Win Poker

Selling a house by owner is always a big problem and much fuss. You should take into account everything: how to do it, what taxes are to be paid, what to do with the money and how to get a mortgage and, of course, how not to buy a pup.

I used to deal with real estate agencies and had only problems and nothing more. And I decided to try it myself. I’d heard a lot about www.fizber.com before so I placed my ad for selling the house by owner and was greatly surprised to get the response in a week.

This site is really worth mentioning and visiting for those who are looking for a place of living. Why? For many reasons. For example,  I’ve seen many sites which offer some information about various facilities in the neighborhood but it can’t be compared with “Drive Score” (http://drivescore.fizber.com/) or “City Profile” ( http://www.fizber.com/sale-by-owner-home-services/city-profiles.html). And if you look at its database – it’s enormous (http://www.fizber.com/).

Don’t waste your time with real estate agencies – do it yourself and fizber.com will help you.         

This is generally a very good flop for you. Suppose you have raised with
A♣ J♣
in late position, four other players have called, and there has been no other raise. The flop comes
J♦ 9♥ 2♥
You probably have the best hand right now. However, there are a lot of things than can go wrong. If the turn card is
K♥
you will have to fold if there’s any substantial action. Therefore, you want to raise immediately on the flop, and make it expensive for flush draws and overcards to stick around. Even if the board is less threatening (for instance, J♦-6♥-3♣), you still want to raise on the flop. This may get out hands like KQ, which you would like to do. If it’s checked to you, bet. If you’re in early position and you get the first flop, you have a problem. You would like to check-raise, but you must be very sure that somebody will bet. You definitely don’t want to give a free card to somebody with KQ or two hearts. If somebody in late position raised before the flop, he may well bet on the flop, giving you the opportunity to check-raise. If you are the first per¬son to act after the raiser, this would be a perfect time to check-raise, as you have a good chance of making it a heads-up contest.
If you were the preflop raiser, be more inclined to bet (rather than check-raise) on the flop if the flop hits you. Being the pre-flop raiser, you’re almost expected to bet, and this gives you the chance to re-raise if somebody raises behind you.
Note that if you have K♣-J♦ and the flop comes K♦-8♥-3♣, the check-raise is an excellent play because you aren’t afraid of an overcard (except an ace) on the turn. If it’s checked around, that’s unfortunate, but not likely to be catastrophic. It may also confuse your opponents when you bet on the turn. For instance, if the turn is the T♦, somebody with a ten may call you both on the turn and the river, not believing you have the king.
Let’s return to the situation where you have A♣-J♣ and the flop is J♦-9♥-2♥. If you raise and are re-raised (or bet and are raised), you must decide how to continue. If you think that raising again will limit the pot to you and the raiser, it may be worth re-raising, even if you suspect he has you beaten right now. By eliminating the other players, you are giving yourself a better shot to win the pot (even though it will cost you an extra bet here). For instance, many players would stay in here with a hand like Q♥-9♦. For one bet, that would not be a terrible play. How¬ever, if you re-raise and force that person to call two bets cold, he will probably fold. By knocking him out, you save the pot for yourself if a queen, nine, or two more hearts fall.
If you don’t think you can eliminate other players or you are sure that the raiser has a strong hand, you can back off - call the raise and then check and call to the river. It will be difficult to fold in this situation unless the third flush card hits or a king or queen hits. If your opponent continues to bet into you then, you might think about dropping. However, if you call a bet on the turn, you must be absolutely sure of your opponent if you decide to fold on the river. By that time, the pot will be quite large, and you will be making a catastrophic mistake if you fold incorrect¬ly. We are not urging you to call every bet on the river. Nevertheless, an incorrect fold in this situation can be very expensive, depending on how badly you mis-estimate the odds that you are beaten versus the pot odds.

Have you ever dreamt to work in casino?

A lot of money that are really close to you… And you imagine that some of them could stay right in your wallet… I suggest you to follow up with this story of my friend who had been working in casino for some time.

I am convinced that the most difficult job in the world is a casino dealer. Not long time ago I thought that it was so exciting and interesting to work in casino, to communicate with people and to earn money. But I was awfully wrong. Nothing was so simple and breathtaking in reality. A year ago I decided to find a job in a casino, as I had watched a lot of movies about it and wanted to be engaged in this field. So I found an advertisement in a newspaper with a tiny article about free croupier courses with possible employment. I had an interview with casino personnel manager, as well as many other young boys and girls. About 40 of us passed the first “exam”. The next stage was our training. Every day we were attending lessons. It was strictly forbidden to talk to each other, to be late and to ask “wrong” questions. Every week we had to pass some kind of tests, connected with calculation, cards, roulette and so on. And after every test there were fewer and fewer of us left. Some quit themselves as it was uphill for them to cope with stress situations in which our teachers placed us. The courses lasted 2 months and in the end of our training there were only 12 students left. For us it seemed like a miracle that we did it and were the best and psychologically the strongest of others, who were asked to leave. Soon we were allowed to work in the casino. And then my “nightmare” commenced. I felt like in hell, because whatever the situations were, I was always “an evil”. If the players won a lot of money, my manager looked at me as if I were a thief and spend money which was not mine. From another hand if players lost their money, they accused me that I was cheating and stealing their money straight from their pockets. And I could not handle with it. Too much stress and pressure on my head, I felt nervous even on my days-off. I was sick and tired of people and avoided communicating with them. I did my best not to show that I was on the verge of insanity. At last I understood that this job was not for me. Maybe some other people can leave this all behind and not bring their problems home, but not me. One day I just decided that I had had enough and just quit. I did not want to come back in that place any more. This place is saturated with negative energy, too much problems and conflicts. But now, looking back on those days, I only smile – it was long time ago, and it was like an “injection” for me from gambling and desire to earn easy money. I saw with my own eyes, that nothing in this world is for free and one has to pay for everything.

Surfing internet I’ve found an extremely useful odds chart. It seems to me every poker player who is tending to earn on poker should know this by heart

When there is only one round of betting left and only one card to come, comparing your chances of improving to the pot odds you are getting is a relatively straightforward proposition. If your chances of making a hand you know will win are, say, 4-to-1 against and you must call a $20 bet for the chance to win a $120 pot, then clearly your hand is worth a call because you’re getting 6-to-1 pot odds. Those 6-to-1 odds the pot is offering you (excluding bets on the end) are greater than the 4-to-1 odds against your making your hand. However, when there is more than one card to come, you must be very careful in determining your real pot odds. Many players make a classic mistake: They know their chances of improving, let’s say, with three cards to come, and they compare those chances to the pot odds they are getting right now. But such a comparison is completely off the mark since the players are going to have to put more money into the pot in future betting rounds, and they must take that money into account. It’s true that the chances of making a hand improve greatly when there are two or three cards to come, but the odds you are getting from the pot worsen.

Reducing Your Pot Odds With More than One Card to Come
Let’s say you are playing holdem, and after the flop you have a four-flush that you are sure will win if you hit it. There are two cards to come, which improves your odds of making the flush to approximately 1,75-to-l. It is a $10-$20 game with $20 in the pot, and your single opponent has bet $10. You may say, “I’m getting 3-to-1 odds and my chances are 1,75-to-l. So I should call.”
However, the 1,75-to-1 odds of making the flush apply only if you intend to see not just the next card, but the last card as well, and to see the last card you will probably have to call not just $ 10 now but also $20 on the next round of betting. Therefore, when you decide you’re going to see a hand that needs improvement all the way through to the end, you can’t say you are getting, as in this case, 30-to-10 odds. You have to say, “Well, if I miss my hand, I lose $ 10 on this round of betting and $20 on the next round. In all, I lose $30. If I make my hand, I will win the $30 in there now plus $20 on the next round for a total of $50.” All of a sudden, instead of 30-to-10, you’re getting only 50-to-30 odds, which reduces to 1,67-to-l.
These are your effective odds — the real odds you are getting from the pot when you call a bet with more than one card to come. Since you are getting only 1,67-to-l by calling a $10 bet after the flop, and your chances of making the flush are 1,75-to-l, you would have to throw away the hand, because it has turned into a losing play — that is, a play with negative expectations. The only time it would be correct to play the hand in this situation is if you could count on your opponent to call a bet at the end, after your flush card hits. Then your potential $50 win increases to $70, giving you 70-to-30 odds and justifying a call.
It should be clear from this example that when you compute odds on a hand you intend to play to the end, you must think not in terms of the immediate pot odds but in terms of the total amount you might lose versus the total amount you might win. You have to ask, “What do I lose if I miss my hand, and what will I gain if I make it?” The answer to this question tells you your real or effective odds.
Let’s look at an interesting, more complex application of effective odds. Suppose there is $250 in the pot, you have a back-door flush draw in holdem, and an opponent bets $ 10. With a back-door flush you need two in a row of a suit. To make things simple, we’ll assume the chances of catching two consecutive of a particular suit are 1/5 * 1/5. That’s not quite right, but it’s close enough. It means you’ll hit a flush once in 25 tries on average, making you a 24-to-1 underdog. By calling your opponent’s $10 bet, you would appear to be getting 26-to-1. So you might say, “OK, I’m getting 26-to-1, and it’s only 24-to-1 against me. Therefore, I should call to try to make my flush.”
Your calculations are incorrect because they do not take into account your effective odds. One out of 25 times you will win the $260 in there, plus probably another $40 on the last two rounds of betting. Twenty times you will lose only $10 when your first card does not hit, and you need not call another bet. But the remaining four times you will lose a total of $30 each time when your first card hits, you call your opponent’s $20 bet, and your second card does not hit. Thus, after 25 such hands, you figure to lose $320 ($200 + $120) while winning $300 for a net loss of $20. Your effective odds reveal a call on the flop to be a play with negative expectation and hence incorrect.

Today I was reading Winning Low-Limit Holdem by Lee Jones and I’ve seen a little quiz there.

You may check your skills here. The answers will be given after the quiz.

1. Give three reasons why the flop is the most crucial point in a hold’em hand.
2. What is the most common mistake made by low-limit hold’em players on the flop?
3. What is the most important use of the check-raise in low-limit hold’em games?
4. How should you normally play A♠-Q♠ if the flop comes Q♦-J♥-2♣ and you were the only one who raised before the flop?
5. How should you normally play A♠-5♠ in late position if the flop comes A♥-8♦-4♣, there has been no raise before the flop, and you have six opponents?
6. How should you normally play Q♥-Q♣ in early position against five opponents if the flop comes A♣-T♦-4♦ and there was one raise pre-flop?
7. If you have T♦-9♦ and the flop comes T♣-9♠-4♣, what should you do, and why?
8. Suppose you have K♥-K♦, you have raised before the flop, and six players take the flop, which comes K♣-7♦-2♥. What should you normally do?
9. You have A♣-T♣ on the button. Six people take the flop, which comes J♣-9♦-4♣. There’s a bet and three calls in front of you. What should you normally do?
10. You have 9♥-8♥ in late position. There is no raise pre­flop, and five people take the flop, which comes T♦-6♣-3♣. It is checked until the player to your right bets. What should you normally do? Now assume the same situation, but there was one raise pre-flop. What should you normal­ly do?
11. Suppose you have T♣-T♦ in middle position, there is a raise before the flop and five callers. The flop comes T♥-8♥-8♠. How should you normally play? What would be a reasonable alternative play?
12. Suppose you have 5♠-3♦ on the big blind and get to see the flop for “free.” The flop comes 4♣-7♣-6♥. You have four opponents. How should you normally play?
13. You have J♦-T ♦ on the button and are the fourth caller (no raise). The flop comes 7♣-6♥-2♥. There is a bet and one call in front of you. How should you normally play? Now suppose the flop comes 9♣-4♥-2♦. How does this change the situation?
14. You have 6♠-5♠ in middle position with four opponents, and no raise pre-flop. The flop comes T♣-6♥-3♣. There’s a bet and a caller in front of you. What is typically the best play in this situation?
15. You have A♦-A♠ in late position and raise before the flop, ending up with two opponents. The flop comes K♣-T♣-4♦. The first player to act bets, the second folds. You raise and the first player makes it three bets. What would be rea­sonable plays in this situation?
16. You have Q♣-J♠ on the big blind, and there are five callers including you. The flop comes 8♥-J♦-2♥. You check, as does everybody else until the last player to act, who bets. You check-raise, and the original bettor is the only one to call. Now the T♣ comes on the turn. What should you nor­mally do?
17. You have A♥-9♥ on the button and are one of six callers. The flop comes A♣-3♦-8♣. You bet and get two callers. The turn is the 6♠ - they check, you bet, and they call. The river card is the J♣ and again they both check. What’s probably your best play here?
18. You have A♥-K♦, you raise under the gun, and get three callers. The flop comes 7♥-K♣-3♠. You check, planning to check-raise, but it’s checked around. The turn is the J♥, you bet and get one caller. The river is the 8♠. Should you bet or check, and why?
Answers:
1.a) The flop determines the likely winner of the hand.
b) It is when you must make a crucial play/no-play deci­sion.
c) (In structured-limit play only) you can gain informa­tion using cheaper bets that will allow you to make the correct decisions on later, more expensive, cards.
2. Calling bets and raises with hands that have little or no chance of winning the pot.
3. To force players to call two bets instead of one, often mak­ing it incorrect for them to call at all.
4. Aggressively. Raise or check-raise. Assume you have the best hand until somebody represents something better.
5. You have to play very cautiously. Against this many play­ers, there’s an excellent chance that somebody else has an ace with a better kicker. If there is a raise, you should get out. If there is a bet and a couple of calls, you should prob­ably get out. If it’s checked to you, go ahead and bet, hop­ing to win the pot right there.
6. Unfortunately, you can be almost sure that you’re beaten. In spite of the large pot size, you should normally check, and fold if there’s a bet. As you get to later position, if it’s checked to you, it might be worth an exploratory bet. If you get called there, then you probably shouldn’t invest any more money in the pot.
7. You should play very fast. Do whatever is necessary to get lots of bets in on the flop. While you almost assuredly have the best hand, there could be some very big draws out against you, and you want them to pay heavily to draw.
8. You should bet or raise immediately on the flop. The flop is just about perfect for you - it’s virtually impossible you won’t have the best hand on the turn. However, there is so much money in the pot, there’s no reason to slow-play. Furthermore, after you raised pre-flop, your opponents will expect you to bet, so you haven’t given out any informa­tion.
9. Normally you should raise. You are about a 2:1 dog to make your flush, so you are actually raising for value here. Also, your raise may get you a free card on the turn, should you need one. Note also that an eight or queen on the turn gives you an open-end straight draw as well; you may be able to bet your draw for value on the turn.
10. In the First case, you can’t call with your gutshot straight draw - there are not enough bets in the pot, and you must worry about a raise behind you or a check-raise in front. If there was a raise before the flop, you can usually call because the pot has gotten so large.
11. You have flopped a monster hand, and the chance of your being beaten is tiny. However, the pot is huge (10 small bets on the flop), so there’s probably no point in slow-play­ing. On the other hand, slow-playing this hand is a reason­able approach - you’re not worried about getting beaten, and you’re willing to let some lesser hands catch up.
12. In spite of a relatively small pot, you must do everything you can to eliminate opponents immediately. You could be up against a club flush draw or a big straight draw (such as 9♥-8♥). It’s even possible you’re dead against 85, but that’s unlikely. You must bet and/or raise on the flop.
13. Even though you have two overcards, you should normally fold. You have no backdoor flush chances, and the 7-6 com­bination on the flop makes two pair more likely. In the sec­ond situation, you have backdoor straight and flush chances and there’s perhaps less chance that you’re already up against two pair. You can call a bet here.
14. You’ve missed the flop - your second pair with no kick­er is useless. Fold immediately.
15. You could call and then call your opponent’s bets on the turn and river (assuming he bets). It’s possible he has al­ready made two pair or a set, but with this flop you can’t fold yet. On the other hand, if you suspect your opponent is raising with a king or a draw, you could raise once more and try to regain control of the hand, forcing him to check on the turn. An alternative is to call and then raise on the turn.
16. You should probably bet out. You may run into two pair or even a straight, but you have to take that chance on the turn. You don’t dare give a heart flush draw a free card, or a jack with a smaller kicker a free card with which to beat you. On the river, you should usually check, since now there are no “free” cards to give, and you’re not sure if you want to be called or not.
17. You should typically check. As in the above situation, the board is fairly scary, and you just have one pair with a me­diocre kicker. If you bet and get called, you can’t be very happy. If an opponent bets into you on the end, you should call. If the river card were the J♦ instead of the flush-com­pleting club, you should bet.
18. Go ahead and bet here. There are many worse hands that will call you. The flop that got checked around may con­fuse some people; you will probably get called by a worse king and maybe even a jack.
How many right answers do you have?

PREDICTABLE PLAYERS

The average player
The average player does not do anything too extreme, he likes to play, but he is not overly aggressive with his hand nor does he play too passively. He will bet when he has a good hand, he will raise when he has a great hand, he will call when he has a passable hand, and he will fold when he has a poor hand. The average player will give himself excuses to stay in the hand rather than fold. The average player may be different at different limits. The average player in a $20/$40 game is a better player than the average player in a $5/$10 game. The average player in a $20/$40 game knows to play a little bit tighter (although he will still play too many hands) and knows a few tricks such as raising with a flush draw on the flop, although he may not know exactly why it may be a good play. The average player in a 5/10 game does not do anything overtly stupidly like call two raises with 96o, but he plays even more hands than the average player in a 20/40 game. The average player will put in a bluff now and then but not all that often. When he raises, you can usually count on him having a premium hand.
The calling station
The calling station likes to play along, and follow with everyone else. He does not want to disturb the game and perturb any of his fellow comrades by unnecessarily raising. When the calling station bets, you know he thinks he has a good hand. When the calling station raises, you better run for your life, because he has a monster. The calling station will play many hands, has no problem limping in while in early position, calling a professional player’s early position raise, or calling a bet when he has a pair of 8’s when there are three overcards on the board. Beware, the calling station could be unintentionally trying to rope-a-dope you. If you play too aggressively into him without a made hand, he will simply call you down with a middle pair or a bottom pair. You do not want to bluff the calling station because he thinks it is a social game like the one in his hometown where everyone plays just about every hand to the River and show the winning hand. He is our friend and as our friend, he will not get scared by your actions, he thinks you are his friend as well. A calling station is always a bad player.
The rock
Strangely enough, the rock and the calling station have some similarities. Like the calling station, the rock will only bet with good hands and only raise with very strong hands. As with the calling station, you must be very careful when the rock bets or raises. It is important to give both the calling station and the rock respect when they show aggression. That is where the similarities end. The calling station plays a lot of hands, while the rock plays very few hands. The rock may sit there for hours folding his starting hands and will have no problems folding his blinds. He is the prime candidate to steal the blinds from, but when he does play a hand, watch out. The rock usually thinks he is a better player than the average player. He values patience above all else, and since he is the most patient at the table, he usually thinks he is the best. In some games, he may be right. Some rocks will open up their game when they lose a few bad beats because they cannot believe the worse players are beating them, but most of them will have more discipline, which is why they were rocks to begin with. A rock is typically a good player, although he will not extract as much edge out of the game as better players will, a rock would not be defined as a sharp player. Rocks can be long term winners in low limit games and some middle limit games, but they will need to expand their game and creativity in order to win in the higher limit games.
The solid player
The solid player is a player who has some idea of correct play. He knows he needs to be patient to win at this game, but he is not overly tight. He will play more hands than a rock and he will usually be aggressive when he does play. If he raises from early position, he is predictable because he will have a quality hand. If he open-raises from late position, his hand will be harder to predict because he understands he can loosen up in that position and he is not afraid to try to steal the blinds. You normally want to avoid the solid player when he is raising. He may not bluff or semi-bluff enough because he does not usually take too many chances. Some players will play like a solid player only to morph into a different type of player after a while at the table. The solid player is a good player.
UNPREDICTABLE PLAYERS
The loose aggressive player
The loose aggressive player likes to play a lot of hands. Unlike the calling station, he likes to play them with raises instead of calls. He will raise and bet when his cards are warranted, but he may sometimes bet and raise when it is not clear that he has the best hand at the moment. The loose aggressive player likes to bet on the come. He will use the free card raise as often as he can, even if he just has overcards. Once he raises for the free card, he oftentimes feels compelled to keep betting due to the perceived weakness of his opponents if they are just calling him. It may feel necessary to rope-a-dope the aggressive player by flat out calling him instead of scaring him off with a raise or a re-raise. At times you may feel that he has just enough to go toe-to-toe with you even though you have the nut hand. The loose aggressive player is always trying to steal the blinds, even from middle position. He will bluff more often than the average player and he loves the semi-bluff concept and overdoes it. Because he plays so many hands and is aggressive with them, it may be harder to predict his holdings. They may sometimes run you over when they actually have the goods. Loose aggressive players are usually not good players, however they can get in some streaks where it may seem like they are the best player around.
The maniac
The maniac is Mr. Hyde to the loose aggressive player’s Dr. Jekyll. The maniac is completely out of control and raises sometimes even without looking at his hole cards. Everyone is licking their chops to get a piece of this guy. Maniacs will raise and bluff way too often and they will usually lose their money quickly. Maniacs may not play like maniacs all the time. Sometimes players who are just having a bad day turn into maniacs when they are on full tilt. This can happen after they have been dealt a couple of bad beats which could lead them to play very aggressively in order to get back to even. The maniac is a horrible player.
The professional players
The professional players are the best players and the ones that you least like to see at your table. They could be playing poker as their main source of income or they could be playing it as a supplemental income. They are playing poker mostly to win unlike other players who may be playing for the gamble, the entertainment or just the competition. Professional players understand the importance of playing aggressively when they have a solid hand and they also understand the importance of choosing their hands selectively. They will try to extract the most amount of edge from their opponents when they have the best of it, but try to get away cheaply when they have the worst of it. Professional players have thought about and studied the game, be it through reading, talking to other players or just thinking about the game. Professional players will still have a wide range of characteristics in their style. Some will be more aggressive than others, some will bluff a bit more than others. Of course, there are always those who consider themselves as professional players who really are not.
Players can change styles depending on if they are winning or losing
There are players who will try to play solidly when they first sit down, and continue to play solidly if they start off winning. But some players can change their styles drastically if they start to lose, particularly if they take a bad beat. All of a sudden, these players will go from playing solid to being a bit more aggressive, semi-bluff and bluff more. If they continue to lose and get some of their bluffs called, or better yet, get another bad beat, they could wind up opening up their game and could turn into a maniac-type of player.
This is one of the situations where having played with the player in the past and knowing this particular characteristic is very useful. If it is the first time you ever played with him and he plays like this, you may assume this is how he plays and use that information the second time you play at the same table with him. But the second time around, he may be running good and playing solidly, in which case, your perception of him will be completely off.

All-Blogs

Knowing how the other players play is one of the keys to achieving success at Limit Hold’em. When sharp players know their opponents well, sharp players will know how their opponents act and think.
Understanding how your opponents play is more useful when pots quickly become heads-up as opposed to being multi-way pots. This means it is more useful in shorthanded games and less useful in low limit games. In shorthanded games, pots will become heads-up on the Flop more often than in full games because fewer players are needed to fold to get to that point. In low limit games, players will play looser in general, so more players will be seeing the Flop and beyond. When the opponents play looser, the tighter players can correctly expand their playable hands with good drawing type of hands. So the looseness in low limit games compounds upon itself. With many players, it becomes tougher to use any one player’s tendencies to your advantage, since there are other players in the hand to consider as well. With that said, any player who knows how his opponents play will always be better off than a player who does not.
I will break down player stereotypes into two major categories, predictable players and unpredictable players. Both categories have their share of bad players and good players. Players can be predictable whether they play loose or tight, but generally predictable players are passive. Players can be unpredictable whether they play loose or tight, although generally the unpredictable players are more on the aggressive side. Sometimes certain players may become extremely predictable in certain situations when they are not normally.
PREDICTABLE PLAYERS
Predictable players are easier to play against than unpredictable players. When predictable players act, the strength of their hand will typically be clear based on their actions. It may be that when they bet or raise, they have a strong hand. It may be that when they have a strong hand, they never raise on the Flop but always wait to raise on the Turn when the bet size doubles. Conversely, it may be that when they raise on the Flop they never have a made hand but are raising for a free card. A good, sharp player has a better idea of the strength of predictable players’ hands based on their actions, although a poor player may not pick up on it. Different players will be predictable in different ways.
UNPREDICTABLE PLAYERS
Unpredictable players are not necessarily good or bad players. When they act, it is tougher to pinpoint their hand compared with pinpointing a predictable player’s hand. Unpredictable players will use strategies such as bluffing and semi-bluffing often, sometimes too often. Even though good players can be somewhat unpredictable, there is only so far they can take this. If they are too unpredictable, it will mean they are playing too many hands, and giving up too much edge for the quest to be unpredictable. Instead, good players will choose his spots to be unpredictable, spots where playing unpredictably may give them the greatest edge. Players who try to play unpredictably all the time invariably play too many hands and thus are giving up too much edge for their trickiness.

You know playing poker you face different situations. Sometimes you’re so lucky. Seems that you could raise any hand on preflop and win a cap on the river getting a straight.
But at the same time you could catch another streak. You will have you pocket aces all night long and you will be beaten by an idiot with 27o and his two pairs.
If this happens I usually reread this abstract from Internet Texas Hold’em. Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro by Matthew Higler.
Let me introduce it to you.

Poker is a game of skill. This is not easy to explain to people who do not understand the game, but good poker players will win the money.
Good Poker Players = The MONEY
However, there is one huge caveat in this equation. That caveat is time. Good poker players will win the money given enough time.
Good Poker Players = The MONEY…given TIME
In any one hand, the odds are pretty even for everybody. Over an hour, the better poker players have a little advantage, but could easily lose a lot. In a session of eight hours, a good poker player will win the majority of the time, but not all the time. If a good poker player plays 100 hours of $20-$40 limit Hold’em, he could win as much as $20,000. But once in a blue moon, he might lose $10,000. A good poker player could only break even after 1400 hours of play. Given any time below that, he could possibly lose.
As you can see, a good poker player will win given enough time, but it may not be as easy as it seems in a short time period. Granted, these are extreme cases, but they can happen. What happens in between the extremes is a lot of short-term fluctuations, which can frequently last several days, sometimes several weeks, and even several months. We will talk more about these fluctuations in the “Bankroll Management” chapter.
It is important to realize that there are subtle differences between a good poker player and a bad one that take effect over time. The beauty of poker is that the bad players always remember the limes they had some good short-term luck, so they keep coming back for more until they eventually go broke.
However, understanding how to play good poker is not enough to win the money. You must APPLY this knowledge at all times. Poker is a fun and exhilarating game, but there is nothing more frustrating than outplaying an opponent only to lose money to him,
MANY players begin to play badly when things do not go their way. This is commonly referred to as tilt. However, I don’t think tilt fully explains the range of emotions. Of course, the first step is preventing yourself from going on tilt, but there is a big difference between playing your “A” game and going on tilt. Many players may not go on full tilt, but they begin to play just a few more hands or make a few more calls than they should. This often happens late at night when a player is trying to get back to even before going to bed. Good players realize that they can always get hack to even the next day.
I expect that the difference between the expert players and the good players is their emotional control. You must have discipline to be successful playing poker.
So remember:
Good Disciplined Poker Players = The MONEY…given TIME

And remember also that poker is not blackjack. You are playing against usual people not a system. And if you perform better poker you are going to win the money.
Arnold Snyder who plays blackjack professionally could state in many his articles that you shall not win. But laying poker you may be sure that being a Good Disciplined Poker Player you will win. And it doesn’t matter how long it will take you.
You will win.
If you play poker you will win.
If you’re ready to improve your poker skills you will win.
At long last…

Recently I’ve met an interesting person who tried to persuade me not to play poker.

You could easily predict my opinion but anyway look over the arguments. I asked her to write down what she thinks about casinos.

Cosy sofa or oaken chair? Soft dressing gown or smart clothes? Cup of tea or glass of brandy? H’m… asking what I’m doing?? Nothing, just trying to understand why people prefer the second to the first. Still don’t understand?
Well, not to confuse you any more I dare to ask, Why do people go to the casino??
And being a woman I dare to answer, Because being empty inside they try to replace this lack of real emotions with oaken chairs, smart clothes, glass of brandy …(you may add whatever you wish to this list).
Pardon, what have you said?  Not everyone can go to the casino? Because not everyone can afford to spend so much money there? Yes, I can even agree with it. But don’t you try to tell me that people who are the casino-goers deserve to be respected just because of their money?
The song I like very much says, Don’t care about money, they won’t buy me happiness. I won’t discuss happiness now ‘couse every person has his own understanding of this. But don’t you think that when you’re making the first step to cross the threshold of the casino you admit your own unhappiness instead of showing your well-being?
What do I mean? Well, what is your aim? To show off yourself? Or probably your money? Or may be your position in society? Or you simply want to become acquainted with useful people?
But what if you just want to escape from another lonely evening and not to see your unhappiness, and try not to let the others know about It.
So you go and spend your money, your time simply staring at roulette wheel and probably having your fingers crossed and, impossible to believe, but asking your luck not to leave you now when you nearly to win…$1 000 000 ( why not?)!! People around are getting green with envy and you are getting proud of yourself…but…No butterflies in the stomach?  And what about a splash of adrenalin? It was just a fleeting moment, wasn’t it?
Yes, I speak blunt sometimes, being harsh more often that I should be, but I never hide my own point of view. So, you’ve got all the rights to ask what I think about this modern showbiz. Well, sounds strange but I’ve never been to the casino. Sounds more strange I’ve never had a wish to go there.  Why?? I just don’t see any sense in It. By the way why should I?
It’s much better to see a smile in the eyes of your beloved one instead of a green colour of the curtain shutter, to spend the evening in a company of your family instead of people who you’ve never seen before, to sip your tea and know that you don’t need to go far to meet your happiness…
That was my opinion. And if you don’t agree, well, dispute It if you can…
Can you dispute?