Poker News

Tom ‘Time’ Leonard

Since profit is the main motivating force for most serious poker players, today let’s discuss where that profit comes from. It’s obvious that it needs to come from your opponents. Forgetting for a moment the rake, poker is a zero sum game. What you win is what your opponents lose. We’ve all heard the old adage that most of your profit comes not from the brilliance of your own play but from the mistakes made by your opponents. This is absolutely true and is the reason why I continually harp on knowing your opponents’ tendencies and clocking the table to evaluate the strength or weaknesses of each of them. Have you identified the calling stations in your game that you can continually value bet and earn extra money? Have you identified who is tight and plays only premium hands so that when he brings it in for a raise under the gun you can avoid getting involved with marginal hands? Have you identified the weak–tighties who will lay down a hand to almost any raise? In order to maximize your earning power you must take advantage of your opponents’ frailties. Of course, first you have to identify those frailties before you can begin attacking them. So….the first order of business when you sit down is to start clocking your opponents to determine where the soft spots exist for you to exploit.

Certainly understanding the foundations of solid play such as hand values, the odds to various draws, utilizing position, discipline etc. etc. are critical to winning play. However, if you want to move beyond break even to a modest winner you need to realize that your real profit comes from exploiting your weaker opponents. If all players at the same table were of equal skill then the cards will dictate who will win andwho will lose. Nine or ten players of exact skill level would be a rare event indeed. That being said, it becomes obvious that you need to identify and attack the weak and avoid the strong. This is a simple concept which is ignored to the detriment of many. If you’re not currently “playing the player”, ask yourself why not. It is where the profit comes from so start focusing on your opponents to determine who you should be attacking to gain an edge. An edge which will translate to profit.

Our goal for this outing is to always remain acutely aware of where our profit comes from in poker. Don’t allow your ego to convince you that those extra chips you’ve accumulated are the direct result of your brilliant play. You get those extra chips by exploiting weaker players’ frailties. So………identify them, set them up and then take their money. Do you remember that old aphorism that a fool and his money will soon be parted? Hell, they were lucky to get together in the first place. It’s your mission, if you choose to accept it, to see to it that those fools do get parted from their money and parted, more importantly, in your direction! See you next “TIME”.

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