ROY COOKE POKER

Keeping your mind right is the key to surviving pokers’ test of time. Exercise and healthy living helps facilitate that goal. But you also have to keep it together mentally. Don’t over-react to negative events. Guide yourself with reason, not emotion.

Additionally, playing with confidence is the state of mind you need to be in when playing poker. Nourish that confidence; it’ll increase your chances of success. Be more inclined to quit winners or play a softer game after being on a losing streak, because a winner can put you back on the right mental track.

Playing drunk or high is going to affect your judgement. I’ve often heard from players that drinking doesn’t, but the medical evidence is overwhelming. Any significant amount of alcohol negatively affects all mental and physical actions. I’ve never seen a player survive the test of time that constantly drank at the table. I’ve often heard that smoking pot helps people think better because it lowers their stress. While that may be true in some instances, it will affect your energy level, and, even if you think they won’t influence your judgement, it will!

All that said, while it’s great to always be at your best when you’re playing poker to win, make sure your mind is prepared to intellectualize through the ryou play, it’s not realistic. On your slightly off days adjust your strategy to compensate. Tighten your game selection, play a little lower, and/or don’t make some of your more marginal plays. You can still have the best of it, even when you’re not at your best! Just be careful not to overrate your abilities when you’re slightly off.

Though basic, this issue is important and often overlooked. When iddles the game will provide.

And if it’s not, don’t play!

I’m going to outline four levels of thought you need to actualize to play poker on a high level. Additionally, it’s important to recognize what level your opponents are thinking on. You should at least be able to think at the fourth level.

*What do I have?
*What do they have?
*What do they think I have?
*What do they think I think they have?

Beginning players tend to evaluate only the strength of their hand (What do I have?). Their thinking rises to another level when they start thinking about what their opponents hold (What do they have?). You can expand your thought process further by thinking about what your opponents think you have (What do they think I have?). On the next level, consider what they think you think they have (What do they think I think they have?).

If you can master these levels of thought, you will be able to design specific strategies based on your opponents’ holding and thoughts. You’ll make better timed bluffs, folds and value bets. That said, it’s important not to overthink specific situations. You can’t think about what an opponent thinks you have, if he doesn’t bother to consider your cards.

Multi-level thinking has been around since the inception of thought, but many poker players don’t utilize it. Habituate yourself to run through these four levels of thought on every decision.
And when the process comes naturally, you can move your thinking up to even higher levels!

For example, if you can narrow your opponent’s pre-flop range to AA, KK or AK, there are 6 possible mathematical combinations of AA (AhAd-AhAs-AhAc-AdAs-AdAc-AsAc), 6 of KK and 16 of AK, of which 4 are suited. So in that case your opponent is 16-12 or 4-3 to have AK over a wired pair.

There are six combinations of every pair. If one of the rank hits the board, it reduces the combinations to three. In other words, if there is a 9 on the board, there are 3 possible combinations of 99 in your opponent’s hand. There are 16 combinations of every unpaired hand of which 4 are suited.

When one of the cards comes on the board, it reduces the combinations to 12. For example; when an ace hits on the board there are 12 combinations of AK still available to your opponent. If both an ace and a king come, there are 9 combinations of AK available to your opponent. If two Aces hit the board, there are 8 combinations of AK available. If you don’t understand this, write out the combinations available.

If you think the manner in which your opponent played a given hand leans more toward his possessing one holding over another, discount the lower propensity holding by the appropriate amount. If you think there is a 25% chance that your opponent would have played an AK differently, discount the combinations of AK in his range by 25%.

Those are the fundamentals to mathematically calculating your opponent’s ranges. Utilize it at the table and the numbers will eventually become second nature to you.

And your ability to read your opponent’s cards will dramatically improve

That said, with “fishy” players, you need to be much more situationally selective. A few fish are fishy because they fold too much, but that’s not typically true. In short, bluffing is doable, but the situations are generally few and far between.

Most fish call with a wide pre-flop range that will often whiff the flop. That creates value for pre-flop isolation plays and flop continuation bets. Of course, some flops are whiffier than others, and players have differing post-flop calling frequencies. The trick to being a successful bluffer in the “fish pond” is to compartmentalize. Put those that almost never fold in one compartment, those that call with overcards in another. Think about who plays ‘fit or fold” and learn which boards they can be moved off of. Are there any who seem like they are playing scared? You can develop your own compartments, simplify or complicate, the variations of opponents is immeasurable.
Rainbow boards that have a high card remove some/all of the overcard range from an opponent. Those with few legitimate straight/flush draws add still greater value to your bluffs. Consider the board texture, what will this particular opponent(s) call with? What percentage of their current range is a calling hand? What size bet will fold those hands? Is the pots size worth the bets risk?

Opportunities to bluff in loose games are fewer, but that doesn’t mean that a limited number of well selected bluffs can’t have positive value. If you select the right situations, not only will your bluffs have positive EV but when your often calling opponents know that you bluff, it will both widen their calling range and create better value betting situations because they are likely to call bigger wagers.

So, don’t just give up on bluffing because the game is loose. Find the right spots and it will add value to your game.

Plus there are the competitive skills required. It’s great to have control of your life and time, but accountabilities come with it. You need to be continuously motivated to play and work on your game. You need to structure your life around the game so you can play when the games are good. You need to have relationships that understand your poker needs and support you. You need to configure your life so that you are playing happy, because if you don’t play happy, your game will suffer. And happiness is what makes life worth living.

Along the same lines, you need to be mentally tough and stable enough to keep it all together when the cards aren’t running your way. It sounds much easier than it is. Pokers stresses tend to have a wearing effect on most players, both mentally and physically. Compensating for pokers effects is a necessary component in order to survive the “test of time”.

Poker appears to be a glamorous thrilling lifestyle. You live in a destination resort, eat great food, meet new and exciting people daily, have control over your life and for those that are successful a solid financial future. But the realities soon become apparent. Poker is a grind for all but a VERY select few.

It takes a unique level of intellect, knowledge and mental toughness to survive. And a significantly higher level of all three to thrive. If you think you have what it takes, go for your dreams. That said, research what it takes, and be honest with your self–evaluation.

And if you choose to take the plunge, good luck and play well!

All that said, blocking bets have some issues. Some experienced players will read right through your sizing and raise-bluff, forcing you to pay an even higher price or fold. If you bet rather than check, you have effectively removed the bluffs from your opponents betting range and any value those bluffs would create for you.

Blocking bets work well against weak, uncreative, and nitty players who infrequently raise bluff. Confine the play to those situations, and blocking bets will be a valuable tool in your poker arsenal. But if you get too frisky with them, you’ll end up costing yourself money!

Say you have AK and raised pre-flop indicating a big hand. On an A-A-4-6-K board, the effective stack size is 1-1/2 pot. You know you’re against a weak opponent who won’t lay down any Ace or better as he is more focused on the strength of his hand and indifferent to the size of the bet or the odds the pot is offering him. Go ahead and shove all-in and get the optimum value out of your hand.

Most situations are elastic; your opponent(s) will call differing sized bets with different hands. And computing what percentage they will call with which hands and calculating the best option is a complicated process. But recognizing situations that are inelastic and actualizing a big bet can have enormous value.
So when you’re contemplating what bet-size to make, think about if your opponent(s) are inelastic with a significant portion of their calling range.

And if they are… Stick it in!

Of course, you can adapt your behavior to manipulate your image. What image do you want? Is it a loose image so that, when you make a hand, you generate calls more often? Or do you want a tight image so you can pick your opponents apart with bluffs?

If you want a loose image to acquire calls, don’t put on your sunglasses, your hoodie, and your headset and not speak a word to anyone. You’re just portraying tightness. Instead, depict a sloppy image, stack your chips haphazardly, be loud, be boisterous, act like you’re there for fun and play all your marginal situations. Your manufactured image will create more calls for you.

Conversely, if you’re looking to bluff your way to victory, do put on your sunglasses, cover yourself with a hoodie, put on your headset (without the music on so you can hear your opponents), don’t say a word, fold all your marginal situations, and put on the most serious image you can.

All that said, trying to establish an image to people who aren’t paying attention is just a waste of energy. In those cases, just be your most comfortable self and play every hand optimally. Making non-optimum plays to deceive opponents that who won’t recall the circumstances and won’t employ the strategy you are trying to influence them into taking is just squandering EV.

Additionally, don’t be taken by your opponent’s maneuvers to influence you. Read people based on what their actions dictate, and not judge them by what they are projecting. Players talk loose and play tight. Pay attention to what your opponents do, not what they say. That concept transcends poker and is critical in life too.
Keep things real within yourself and project he image that’s best for you at the table. But when you leave the table, leave all the image projection behind and be your real self!