1st Rule Of Poker

O.K. well the world can either thank, or send all complaints to the set of kings I had in the last session of poker I played. I lost the hand and the last of my Poker bank roll. Now it was not really all one hand or one day or even one week, it was over confidence that killed me. I was on a huge winning streak so I bought a ticket to Vegas and left the next week. While out there the games seemed so easy that I found my self getting away with some bad habits and still coming out with some solid wins. I then came back from the 10 day trip with these habits well in place. The first few days of my usual game were losing sessions and I did not over analyze the days. The third and fourth days I lost I was very aware of every mistake ( and there were many ) I was making. Resulting in two more very large losses. Now as luck would have it, the next few games I played in I ran into cold decks and people who could do no wrong. Although I didn’t play perfectly, I believe I played winning poker with losing cards. All this drained my poker account. So I have decided to take a few days off (until payday) and talk about poker. As they say talking about things usually makes things better in some way.

Its simple, I want to write down the thousands of ways I think I can play better. That way when I start playing bad I can go back and read what I was doing when I was winning and copy that. As a rule I try to remain focused on the game at all times. I try to watch every hand and everything everyone is doing during each hand. Now because of this I think about every word, eye movement, chip placement, posture, and oh yea bets. I think that will give me endless amounts of things to talk about. It seems to keep me busy for hours and hours while sitting at a live poker table.

I just thought it was interesting that today I made 4 kings three times today. The second hand I played in the small blind with pocket kings and lots of limpers I was willing to gamble and raised EVERYONE. The flop, although guaranteed that I would win the hand, limited how much I could make. K - K - 2 so as much as I hate to check after raising pre-flop I did. So did everyone, turn was 3 and I checked again, thinking nobody could call yet but maybe bluff. Nope check around again. So the river was another 3. With nothing to lose and the hope that any Ace high would call I tossed out a bet. I managed to get two others to call and was happy with that. The other two times I flopped a set of kings bet them and turned the four of a kind. Betting all the way and getting called down each time. So not only did I hit the quads three times but I also got paid off on the river each time.

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Well I managed to play 8 hours and managed to stay almost even all day. All I wait for are those little runs where you win two hands quickly and your stack grows. But all I could do is win enough to keep up with the blinds. After quite a full day playing I did hit two small hands and was up about 5 big bets. I scooped up my chips and headed to my car. I could feel myself getting a little impatient and didn’t want to get involved in the thinking of one more round. I had a win and although it was not what I was looking for after that long of a day, it was much better then any loss.

As I mentioned in my last post I talked about playing just one more round. I have tried to make if a rule of mine that I never play just one more round, especially when I am down. When you are up its usually a negative EV but when you are down its an act of desperation. No matter how long you have been playing you are going to try to do in the next 10 hands what you couldn’t do the entire time you have been playing. This most often results in playing any two cards that you feel “could” win. That’s basically any two cards. It gets extremely costly when you do see the flop, you are more likely to go for gut shots, and prayers. Players never look at the correct pot odds for their draws. In ten hands people can lose a lot of extra bets. Over the long run losing ten extra bets can have a long term effect on your bets per hour ratio.

So I am going to make Poker Rule # 89 Don’t play just one more round, if you are ready to go just go.

Well I guess because my blog is called 1st rule of poker I should include some basic rules of poker. Now there are many variations of Texas Hold’em. Here are the rules that they all have in common. There are up to ten players at a table. One player is determined as the DEALER. In casinos they have professional dealers so the player dealer is marked by a Dealer button / Puck.

To build a small pot before the cards are dealt two players will put in bets with out looking at their cards. One player puts in half a min bet and the other a full min bet. These are called the BLINDS. The small blind (half bet) is directly clockwise of the dealer and the big blind is clockwise to that. Each player is dealt two of their own cards face down dealing the first card to the small blind.

The betting action always starts clockwise from the button but for the first round of betting the blinds have already acted with each of their bets. So the first person to act after the cards have been dealt is the player clockwise to the big blind. Each player must either call what the big blind, raise more then double the big blind, or fold their cards at this time. Players may re-raise a raiser as long as they call the blind, call the raise, then make a raise more then the value of the first raise. Acting clockwise in turn, until there everyone has called or folded.

The dealer then takes the top card in the deck and places it to the side out of play, This is called burning a card. They then take the next three cards and place them face up in the middle of the table for all players to use. These are called community cards or the flop. The remaining players in the hand start action clockwise of the button and may either pass/check, make a bet, raise if a bet has already been made or fold their cards if there is already a bet. If no bet has been made all players may pass/check and move on to the next community card.

The dealer then burns a second card and flips one more card onto the community cards. This is called the Turn card or fourth street. The betting continues as before but the min bet is usually double the first two rounds.

The dealer then burns a third card and flips the last card called fifth street or the River card. The betting continues same as the turn card until all bets are called. If there is no betting on the last round the person clockwise to the dealer button is first to show their hand and each player either folds or shows a better hand acting in turn clockwise in action. If There was a bet after the last card, the player who made the bet shows their hand first and players show better hands clockwise in turn.

The best 5 card hand, using any combination of their two and the five community cards, wins the pot. If two players have the same hand they split the pot. Each suit has the same value in Texas Holdem. If the five cards in the middle are the best 5 cards all players still in the hand would split the pot.

Feel free to Print Texas Holdem rules if you want to teach others how to play.

Some people wonder why do they burn a card when dealing poker. Well first Burning a card is when the dealer takes the top card and discards it before they deal the card. The reason for this is to prevent cheating, specifically card marking. If a player was able to make a mark on a card they would know what the next card out of the deck would be. Giving them an advantage. So they use the top card on the deck to protect the next card and call the top card the burn card.

Now I don’t know this for sure but in my opinion its called a burn card because if you burn it nobody will ever know what it was. Otherwise people might say that the top card should have been my card. This falls into the same category as rabbit hunting. (Asking to see the next card even though everyone has folded) If the card wont be in play it should never be seen.

If you are not a superstitious person don’t become one. Even if one seat was lucky the other day or for the last player don’t move just because you think it will continue to be lucky. The problem with being superstitious about anything in poker is that it may prevent you from taking advantage of more profitable situations. Sometimes the most profitable seat at the table is your least favorite seat. And usually your birthday or age is NOT a lucky hand. Superstitions are most often an excuse to play in a way that you know to be bad. If you need an excuse to do something its probably the wrong thing to do.

Well I have not really been playing well and have not been winning or losing any money. Well actually I have been winning and losing money but my bank roll is still in the same place it was more then a week ago. I see the way I play and sometimes I tell myself something to do to improve my game, but then I look down and my hand is raising a pot that I have no right being in in the first place. Sometimes it has worked, sometimes it hasn’t. Usually its more costly on the hands it hasn’t. Well I am not ready to tell you about bad beats just yet. So this is going to be another short post.

Because of this slump I think I am going to start walking my dog more often. I think the exercise will help me be more patient while at the table and also improve my stamina during long sessions. Sometimes I find myself making the kind of mental mistakes that I only make after really long nights . Maybe some physical exercises and mental games will help.