by Scott Billingsley
Zig Zigler, for those in the sales game, has written more
books, given more speeches, taught more classes on the subject
than just about anybody in today’s business world. Zig is very
dynamic and knowledgeable about how to persuade people, manage a
process, and ask the hard questions and to increase your value
in the eyes of a buyer. He as gotten good at this by studying,
practicing and using all that he teaches in his every day life.
He is a subject matter expert, learned through years and years
of trial and error and every day practice.
What Zig is not is an expert on golf. He’s not a professional
golfer, a gold instructor. He’s a lover of the game. Zig has
recorded a tape on how to play better golf. It’s not about swing
instruction or drills; it’s about his observation on attitude
and what’s worked for him. What I hope to give you in this
article are a few lessons I learned the hard way, in hopes of
helping the novice player avoid these common traps.
If you are a poker novice and will heed the advice below, you
will quickly improve your game. I learned these lessons over
thousands of hands in my early playing career and it cost me
money. Here is your chance to avoid learning these lessons the
hard way.
Getting dealt an Ace doesn’t mean you have a great hand
You’re holding and A and a deuce, you feel pretty good that
you’ve been dealt an ace. Chances are that you’re not the only
one holding an ace. Even though the ace is the most powerful
card in the deck, remember that you need to make the best hand
of five (5) cards.
Most beginning players will hold onto and play any ace they are
dealt. They will often play that ace until the river in hopes of
drawing an ace on the board. If an ace hits, another can of
worms is opened up as your ace is only as good as the second
card you hold, the “kicker”, and if you are playing an A-2,
anyone else holding an ace has a 80%+ chance of beating you
before the flop.
There are occasions, especially in limit holdem, where an A-x
suited is appropriate to play if you can do so cheaply, but you
do not get a favorable flop, these too, often turn into trap
hands, so do not wed yourself to an ace with a crummy kicker.
Mind your “Kicker”
As mentioned above, kickers, or more accurately, the lack of a
good one, will cost the beginning player a great deal of money.
So while it is exciting to get dealt that face card, the kicker
is the card that will add weight to you hand once you pair up
one of your cards with the board. That is why A-K, or "Big
Slick" is the most powerful non-pocket pair hand. If you hit
either one of your cards on the flop, you are guaranteed to have
top pair with top kicker, which can still lose to a number of
hands, but will still have you in a powerful position. It is
easy to get trapped in the blind holding a hand like Q-6 and the
flop comes Q-5-2. You hang with your hand until the end as a 10
comes on the turn and a 7 on the river, only to lose to K-Q,
Q-J, Q-10, etc. You created value in the pot for someone else, while draining your chip stack.
Losing a high-paired hand to a better kicker was one of the most
costly lessons for me early on. I thought I had the best hand
only to find out that my pair was second best. Learning to lay
down the A-x, K-x, Q-x, where x represents any random number
card, will save you money in the long run. Every time you lay
one of these hands down, keep track to see if you would have won
the hand. My observations showed me that I would have lost more
than I would have won.
Position, Position, Position
Similar to the old real estate adage, location, location,
location, position is king in poker, particularly no-limit
poker. As a review, on a full ten-player table, early position
is defined as the first three positions after the big blind, the
next three are considered middle position, and the last two, the
cut-off and the button, are considered late position. Position
equals information. The later your position, the more
information you will garner about your opponents which will in
turn provide you the ability to make an informed decision
regarding your own play. Have they shown weakness or strength?
If you are in early position, with several players yet to act
behind you, you could be walking into trouble if you play
marginal hands, since you may end up getting raised or re-raised
by a player(s) in later position. You then have to act before
them in each subsequent round of betting.
Many new players will play almost anything, suited connecters,
small pairs, two suited cards, any face card or any ace
regardless of where they sit on the table in relation to the
dealer button. Correct position play in a low limit game full of
loose players will net you solid returns. Do not play marginal
hands like A-J, A-10, K-J, Q-10, etc. in early position. These
hands become more playable the later your position becomes since
you will have the knowledge about those who played before you
and fewer players to act behind you.
Read more detailed articles on position in our strategy section.
So much can be accomplished if you play the right cards in the
right position and so much can be lost if you don't. It is
a subject that warrants your attention.
Patience and the power of the fold
This is one of the hardest aspects of the game to learn. I still
struggle with this critical skill. You need to decide before you
get into a poker game why you’re there. If you’re there to have
fun, play lots of hand for entertainment and don’t care if you
lose money, then you can skip this section, but if you want to
better your chances of winning money, keep reading. It
will benefit you greatly at any stakes.
All the experts will tell you how to play your premium hands.
They offer sound advice and you should heed it, but remember
that you will not be getting a premium hand all that often. This
is where patience comes in.
The decision you make before the flop will be the decision that
costs you money or makes you money. This is the most critical point in
the hand. Many beginners play
far too many hands because they lose patience and after watching
the World Poker Tour on TV believe they should be playing all
those of crazy hands that the pros play. They forget that the
pros have a method to their supposed madness and that the TV
show edits out most of the folding since it is not as exciting. I like to remind new
players that they can't lose money they don't bet. That is
the power of the fold. You could be sitting at a table with
Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Gus Hansen, and Johnny
Chan and not lose a dime to those pros (outside of the blinds)
if you folded every hand. You as the player have control
over whether you are putting your money at risk or not. It is when a player starts to wade into the
pool with marginal hands that the sharks start to feed.
Remember that there is no shame in folding when you are likely
beat. The proper fold leaves money in your stack and keeps you
loaded for bear when a premium hand shows.
You also don't need to feel obligated to hold on to either your
big or small blind if you’re
raised. Bad cards are bad cards regardless of where you
sit and you will be out of position for the rest of the hand.
As you get more advanced in your play, you can attack players
you believe may be blind-stealing, but as a beginner, it may be
smarter for you to live to fight another day instead of letting
your ego cost you money.
If you want to practice patience, I would challenge you to try
sitting at a micro-limit table online (.05/.10 for instance) and fold every hand that is not considered
a Top 10 hand (AA, KK,
QQ, JJ, AK, AQ, TT, 99, 88, 77). This may prove to be
very boring at first, but it will give you a sense of the type
of patience you need. Notice how often a premium hand
arrives. Obviously, the successful poker
player plays many hands beyond the Top 10, but the beginner
needs to learn patience and how to fold hands that may look good
such as A-x or low pairs. Once you begin to develop that
patience, you then can practice expanding your starting hands
and working on the tricky plays.
These few suggestions will save you money and offer you better
chances to win and winning is always more fun than losing. Next
time, I’ll continue with a few other ideas that will help
move you from beginner to winner.
Flop a Set
Scott
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