The most important decision in Holdem
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Game selection is the most important decision in holdem.
Let's imagine a world in which holdem players can be perfectly ranked from #1 down to #2,000,000 (or whatever). Who do you think would make more money - Mike McWonderful (the #10 player in the world) or Joe Monkey (the #1,999,990 player in the world)?
Mike, right?
Well, normally, he would.
But, what if Mike really wants to be the best player in the world, and only plays with #1-9? And Joe is a clever monkey and makes sure he only plays with #1,999,991-2,000,000?
Well, then, Mike is going to go broke, and Joe should win regularly. Mike might be a much better player than Joe, but Joe is clever enough to ensure he plays a game he can beat, while Mike is stupid enough to stay in a game that is beating him.
Joe's game selection makes him a winning poker player where all Mike's poker skills can't. One simple skill makes all the difference that years of study and vast amounts of natural talent can not.
There's a saying in poker that if you can't see the sucker at a table, then it's you. It's a good saying, and one I am paranoid about when considering entering big games (for me that's 10/20 and higher). I simply will not play at a table where I don't have at least two of the players marked as total morons.
It's all very well to say that game selection is very important. But what exactly is it? Like the name suggests, game selection is the art of sitting down at tables with lots of bad players.
How can we go even further and make our game selection skill even more effective?
Look for tables with a high percentage seeing the flop - this suggests that there are players playing a lot of bad cards.
I also like tables, especially No Limit, with a large average pot size - this suggests that players are throwing chips around.
If there's nothing on the list that looks appealing, or I feel like playing a little wild, then I look for tables with a very low flop percentage and small pot size. This suggests that there are a lot of tight-weak players. If you know how to do it, and when to back off, this can be very profitable.
But usually, you're picking the loosest (high flop percentage) and wildest (largest average pot) table on the list. I don't like waitlisting myself, mainly because the table will have changed by the time you get there. Plus I'm inpatient.
It's definately not an exact science though, so don't be afraid to leave a table if it's not as easy as you had hoped, there's plenty more fish in the sea.Comments on The most important decision in Holdem |
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