Posted by Junelli 4:28 PM
Excellent insight from Amir Vahedi on the importance of having faith in your reads and the guts to act on them:

"A MATTER OF TRUST"
by Amir Vahedi

IN ANY POKER HAND, OBVIOUSLY YOU START by collecting information, analyzing your hand, and coming up with possible hands that your opponent can have. After you make a judgment based on the information you’ve been getting, here comes the test: Are you willing to act on it? Are you willing to put your money on your read? When somebody bets the flop, will you raise back? Or if you put the guy on some hand and you have a beautiful hand—but you know you’re beat—will you let it go?

Nine out of 10 mediocre players would contradict themselves, because they’re not able act on their judgment. That’s where the guts come in. It’s not about jumping in a fire. It’s about acting based on your judgments. Over a period of time, you might be wrong sometimes; but sooner or later you become so good, that nine out of 10 times, you’re right.

If you don’t act on your reading, you become a very confused player. The only way you can get into a pot is by having a monster hand. That’s what I call lazy poker, when you just sit down and wait for the hand. I can assure you, even if you get pocket aces every 20 minutes in a tournament, it doesn’t guarantee you winning the tournament, because one of those is gonna be cracked.

So why don’t you create your own situation? After all, it’s a game of skill. If you want to play a game of luck and want to sit down and wait for the dealer to hand you two cards, you might as well go play blackjack. This is a game of intelligence, and the people who play it that way are using their intelligence to benefit. You want somebody from outer space to come tell you what to do? No. You’re the boss. So you better have faith in your own judgment.

If you see your judgment is wrong too often, that means your information gathering is not good. The advice I give my students: Get out of that dark black hole that’s called your own hand. Stop paying too much attention to that. The fact is, you never know the value of your hand, unless you know who you’re going against and have a preliminary idea of what your opponent is holding. Let me give you an example:

If a guy half your size comes running to pick a fight with you, if you’re a smart person, you think, This is way too easy. But it’s not about running away from a fight. You have to know what the other guy’s abilities are. If he’s a karate expert, you pick up some type of weapon and go fight him. It’s about balancing the skill—and always making sure you have an advantage.

That’s how it goes in poker. Before you even focus on your cards, “squeeze” the other guy’s hand. Try to figure out what you’re going against. Try to figure out if it’s likely the guy’s playing A-K this way or a big ace, pocket pair, or a middle pair that way. That way it gives you an idea of what you need to go against them.

I try to get a feel for the table in the first five or 10 minutes. Some of these guys are pros. I know how they react under pressure, what they do, how they like to play, what types of hands they like to take advantage of or get into the pot with, what type of raise they make. For people you don’t know, you have to be a good people person. You have to be interested and know what type of personality you’re dealing with.

Try to find out what kind of background the guy has. Especially in a cash game, any wrong decision can cost you big money. Talk to them, create contact, or listen to them talk to somebody else. There is so much information you can use. If the guy is behind on his rent, it means he would not put his money on the line with bad cards. Another guy doesn’t care, he’s drinking left and right, he’s talking to the other guys, he’s not paying attention. So with this guy, you have to be extremely careful, have a hand, and make him pay.

Ninety-five percent of the game is about the actual opponent, not the hand that you’re holding. I’ll get into the pot with any two cards if I know what my opponent has, because now I know what I have to catch and I take advantage of those opportunities. I work harder than my opponents. I sit down and pay attention and then cash in on that information.

How you make your money in poker is important. Do you do it blindly in any business? No, you don’t. You have to know what you’re doing. You have to know your surroundings. If you don’t have enough information from somebody, you’re not paying enough attention. You’re trying to make a perfect read, and you say, “Wow, it didn’t work. I’m very unlucky. The guy’s crazy.” He’s not crazy. You should’ve figured out that this guy’s not laying this hand down.

In the meantime, you may catch a real hand. But that’s your bonus. You’re not depending on that. You’re depending on cashing in by isolating and grabbing somebody that you know how to deal with. If you find out that there are three people at the table you know how to deal with, stay away from the other guys! There’s no gun to your head that you have to play with every single person. Try to focus on those three until you get information about the other guys. Use the information you have to your benefit, and don’t let the information you don’t have hurt you.

2 Comment(s):

Posted by  Dr Fro, at 6:48 PM, April 20, 2006  

" ... “Wow, it didn’t work. I’m very unlucky. The guy’s crazy.” He’s not crazy. You should’ve figured out that this guy’s not laying this hand down.... "

Excellent advice

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Posted by  Johnnymac, at 8:08 PM, April 20, 2006  

Yeah, and the other good advice is about listening to table talk. I have read really scary stories about how good TJ is at reading new players and using what seems like idle chit-chat to just slice people up. It's all about information.

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