for a poker player—without them it is no use even trying to learn the game.

Discipline
Discipline isn’t a trait unique to poker professionals; winners of all walks are disciplined in their thoughts and actions. For poker players, they must discipline their thoughts of losing, as well as act like winners at all times. For poker players, the old saying that success breeds success rings true as only thoughts of winning and disciplined practice will keep poker players on the straight and narrow to winning.

Further disciplined players know how to adapt their skills—they are not rigid rule followers but rather thinking players for whom it is more important to be flexible and adaptive than stuck in their ways.

Discipline for a players means knowing when to quit and not getting caught up in chasing an elusive buck. Winners never follow blind trails—nor do they think they’re perfect. Every poker player worth his or her salt knows that a mistake lies in wait somewhere.

Psychological Skills
Psychological skills are probably the hardest to master after self-discipline. Sometimes it’s far easier to influence yourself, than influence others.

Much of poker opponent psychology rests in a players’ ability to empathize—put themselves in the other payer’s shoes. Only then can the player ever hope to predict opponents’ moves. Some poker games rest on mathematics, others rest on nothing but one player pitted against another in a battle of wills and minds.

Clarity on the risk vs. reward in poker
It is at this juncture that many novice players lose the plot—it’s no use learning the game—knowing your opponents inside out and having Einsteinian mathematics skills—if you don’t understand how risks and rewards balance out at this game.

Winning poker players are willing to take a risk if the reward is worthwhile, and only if the reward outweighs the risk. They also make sure that they’re not robbing Peter to pay Paul. Only rank amateurs even think of using the rent money to up the ante. In general, good poker players prefer to not take huge risks; most ‘all in’ calls are reserved for the movies. It is, however, a poker players rule that if he can’t afford to lose his entire bankroll—he shouldn’t be playing at all.

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