A friend of the LTR’s asked me a Texas Hold’em poker related question a couple of weeks ago. She took up the game for fun and social reasons because it looks easy and didn’t take too long to learn the basic rules. I am sure she thought her question was a simple question. It sounded simple, so the answer must be straightforward. Here’s the question, “How would you play Ace-Ten?”
My reply to her was a list of questions as follows, and in loose order, and also incomplete:
- Suited or unsuited?
- pre or post flop?
- limit or no limit?
- full or short handed table?
- What is your seat position? Under the gun, UTG+1, Middle position, MP+1, MP+2, Hi-Jack, Cut Off, Button, Small Blind, or Big blind?
- Has anyone come in for a raise in front of you?
- Has anyone limped in in front of you?
- What type of players either raised or limped in front of you? What type of hands would they come in with?
- What type of players are behind you? Will they fold if you raise, or are they the type to re-raise all-in with garbage?
- What type of table image have you been projecting? Is this your first hand at the table, or have you been playing for a long time?
Post flop is always going to be situational with a whole host of variables that it I’d have to spend a lot more time than I want detailing the thought processes.
The woman asking me the question was shocked. After a bit she said, “wow, I never would have thought there were so many things to think about when playing poker.” Yes, well most people who don’t take up the game seriously never do consider how complex a simple game like poker can be. Especially because it deals with people and money. The gal’s next response was comical. She told me that if she’s got to think that much while playing poker that she probably doesn’t want to play anymore.
I grew up playing poker with my extended family. Their game of choice was 7 card stud High/Low. Even playing that game continuously since I was a teenager didn’t make me a good player. Heck it was a social event. Outs, made hands, opponents cards, etc…none of that was taken into consideration.
It wasn’t until I decided to make some real money on the side that I got serious about the game. But where to start? Books, that’s the ticket. I’ll read a book and it will make me a better player. At the time there were lots of books out there and I had no idea where to start. I bought Doyle Brunson’s Super System and a really bad poker book titled The Tao of Poker. Little did I know that Super System, while a solid book, wasn’t really the best place for a beginner. The other book was laughable. Full of new agey crap but sorely lacking in the mathematical and systematic approach to the game.
What to do? Well, somehow I stumbled upon 2+2 forums. 2+2 are publishers of some of the better books on poker and poker theory. Their forums were a place for like minded individuals to get together discuss hands, books, and the different poker games. As a newb I haunted the newbie forum for a week or two, purchased what was to become my bible, Small Stakes Hold’em: Winning Big with Expert Play. I became a regular in the Micro Limit Hold’em forum. This forum covered games up to $1 big blinds. Yeah, big money. The idea was to start small and build a bankroll big enough to play in the next larger limit stakes.
The forum was an education. Just reading Small Stakes wasn’t enough to grasp all the concepts. The guys with more experience were there to answer questions, and to guide the newer players. The forums attracted all types. The guy who thought he already knew everything. The guy that just wanted to be told the answer without having to think or figure it out themselves. The guy who played a few thousand hands and then claimed to be the best player in the world. And of course there were the guys who just wanted to tell everyone else that poker was a game of luck, that the book Small Stakes Hold’em was a joke, and that it is impossible to break even or even win money playing poker.
The old saying goes among experienced poker players, “Poker is the hardest way to make an easy living.” It sounds trite and cliche, but anyone who’s played a lot of poker will nod their head in agreement. And by a lot of poker, I’m talking thousands of hours and hundreds of thousand hands. There is a sad fact of the poker forums. Most guys who show up there take up the game in an obsessive way. It is all they think about, all they talk about, and all they do. For a while anyway. Most quit in under a year. A good player can only expect limit poker to pay off at a rate of 2 big blinds per 100 hands. There’s a lot of boredom involved. A lot of hands are folded either pre-flop or on the flop. Other’s keep at the game and hit a plateau. In the beginning there’s a steep learning curve, but after that there is a long period of grinding. Often it is disillusioning. A sizable percentage of those players who stuck it out past their first year end up quiting in this stage. Those few that persevere end up being great players. The ones who seem to magically know what their opponents hole cards, the ones who seem to see the entire puzzle.
