One of the most important insights we here at Juicy Stakes Poker can give players is that making good decisions is a lot harder than many poker players think. Beginning players simply do not yet understand the complexity of a poker decimos. A poker decision may mean a substantial “investment” in an outcome.
Advanced Players Have to Make Good Decisions, Too
Advanced poker players may have forgotten more poker than they realize. The significance of good poker decisions is in how much poker a player remembers.
This kind of decision has comparisons in real life. The cliché that a man will buy a car after kicking the tires means that he didn’t take the necessary steps before making his buying decision. When a couple decides to buy a house, there are some important elements to consider. Buying a house without making these considerations is also a poor decision.
A poor decision is still a poor decision even if it works out.
That is the basis of Phil Helmuth castigating amateurs who played a hand poorly and won anyway. They made poor decisions along the way to a lucky win.
Some Aspects of Good Decision-Making
Ther might be a hundred elements that go into good decision-making. Here we will deal with just a few. There is also a great deal of overlap between the different top aspects of good decision-making.
Know the Important Parameters of Your Decision
One such parameter is position. If you are betting, you need to know the significance of your position and the significance of the other players’ positions.
However, position may be less important on a given hand than the player’s betting profile. This is not something g written down in a ledger. Rather, it is your subjective analysis of his or her betting patterns and tendencies.
Maybe they will bluff you out of a pot from thin air, but your decision might still have been eminently defensible based on what you knew at the time about that opponent.
Another parameter to consider is the opponents’ poker experience. You might catch hints of an inexperienced player at the table.
Here there is a lot of overlap with the next aspect of good decision-making: evaluating the entire hand.
Understanding and Evaluating
These two elements go hand in hand. What it all boils down to is that making good decisions in poker is a highly analytical matter. It involves all of the analytical tools the old timers used before modern poker math came along, plus poker math.
Top-level evaluation is similar to what really good chess players do: they analyze, evaluate, and anticipate.
If I Go Here…
In chess, most players can look ahead one or two moves. A really good player will look ahead several moves. The phrase: if I go here, she will go there, and so on is common in chess.
Even though poker players don’t say exactly that to themselves, they will say things like: if I bet this amount, he will….(insert word: call, raise, fold).
Anticipating in poker also means knowing how many outs you have; what the opponent’s hand is likely to be based on their betting; how much money you have; how much money they have; if they can be intimidated by a large bet; and so on.
Cold Analysis
A lot of players “fall in love” with their cards. Sometimes with good reason and sometimes with no good reason. When you decide that the other player has you beat, fold.
Cold analysis also means controlling your emotions. Tilt is the great enemy of good decisions.
Good Decisions are Hard to Achieve
Here we are segueing from poker to real-life decisions. We spoke about car and home buying and we spoke about taking the necessary steps when making a big decision.
Taking the necessary steps is the same as performing due diligence.
Is the car known to be reliable? Have I taken it to a trusted mechanic for his evaluation? Is the price suitable; how much can I negotiate it down? Has the owner kept all maintenance receipts so I can see what work he has had done on the car?
Is the car reliable, equates to a player’s poker history. Have I taken it to a trusted mechanic, is the same as have I really analyzed this player? What are the pot odds and what are my chances of winning the hand, relates to the price of another bet. Negotiation in poker is how can I maximize the size of the pot when I have the best hand?
Finally, the maintenance record is everything I know about this player. If he is tight and betting high, I should probably fold because it is his nature to play only the very good hands.
Good Decisions Lead to Seizing the Advantage
We can see this over time in poker. It is best seen more immediately in sports. A coach’s or manager’s decisions will show up as successful or unsuccessful very quickly.
By what process did the manager make his decision?
Many decisions are based on the coach’s evaluation of the players available to him before the season starts. How do the coach’s pre-season decisions affect his in-season decisions?
Good decisions also take advantage of a niche. In baseball, a left-handed pitcher has a distinct advantage over left-handed hitters. So, a manager’s decision to bring in a lefty to pitch to a strong lefty hitter is trying to take advantage of a niche. In poker, position is a niche since it changes with each hand. The player’s style is also a niche.
Good Decisions in Business and Juicy Stakes Poker
We try to provide excellent poker at many stakes levels. Having many stakes levels is like a business achieving a pricing advantage. Another advantage that is often mentioned in business writing is a focus advantage.
Everything we have said here and in all of our articles is an attempt to help you focus on the important elements of poker toward your advantage.
Juicy Stakes is a top online poker room. We also have a sister site where you can play online casino games. We run many promotions and sponsor a wide range of tournaments. Poker players at Juicy Stakes enjoy the best aspects of poker while enjoying all of the amenities of home.
