The 4 Faces of Patience – The Essential Poker Skill

If you could define an expert poker player with just one word, that word would be patience. A good player has to wait a lot, remain calm at all times, and be satisfied with the gradual path. These are all aspects of patience. Here we'll go over the four aspects of a patient player to give you a better idea of ​​what this means.

A Patient Observer: Wait for the right cards
You can't control which cards you get, but you can decide which ones to play. Regardless of the strategy you intend to follow, playing too many hands will bring only failure. Each starting hand has a specific worth in the game being played. Some of them are premium hands, whereas others are clearly junk. Both of those classes are easy to deal with; those in between are the ones which tend to cause trouble.

Poker experts David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth have assigned each possible poker hand to a group (known as Sklansky groups); the idea is that all hands in the group can normally be played similarly. Stronger starting hands are identified by a lower number. Hands without a number are the weakest starting hands. The numbers go from 1 to 8. AK and all face card pairs belong to group 1 for example.

Rita finds herself at a rather loose hold'em table. From the books she knows she should play rather tightly here. She also tends to get pushed around by bullies, so it makes sense to tighten up her game. She's decided she can play Sklansky groups 1 and 2 (so high pairs and aces), but will only play group 3 at opportune moments. Everything else she's going to throw away.

A Patient Actor: Wait for the right time
Position (the order in which you get to play) is everything - a mantra repeated through virtually all poker books and echoed by any serious player. Beyond just having playable cards you need to be in a good position to act on those cards. This doesn't just mean being on the button; you need to consider who has bet and raised before you. More information improves your ability to make the right decision. Being impatient will lead to making uninformed decisions, which leads to losses.

Every action has an optimal timing. A bluff will only work if you suspect your opponent will fold. Value bets only make sense when you'll get a call but not likely be beat. Remember that when you call, you are going to have to follow through on further streets. Folding at the right time is also an essential aspect of patience. You can't let the lure of a big pot drag you along. If the timing isn't right you need to get out.

Rita is in the cutoff (late position) and finds herself with pocket jacks, an excellent hand! The loose player under the gun (first to act) has put in a small bet and is called by another loose player. So far this would still be okay, but the very tight player to her right has just put in a raise. There is a good chance she is already beaten, plus the two loose players will make this a very expensive pot and one of them may get a lucky flop. She reluctantly folds her jacks.

A Patient Temper: Endure the unfortunate losses

You can't win them all. Poker, though not a game of pure chance, contains a random element. There is no way to avoid this. Having a 10% chance of losing a pot means that you will lose 1 in every 10 times you are in the same situation. Even a 99% chance of winning means you'll lose 1 in every 100 hands. And since you will be playing thousands of hands, these unlucky losses will happen often.

Worse still are the donkeys. They stick around with ridiculous holdings and make unbelievable suck outs. They'll even gloat about it trying to provoke a reaction. If you go on tilt, you've lost. Continual level headed play will ultimately win versus the donkey. Acting on tilt however simply increases your chances of losing, if not to the donk, then to the other players at the table - who are rightfully taking advantage of you at this point. Bad beats are par for the course in poker. You must remain calm.

Rita finds herself on the button with pocket kings. Randy, a loose player, leads out with a small bet and is moderately raised by Matt, a solid player. To discover Matt's strength Rita puts in a further raise. Randy calls and Matt folds. The flop comes 9 ♥ K ♣ T ♦ and Randy checks. Likely a misguided check-raise attempt. Rita obliges and puts in a half-pot bet. Randy immediately shoves - about twice what is in the pot. Rita calls and Randy shows A ♣ 9 ♣. Rita is momentarily happy until the flop and turn come J ♥ Q ♦ giving Randy the straight to win the pot. Rita knows she did the right thing so calmly buys more chips and hopes to get another shot against Randy in a later hand.

A Patient Income: Accept slow gains
Poker, even with no limits, is not a quick money game. Players who show up and pull in a ton of cash quickly tend to be met with equally quick, and usually larger, downswings. Profit in poker is made over the course of thousands of hands; looking at the gains from individual hands or sessions is misleading. Without outright gambling there is only so much that can be made from poker. You'll simply have to accept this.

You'll hear people speak of something called "big bets per 100 hands" (BB / 100). This is how many times the "big bet" (generally equals 2 times the value of the big blind) you are earning, on average, over the course of a hundred hands. Any positive value is okay. In fact a value from 1 to 3 is good. Even with spectacular play this value will only go up modestly, indeed 8 or 9 are considered an unlikely lucky streak.

Rather than take greater risks you are better off increasing your limits while maintaining your BB / 100 rate. In other words, your rate of winning hands will remain the same on average, but since the limits are higher, you'll be winning more actual money. It's like the difference between the tip a server at a high-end vs. lower end restaurant makes: 15% on a $ 20 meal is $ 3. But the same 15% on a $ 200 dollar meal is $ 30 for the same amount of work!

Unlike the very loose table Rita had earlier, she is now sitting at a tight table with solid opponents. She's not sure if she is outclassed or simply receiving bad cards. After about 300 hands her buy-in of $ 50 is now just $ 52. She's nonetheless happy since it is a positive value at a table where she thought she was weak player. She checks her bankroll later and notes that her BB / 100 for the past several months is about 2.5. At that rate of income her bankroll will be high enough move up to $ 100 buy-in in about 1 month. Rita sees no reason to rush to the goal.

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Source by Bailey Trex