Beware of TILT

Filed under: Uncategorized

Some technical features of Poker Games are more important when you play Online Poker than playing live games. Sometimes, we run into really bad online sessions that send the accounts that we have worked hard and wagered so much patience back to zero.

To start with, often, when we play one table online, we actually play about three times as many hands unlike when we play at live table. Now, imagine other players playing at multiple tables and you have the first obvious difference between online and live game – many more hands.

It’s a fast pace

It is confusing how many players disregard this factor. In reality, underrating the speed of the game is one of the biggest and most expensive mistakes you can commit. That is why it is important to pay attention to the game’s pace when playing shorthanded or heads up. We usually get the wrong idea about a momentary positive or negative rush because of the infernal pace of the play. This can lead us to distrust the game and believe that the Poker Room software is rigged.

Properly handling the positive rushes and more significantly, the negative rushes will make the difference between a winning playing and the loser. As any book and professional player will tell you: Never Tilt! This is easy to say but not easy to do even for skilled players.

Tilting can squeeze up your brain, making you raise or call when you should fold or check. Sometimes you uncomfortably check-raise when you should bet. In short, tilting can waste too many best thus, wasting much of your money as well.

Tilt statistics

Statistically, in online Poker Rooms table, you can suffer a really bad beat at about every two hours. Though it is never a good idea to tilt, it is sometimes inevitable. While playing in a state of tilt, there are various possible situations:

While you are trying to recover a bit of mental lucidity, you will be playing 3x the amount of hands you will possibly play if you were tilting in a live game. This is not too hard to calculate that you’ll be losing 3x as many bets.

2. In case you are playing in two tables at the same time, it would really be a surprise if somebody is tilting on just one table. It is impractical to decide where to be mad and where not to be at the same time! Therefore, you’ll surely be losing 6x as many bets.

3. Suppose that a bad beat comes about ever 2 hours online. We can imagine that playing at the same time on 2 tables; a bad beat will surely come every hour.

Summing it up all, tilting will make you unpredictable and at the end, you need to leave…

Tilting leads to predictability

After your tilt sessions, you’ll surely see a decrease in your funds, which you are determined to recover straight away. As a result, you’ll start playing even a looser and more aggressive in wrong situations thus, leaving you bankrupt.

Your opponents will often think that you are playing on tilt even when you are holding genuine hand. In this case, usually, as you raise, you’ll have 4 or 5 callers. This will even bring you at a higher state of tilt which is not good.

Keep in mind that your opponents need to deal with the same problem. If you can’t prevent yourself from tilting, especially in Poker Tournaments, play on a single table and throw all your patience and skill while keeping control of your opponents who are playing on multiple tables.

The Basic Levels of Thinking in Playing Poker

Filed under: Uncategorized

One of the hardest transitions in playing middle-high stake Online Poker is learning to play on multiple levels of thought processing. This can make you more money and can also boost your game provided that you are able to change levels during a hand.

Here are the three basic levels of thinking:

Level 1

Majority of poker players are sporting this level one thinking. They are more focused on their cards and the texture of cards on flop. Whether they are holding a hand or not, they never really represent anything different and seldom give any idea of what their opponents are holding. Level one players are obviously, the easiest ones to beat on the table. Often they play too big on pots with hands like top pair or top kicker.

Level 2

Level 2 poker games are the real games. The basic principle here is to know what cards the other players are holding and what they might hold. Majority of players will eventually reach level two thought processing if they continuously play the game at a long period of time. Level 2 players usually play the game and winning it at low limits and will achieve big Poker Tournaments finishes every now and then if the cards fall their way. However, they are not the players you can consistently see at final tables.

A key attitude that most level 2 players apply to their games is the ability to understand what their opponents think. With this, solid level 2 players are capable of starting well timed bluffs.

Level 3

The level 3 thinking is called the nuts. Only few players will ever get to this level of thinking. These types of players ask this question to themselves: What does my opponent have and what are they thinking? What do I want to project to my opponents and what does my opponents want me to think I have? Level 3 players usually are the bluff catchers and they play more bluffs than the average player. These types of players are consistent winners and they normally play the best at high stakes heads up table. They usually take level 2 player’s stack for tens of thousands of dollars at a time.

Tips to enhance the different levels of thinking

Practicing on online Poker Rooms, especially at Top 10 Poker rooms will greatly help in honing your skills and playing strategies. While doing so, it is wise that you watch carefully some of the best players at high stake tables. Or while playing yourself, make a concerted effort to force your opponents on a hand and decide what they think you have. It is always important that you are capable of reading your opponent’s hands and moves. If you already acquired the skill of reading your opponent’s judgment, you can always use this as your advantage.

Once you have already mastered or can reasonably understand how your opponents will act or react in specific situations, it is now much easier for you to position and present different holdings. Try leveling up your Poker Games by participating in higher stake tournaments.