When we ask what is making the poker news headlines, we could be asking who won this tournament or who won that tournament? We could be asking what were the most exciting hands in a recent tournament. These are certainly legitimate questions but we here at Juicy Stakes Poker would like to go beyond the barest news to explore areas of deeper importance.
There is a big difference between online poker news and the news from the game as played on land. While many days might go by with no “daily poker news” we do know that there are people who love poker, think about it all the time, and share their insights with us.
Let’s explore poker news in three areas: strategy, hand recognition, and recognition of our opponents at a deep level.
What is New in Poker Strategy?
Now this is a juicy question!
After all these years of the rise of poker from the gas fields of West Texas to mainstream poker rooms all over the world, including many thousands (millions?) of dining room tables, we might have thought that there was nothing new under the sun in regard to poker strategy.
But, NO!
There are many articles written about poker strategy even just since the Covid 19 virus sent so many poker players “indoors”, many of whom wound up playing poker at Juicy Stakes Poker and enjoying every minute of it!
Poker Strategy is Not a One Size Fits All Matter
There are many things to think about in just getting started playing poker at low stakes! We need to understand the odds of improving our hand before the flop and then again after the flop. We have to understand how position determines every player’s actions at any one specific poker game.
We then have to become amateur psychologists to help us determine what the two magical down cards might be in every player’s hand.
Hand Recognition is an Acquired Art
Poker players look at their cards and try to figure out if an opponent is bluffing or has a powerful hand. There is the tendency for many new poker players and even many established players to spend more grey matter contemplating an opponent’s cards without spending enough time considering the potential of one’s own hand.
Poker math has become an essential part of evaluating one’s hand’s potential on this specific hand. The cards you hold may have great potential in some hands and little potential in other hands! The same cards go through a range of value on every developing hand!
It is a clear truism to the better poker players that the same cards in their hand have a hand range of their own! It takes a lot of practice to develop this level of hand recognition. It involves position, range, bankroll, and the specific opponents you are playing against.
Who are Your Opponents?
This parameter in poker changes with each game and often changes within each game. Players come and go and in online poker, the changing of the poker guard may happen with dizzying frequency.
As amateur psychologists, we have to make quick evaluations of any new opponent all the while leaving that evaluation open to re-evaluation as new evidence come to light. We need to be flexible in determining who our opponents are.
Always keep in mind that any new opponent may be going through a similar evaluation process about you and the others at the table. So, one aspect of evaluating opponents is to use what is called misdirection in football. To mix a metaphor, throw your opponents a curve once in a while and quickly when a new player “sits down” to play.
Poker Players Used to Play
Of course, all poker players love to play. The difference between then and now is that in previous generations, poker players “learned” over the table in trials by fire so to speak. Today, poker players need to study in order to improve their knowledge of poker and be more successful over the table.
This extra-curricular study is well known in many artistic areas. Singers practice the basic scales every day to keep their “instrument” in fine tune. After practicing scales, a singer will then try to do justice by the songs in their next concert or the opera they will appear in down the road.
Musicians also practice scales every day. A concert pianist may be practicing for a concert featuring the best and most complex classical music for piano ever written but before they try Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, they will practice scales!
Poker Math Comes Easily to the Gifted Few
As difficult as it may be to become well-versed in poker math, today it is essential to winning in the long term at poker. An opponent may have relatively little experience playing poker but he or she may have a lot of deep understanding of the math that often determines the winners and losers in poker.
Modern Players Really are Different
Knowledge of the many nuances of poker math has made it possible for modern poker players to be more aggressive. A deeper understanding of the psychological side has also made players more aggressive. Finally, we have found in the last decade or so that poker aggressiveness can be hidden behind a faced of passivity!
Juicy Stakes Has Online Poker and Online Poker
That is, Juicy Stakes is a poker room with games going on around the clock in several variations of poker and we also run an online casino with video poker, Caribbean Poker, and Pai Gow Poker.
New poker players, especially, can benefit from playing the online poker games while training themselves in the trinity of modern poker knowledge: strategy, hand recognition, and poker psychology.
Modern Poker Players are Much More Skilled
All of this conversation leads to the inexorable conclusion that what was once considered top poker knowledge is no longer thought of as top poker knowledge. The next conclusion is that poker knowledge that is considered top flight knowledge has become standard, even run of the mill!
Books are Still Important
We could make a list of books to read about poker or about many other subjects that can lead to better poker. However, books are very subjective so we will list categories of books that can help players get better and stay better.
- Stay healthy. Modern nutrition has many contradictory advocates but the bottom line is what works for you. You will need to read about all aspects of health to find out what works for you! Then do it!
- The importance of sound and restful sleep.
- The importance of deep and penetrating breathing.
- The importance of physical exercise.
- The importance of mental exercise.
- The importance of good habits.
- The importance of hobbies.
- The importance of time management.
- The importance of money management.
10.The importance of seeing yourself as a businessperson.
Who is a Businessperson?
We will conclude with one of the best stories that crosses all categories of self-knowledge and self-improvement.
Robert Townsend was the President of Avis Car Rental in the 1960’s. He travelled to a meeting and, in the taxi on the way to the meeting, he had a pleasant conversation with the driver.
When they reached the venue of the meeting Mr. Townsend asked the driver for his business card and the driver said that he didn’t have a business card since he was only a taxi driver.
Townsend said that he was most certainly a businessman and needed a business card!
The next time Townsend was in that city he arranged for the driver to pick him up at the airport. The driver reported that he was indeed a businessman with business cards. Ever since their convocation the previous time Townsend was in town, the driver had turned his taxi driving into a complete business with set schedules of rides!
Juicy Stakes Poker Can Turn you into a Poker Businessperson
We make it easy to play the kind of poker that can make you a better player. We have many stakes levels in the variety of poker games we offer.
