Poker News

Tom ‘Time’ Leonard

We always think of hindsight as being 20-20 relating to the clarity of our vision after the fact. However, I think many times one’s hindsight can be very cloudy and not exactly 20-20. Hindsight or retrospection can be very helpful for us to improve our play at the tables. Instead of complaining and, for that matter,boring your opponents and friends about the bad beats you have suffered, use your hindsight to learn and improve. Or, put another way…don’t rue it—-use it! Replaying hands away from the tale to objectively analyze the quality of your play is an important step to becoming a stronger player. Using your hindsight honestly and objectively away from the table should lead to better foresight at the tables. That in turn should lead to bigger and more frequent winning sessions If this is true, and it most assuredly is, then using our hindsight in this manner is something we should embrace and continually hone.

It’s been said that poker players can recall with amazing clarity the bad beats they have suffered. That clarity is usually skewed by the pain experienced when your opponent hits an unlikely hand and winds up prevailing. Don’t use the clarity of your recall to rue hands that have wound up biting you on your posterior but rather to analyze if you played the hand properly or not. Did your opponent truly hit a fluke or should you have seen it coming? Were there telltale signs or have you let arrogance sneak into your game and cloud your thinking? I’ve heard players bemoan an alleged bad beat when they were behind all the way and on occasion even drawing dead. Well, guess the news… that ain’t a bad beat! They deserved to lose extra bets because their heads weren’t in the game. You need to pay careful attention when engaged on the battlefield of green felt for two important reasons. First, if you’re not paying attention you just may become grist for someone’s mill. Secondly, paying attention to details will make your analysis away from the table more accurate and therefore more meaningful to help you become a stronger player If you’re not paying close attention, then how can you reconstruct situations in retrospect, analyze your actions and determine if you made the proper play? This is the kind of objective hindsight that will lead to better foresight. I’m always amazed at the players who are reading papers or intently watching TV only to interrupt those “important” activities to glance at their fresh hand to determine if they will play or not. Is that winning poker? I think not! These players also provide valuable information as to their level of interest in a freshly dealt hand. They are normally tight players who only play premium hands. If all of a sudden, after glancing down at a new hand, one of these players puts down his paper and begins paying attention..watch out! Don’t you be one of these transparent weak/tight losers. Pay attention at all times, it will pay dividends both now and for your analysis away from the table.

Then our goal for today’s session is obvious, we must keep our heads in the game at all times. Not only to play stronger poker during that session but to more accurately recall hands away from the table for analysis. Analysis that should help you become a stronger player. A double play approach to increase your earnings during today’s session and also in future sessions.

See you next “TIME”.

No stranger to the green felt, Tom”Time” Leonard has played poker for more than 30 years and has been a serious student of the game and writer on the subject since 1994. He has regularly played the cardrooms of Atlantic City, Las Vegas and California. His experience as a sales and marketing professional have helped him hone his skills at”selling” a hand and”buying” a pot.

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