Tips for playing without ego

When the hand begins, the cards you are dealt are meaningless.

Every hand you are dealt presents you with decisions. Nothing is absolute, until the pot has been claimed.

Do I have a big enough hand to call/raise the flat-track bully's standard pot-sized bet after a flop?

How good are my AAs, after a lot of action pre-flop, and a flop of K, Q, 10?

Villian just pushed after a river card that can't conceiveably help him. Has he been slow-playing, or is he bluffing a busted draw?

Decisions like these, and the simple, mundane ones we all take for granted, are what this game is about.

We are all dealt X% of winning hands, and X% of 2nd best hands. The key is recognize which is which.

In the K, Q, 10 example, for instance, a skilled player with AA would recognize that if there were a ton of action preflop, and 3 people made the flop, then he's almost drawing dead now. The man that throws away the AA doesn't make any money, but he's lost a lot less than a breakeven player would have. He's nullified a 2nd best hand that could potentially cost him the money he'd earned with several wins previously.

Folding a 2nd best hand before it hits your stack is more important than the hands you win. Because even a fish gets the nuts from time to time, but a fish can't conceive the notion of laying down a straight when there's a flush possibility on the table. That's right, it's folding that makes you money.

Being unable to throw a hand away happens when you say to yourself, "Finally, it's my turn to win one!" And we start counting our chickens before they've hatched. I know every time I've lost my stack in one hand, it's because I've fallen into that trap. It only takes a second to lose focus, and your buyin along with it.

So in short; Nothing is absolute, the cards are meaningless. 72 can win. AA can lose. Just read the story the cards are telling you, and make the +EV decision.

Done.



I'm no guru, or even very good, I'm simply a reasonable player. I'm still learning every session. I may, in fact, be full of it, or maybe not. You decide.