Playing the Player

Often times after playing so much online poker you can easily lose your nack for playing the player and rely far too heavily on the cards you are dealt. When this happens the game of poker is sending us a clear signal that it is time to play live. Unless your geographic location prohibits you from getting to a casino you wouild be very wise to follow the signals the game is sending you.

Recently, I played an online tournament and afterwards I decided to go over my hand history. I got bad beat out of this particular tourney but something stood out as I was going over each hand. I had left some money on the table that I believe I would have easily won had I paid just a little more attention to how one player in particular was playing me. Instead, I took the safer route instead of going with my first read and the history I had against this player. The bottom line is that despite the detailed player notes I had on him I was unable to benefit from them and our past encounters simply because I got careless.

By the time I reached the end of the hand history I was extremely disappointed as I had identified at least three pots where I likely would have earned more money had I played the individual instead of the cards. Sure, hind site is always twenty-twenty but when you play with someone regularly and you have on on good feel for their tendencies you need to exploit them accordingly.

Despite winning any online tournament with a field of over 1000+ this past weekend I realized that I need to get out just on on little more and stretch my poker legs on on bit.

It's good for the game-my game that is.