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Casinos> Gambling Articles > Good Judgement, Your Best Poker Tool
Good Judgement, Your Best Poker Tool
After
you have mastered the basics of the game of poker, think of your continued play
as an apprenticeship. Remember that you
are still learning and will make mistakes, but do learn from them. Keep your ego in check, you may be good today
but you should be better next week as you continue to practice. Be patient as nobody can learn to master
everything immediately. As you practice,
one important lesson you need to learn is to think rather than blindly
following rules and strategy sheets.
Many
people who are just getting started with poker will collect all kinds of
strategy sheets and read lots of books to find out what to do in every
situation. Some will take these
strategies as gospel and follow them to closely, which may not be the best path
to take. Following strict guidelines
like this rather than thinking for yourself can be a big mistake. Unlike blackjack, there is not always a
correct strategy to follow in every poker situation and learning to think and
apply strategies correctly is an important skill to master.
Advice
and tips sheets cannot take the place of your own good judgment skills. You can't depend on pre-planned strategies if
you want to be successful. Players who
do this are doomed to failure as they will be very predictable and won't always
take all variables into consideration when making decisions. The best poker players know the basics and
make their decisions on the fly and play differently as the situation requires. These players will take advantage of you if
you can’t learn to do the same.
Good
judgment skills cannot be taught, but they can be learned with lots of
practice. Learn from your mistakes and
try to figure out what you should have done differently each time things go
wrong. Do you make the right decision
more often than the wrong one? If not,
this is the area you need to concentrate on to become a better poker player.
Looking
at the hand history in online poker can help you learn the right
decisions. Many online poker rooms will
display all the losing hands in this history even if it is not shown on the
screen at the showdown. If someone calls
you on the river and you still win, check the hand history and see what cards
he had. This will help you learn if you
are judging your opponents correctly.
Taking notes can also help you to review you decisions and find your
mistakes.
To play
poker you have to have confidence in yourself but you also have to think for
yourself. Don't get carried away with
poker textbook guidelines, you are the best judge of the current situation and
not some book written perhaps years ago.
Good poker knowledge and a basic familiarity with the guidelines
combined with situational judgment skills are what make a good poker player. Losers don't think for themselves or perhaps
just don't think at all! Remember this
and you will be well on your way to becoming a successful poker player.
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