A Poker Winner’s Checklist

Information, the cornerstone of knowledge, is only of value if put to good use. You should always review a checklist to ensure you use your poker knowledge well. That is what winning poker players do. It is also how you will know you’re playing your “A” game, as you will monitor it. Let’s review several key elements of a poker winner’s checklist, starting with the most critical one – discipline.

Discipline

Knowing how to play poker well is not the same as playing poker well. The difference between the two is discipline. It would be best if you exercised discipline to put your knowledge of poker to good use. If you’ve invested the time and effort to learn how to play poker well, it would be a travesty to play poorly just because you have trouble exercising the proper discipline. Truth be known, many poker players do just that – learn how to play well but don’t. That is good news for those who exercise discipline and do both – learn to play poker well and do just that!

If you find yourself drifting off the straight and narrow relative to discipline, here are some crutches you might consider to aid your focus. Imagine your coach or backer looking over your shoulder and evaluating your play. Alternatively, imagine that you are participating in an event that will be shown on television with professional commentators critiquing your space, and all your friends and foes, for that matter, will be watching. The criteria which will gain you either praise or scorn will be the quality of your decisions, not how much you win or lose.

If an occasional lack of discipline resonates in your poker game and this type of mental ruse can help, use it. I think about this focus on the field, especially while experiencing a dry spell of playable hands, and begin to get the itch to jump in the fray with marginal holdings. The quality of your decisions matters, and it takes discipline to keep that quality on a winning level.

Focus

How I would define focus is keeping your head in the game. Stress refers to the work involved in watching hands that you are not interested in and tracking your opponents’ tendencies. It’s the constant observation of everything going on around you when you play poker. Many players work hard to acquire a good knowledge of poker through playing experience and study but then reach a plateau and succumb to the mistake of putting their game on autopilot. You must always remind yourself that knowing how to play poker well is only half the battle since every group of players presents different challenges; if you’re not paying attention, you won’t be able to exploit their unique weaknesses or guard yourself against your more savvy foes.

Create a Plan

Once you’ve settled into a game and have had the opportunity to observe your opponents’ tendencies and evaluate the tempo and texture (looseness, tightness, experience level, etc.) of the game, begin to formulate a plan to serve best your objective of winning. A well-worn aphorism relating to planning but well worth repeating is – people don’t plan to fail, but many fail to plan. Have a plan based on your observations and implement it. Realize that your project needs to be fluid as changing factors dictate, but you will be well served to create a plan.

Creating a plan does not need to be overly complicated. An example might include; this game seems extremely tight, so I’ll open my game up some and try to take advantage of a timid table or particular player. The flip side of the first example may be observing a loose “ram and jam fest,” which might suggest tightening up as a plan. Determining the sophistication level of your opponents will help you develop an appropriate strategy. Should you be playing ABC poker or using more advanced poker plays?

The key here is to strive to develop a plan versus just trying to play your best game. These two things are not mutually exclusive but should complement each other. Of course, you should play your best game, but first, you must determine what game that should be based on the environment in which you find yourself. Forcing yourself to create a plan is another path to excelling, and that’s a good thing!

Each time you engage in battle on the green felt, remind yourself to run down your winner’s checklist to ensure you are giving yourself the best opportunity to win. You might notice a nice surprise in that developing a commitment to embrace discipline, focus, and the creation of plans will serve you well at the poker table and in life.

Putting it All Together

Many different aspects contribute to superior poker play. As a brief re-cap, allow me to list several for your review.

• An understanding of poker starting hand values from various positions.
• You are observing your opponents to understand their tendencies better.
• We are monitoring your table image and taking advantage of it.
• Knowledge of poker math and its application.
• It understands the psychology of poker.
• Remaining alert to poker tells.
• Hand reading ability.
• Discipline.

While this list is not intended to be all-inclusive, it highlights many critical elements of success on the green felt.

If one were to poll a group of skilled poker players as to which attribute of poker was the most essential to winning play, I would guess that several different answers would come forth. You might think this would be a question on which skilled poker players would be in consensus. Why wouldn’t they agree? One professional, winning poker player might identify hand-reading ability as the most critical skill for success. That may result from honing that skill and realizing how well it has served him. Another poker player might offer up discipline as the most critical element; in this case, maybe that player has a really strong grasp of most of the other parts but realizes that he gets out of line occasionally and that the gambling aspect of his game has not served him well.

What would you answer if I asked you what you believed to be the most critical element? More importantly, why would you have chosen that particular element? Would it be because you excel at it and know how much it adds to your game, or would it be that it needs additional honing, and you realize how much it hurts your game and, therefore, your results?

This bit of soul-searching can lead us to what I believe is the next step in your ongoing poker education. That next step is an honest evaluation of your game and what you believe to be your strengths and your weaknesses, or more politely, state your developmental needs.