You need to moderate your play not just to your individual opponent(s) in a particular pot, but to the strength of the field in general. If, in your normal weekly game, you are a better player than most of your opponents, it is often simply a case of playing your good hands straightforwardly and getting paid off by the chasers and the calling stations.
However, what happens when you step up a level? Maybe there's a festival at your local cardroom, maybe you even win a satellite to mix it with the big boys. While it's important to realize that "name" players and big-money players do not possess mystic powers beyond the ken of mortals, it is also important to realize that these guys are not going to give you their chips without a fight. I recall a £500 competition in Luton where we had reached the last 3 tables.
A tight small-tournament player who had hit some hands early on, now folded for the umpteenth time in a row and plaintively cried "Just give me Aces! I know how to play them!" (which he didn't but anyway). I'm not quite sure who he thought was going to call when he finally blew the dust off his chips and fired in a raise. He was doomed to be anted away, which of course he duly was.
The fact is that while, in the long term, you want to learn to play poker well and become good enough to play at a high level on equal terms, as of the now (as I like to say) if you find yourself surrounded by better players, your best chance is to mix it up. Some people seem to realize this intuitively; and some people just mix it up all the time because that's the way they play; but most of the others clam up and get ante'd to death which is the worst thing they could do.
It's up to you to work out how to do it - but it shouldn't be too difficult to see that you should push marginal hands where you might be winning and you can draw out even if you don't. Re-raise your opponent pre-flop if you think he is on a steal; bet and raise hard if you flop a draw; mix it up and go for it. If you make sure to do it as the bettor or the raiser, giving your opponent a chance to fold, you have every chance of pulling off a shock result.
Finally you might wonder why I am giving out this free information so people can use it to my disadvantage - because for sure I would much rather as many of my opponents as possible played in a predictable, weak-tight fashion. Maybe a few people will take advantage. But it takes a lot of character to both admit to yourself that you are an underdog to the field, and then attack the problem in such a way that you might, and will occasionally, look foolish when you re-raise Mr. Late Night Poker with JTs only for him to turn over AA. Not everyone can do it. Can you ?
http://pokermag.com/managearticle.asp?C=210&A=78
However, what happens when you step up a level? Maybe there's a festival at your local cardroom, maybe you even win a satellite to mix it with the big boys. While it's important to realize that "name" players and big-money players do not possess mystic powers beyond the ken of mortals, it is also important to realize that these guys are not going to give you their chips without a fight. I recall a £500 competition in Luton where we had reached the last 3 tables.
A tight small-tournament player who had hit some hands early on, now folded for the umpteenth time in a row and plaintively cried "Just give me Aces! I know how to play them!" (which he didn't but anyway). I'm not quite sure who he thought was going to call when he finally blew the dust off his chips and fired in a raise. He was doomed to be anted away, which of course he duly was.
The fact is that while, in the long term, you want to learn to play poker well and become good enough to play at a high level on equal terms, as of the now (as I like to say) if you find yourself surrounded by better players, your best chance is to mix it up. Some people seem to realize this intuitively; and some people just mix it up all the time because that's the way they play; but most of the others clam up and get ante'd to death which is the worst thing they could do.
It's up to you to work out how to do it - but it shouldn't be too difficult to see that you should push marginal hands where you might be winning and you can draw out even if you don't. Re-raise your opponent pre-flop if you think he is on a steal; bet and raise hard if you flop a draw; mix it up and go for it. If you make sure to do it as the bettor or the raiser, giving your opponent a chance to fold, you have every chance of pulling off a shock result.
Finally you might wonder why I am giving out this free information so people can use it to my disadvantage - because for sure I would much rather as many of my opponents as possible played in a predictable, weak-tight fashion. Maybe a few people will take advantage. But it takes a lot of character to both admit to yourself that you are an underdog to the field, and then attack the problem in such a way that you might, and will occasionally, look foolish when you re-raise Mr. Late Night Poker with JTs only for him to turn over AA. Not everyone can do it. Can you ?
http://pokermag.com/managearticle.asp?C=210&A=78
