Poker News

Tom ‘Time’ Leonard

Do you study your opponents? Do you try and decide where they stand on the information/discipline/ knowledge curve? You should–it’s part of clocking the game. Remember the old adage: If in the first half hour of play, you can’t pick out the sucker at the table, it’s you! If I can’t identify mistakes beingmade by my opponents I tend to feel that this isn’t a game I want to be in.

Let’s set a goal of only playing in games where we can actually identify that we have an edge over our opponents. Doesn’t everyone do that? I don’t think so. I think most players just know in their hearts that their game is so strong that they automatically have an edge. That’s the old ego talking and convincing us that we’re all card-smiths extraordinaire and therefore a favorite to take the money. Forget that little inner voice of your ego because you’re not really as good as you think you are. I’m suggesting that you actually prove to yourself that you have an edge in a particular game. How can you do that?

Remember the old adage mentioned earlier concerning picking out the sucker at the table. When you first sit down, or better yet, while you’re on the rail waiting for a seat to open up, start using your observational powers to begin looking for mistakes that your opponents are making. Stay focused to the game, not just the hands that you’re involved in, but all hands. Make a commitment to yourself that if you can’t find at least two players in your game who are making repeated mistakes, you’ll change tables. Be honest enough with yourself to admit that maybe a game is too tough to beat because the quality of your opponent’s decision making does not seem to be at all flawed. What should you look for? Watch all hands at the showdown to determine who is playing what hands from what position. Determine which players get out of line, are not raising or folding when clearly they should be. Remember the betting patterns to determine if opponents are slow playing, trying to isolate others, pushing under pairs, being calling stations, etc, etc.

If you can’t honestly say to yourself that you can identify with actual examples, that at least twenty percent of the table is well below your level of understanding of the game and therefore, less skillful, then it might be time for a table change. Our goal should be to only play in games in which we can identify that we have an edge. The proof that this is a worthy goal and one that should be embraced is summed up in another old adage: There are two ways of winning consistently at the poker table. One is by one’s own brilliance and the other is through the mistakes of your opponents. The latter is the more reliable. If after several laps around the table you can’t identify any of your opponents making mistakes… maybe you are the sucker! This is not a place you want to be. Don’t delude yourself into thinking that you’re just as good as all the other players, because even if that’s true you’ll need better cards to win. You need an edge to win and that edge comes from superior play coupled with your opponent’s mistakes. If you can’t prove to yourself that you have that edge, then leave. It’s that simple!

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