It turns out that the #1 cause of losing in poker is simply not folding. Therefore; the first, most basic, skill in poker is folding. If you said, "no duh, yea I know that" then go let's see if you do. The purpose of this article is to begin to teach you how to be nothing more than a winning poker player. What's a "winning poker player"? It's a player who can make a profit consistently.
Any idiot can win at poker (for a short while), but that's not the same as being a "winning poker player". At the end of the week the "winning poker player" has made money. At the end of the month they have made money. The difference is that a "winning poker player" doesn't crash and burn. This article teaches the key skill of folding.
Folding is the most overlooked skill by the majority of players. They can't fold. They won't fold. They find reasons to play when they should be finding reasons to fold. They think and then re-think, they try to read minds. They play pure position plays and think they can steal pots after the flop with any two cards. They think folding will make them look weak in the eyes of their opponents. It deflates their ego. They think they are poker geniuses. They are actually action junkies. These guys are going to be your new best friends, because they are going to make your mortgage payments for you.
The main reason people don't fold is because they want to play. They see each poker "session" as a thing that has a start and a finish. If they are going to play for only one hour then they want to play some hands during that hour. YOU, on the other hand, are going to understand that your poker career is One Big Never Ending Poker Session. If you sit down to play for an hour and you don't have any situations, cards and scenarios where you should play, then you won't play. You will fold for an hour, turn off the computer and know you did your job!! If you want to play a game for fun, play Monopoly. If you want to play winning poker then it's time to get a pen.
Get a pen and a pad of paper. On the top write "I ALWAYS FOLD..." then write the following. You have to write this out. Reading it is pointless. If you really want to burn it into your brain then you can write the list twice. As you write each hand THINK about it.
If you decide you aren't going to ALWAYS fold some particular hand then you better have a fantastic reason why, and you better be able to create a strategy for playing that hand in about 15 different scenarios. Otherwise, just convince yourself that you will always fold it for the next couple months - while you're becoming a winning player. Then, if you want, you can add it back into your starting hands with purpose and with a plan of action for the hand.
I always fold T8.
I always fold J8.
Now keep writing "I always fold" for the rest of this list. It's not every hand in poker, but it's enough for what we're doing right now. 's' means Suited, 'x' means "any numeric card". So KQs means "King Queen Suited" and Ax means "Ace plus any numeric card".
Write "I always fold" for each of the following combination:
Q9, A9, 74s, J7s, 85s 96s, K9, 54, 65, 76, 87, 32s, 42s, 43s, 53s, Q8s, T7s, Kxs, 64s, 98, t9, j9, 75s, j8s, k9s, 54s, QT, KT, 86s, AT, 65S, Axs, 97s 76s, JT, T8s, Q9s, 87, KTs, J9s, 98s, QTs, T9s, ATs, JTs
That's your list of unplayable cards. UNPLAYABLE, any position, any situation, the only time you will be playing these cards is if you post the big blind and check into a hand with them. Otherwise you're folding. You are folding on the small blind, you are folding on the button, you are folding with multiple limpers, raised pots, unraised pots, etc.
Before we continue though, I must state something that SHOULD be glaringly obvious to you, but might not be. When you check into a flop from the big blind with one of your "I fold" hands, it's extremely important that you do not get drawn into playing your cards unless you really strike it lucky on the flop. Let's say that you hold 83 as the big blind and it comes round to you unraised, so you check and get to see the flop for no extra cash, "free" if you like. The flop comes 864. You have top pair! You are DONE with this hand. Fold it. Don't bet it. Don't call with it. Just let it go.
In these instances your hand is no good. You are probably beaten already. If you aren't beaten already, it's highly likely you will be before the hand is finished. Very occasionally you will flop a monster - with your 83 big blind you could see a flop of 883, K33, or even 888 as some examples. It does happen - but these will be in the minority, and remembering this will keep you out of a whole lot of trouble. Just because you got to see the flop for free doesn't mean it won't cost you dearly if you play your mediocre flopped hand above its real value. We will cover this more in detail when we talk about playing the blinds.
Did you find that you said, "No way, I'm not folding this in 'whatever' situation"? How about TJ or ATs? There is an excellent chance that the list of hands you are always going to fold preflop is more than you can accept. That's OK! Just stop reading. This system of making consistent profits playing poker can be... in a word... boring. The fact that it works consistently is really secondary. Action junkies and people who play poker to prove how "smart" they are will have serious issues with the remainder of this article.
Finding more and more hands to play, and more reasons to play them make good players bad, bad players worse, and sucky players out of everyone. Please, for the love of all that is pure and holy understand this one thing. All the books you read and all the advice you got from people who read those books are based on the same antiquated concept of playing ONE table LIVE. That means that you are physically sitting at a table and only one table since there's only one of you. The cards are being shuffled; you're seeing maybe 35 hands per hour - if not less. You are playing the maximum stakes for your bankroll, because that's what you should do if you are single table, live playing.
The winning system in this article was created for a modern, multi-table, online style of play. Instead of playing one table at $2/$4, you're playing 4 tables of $.5/$1. Instead of seeing 35 hands per hour or less, you're seeing about 200 hands per hour. Instead of playing "whatever table is available" you are selecting only the best tables for playing your game, tables with huge pots and tons of passive preflop callers. Do you see what I'm saying?
The hands that you think you want to play preflop might be right for some other situation. But we're talking about a game where you can sit and play 4-5 tables at a time for hours on end and make money. This is a game that's designed for the 21st century online poker reality. Yes, it is still possible to play poker online for profits from the U.S.!
Now, for whatever hands you have reservations about... Like ATs... write 25 times. "I always fold" and the hand. Each hand 25 times. Each time reminding yourself that you are creating a new game, a disciplined game, a money making game that will bring you hundreds of thousands of dollars over your poker career, a game that's going to make you into a poker monster.
Done? If you didn't do this exercise and you think you're ready to go to the next section, then do me a favor. Go to the bathroom, remove the roll of toilet paper, and place a print-out of this article on the spool. You might as well put it to use, because you're not using it to learn how to play winning online poker. Do the damn exercise before you move on, please. It'll only take an hour, unless you're writing with your feet.
If you learn how to fold and you stop falling in love with every two cards you see, then you will be ahead of most online poker players. It's good to be an optimist! It's good to see potential in the future. However, when you do that with too many starting hands in poker then you end up slowly losing whatever money you actually won with your good hands. See, becoming a consistent winning poker player isn't just about winning with good hands - any idiot can win with a good hand. Becoming a consistent winning online poker player is also about HOLDING ONTO your MONEY! You cannot hold onto your money when you play too many starting hands in poker.
I'm not saying that you cannot win hands with the cards that are in the "I always fold" list. You can! However, I'm trying to help you create a laser-focused game that will consistently make a profit with lower risk of leaking away you wins. You don't have to play so few hands. But if you aren't going to try this system then why read the article at all? Poker is fun! All types of poker. This is a very tight style. Try it! See what happens.
If you fold all these hands, then what hands can you play? All pocket pairs, AK, AQ, AJ, KQ, KJ, and QJ. THAT'S IT! 19 preflop hands! How can you win by playing only these 19 hands preflop? If you play them correctly then it's pretty much impossible to lose!!
Anthony Okrongly is a professional online poker player, trainer and author of numerous underground poker books, insider guides and rapid poker improvement systems. His methods are at times as controversial as they are effective for both beginners and experienced players alike. You can find his books and articles on http://www.legalonlinepokerchallenge.com.
