General Philosophy

[Frank Zappy]

I have only a few posts here because in my first pass through I was severely flamed for "Spewing Chips"

My overall philosophy is that poker is a game of people, information and cards and in that exact order. I will often call, or even raise, when I know I have the worst of it in order to gain information about the people at the table.

If I have reasonable winning chances, I will almost always call down a new player to the river just to insure that I get a peek at his outlook and strategy (many on the board call this “Spewing chips”). The few bets I might lose are an investment in how my “enemies” operate and they pay for themselves many times over because I now have a very good feel for the player on the next hand.

When a stronger hand doesn’t play back at me, I will note that even though he won a hand, it may be possible to push him off a hand later on a “scary” board. In fact there are so many people like this I just have a shorthand notation for it now, he's a "Boardaphobic".

Winning only one hand in this manner, one that I “shouldn’t”, more than pays for the investments I made in information gathering.