Poker Strategy: Poker Psychology
The power of the mind in poker: There is no spade.
It’s well-known among poker enthusiasts that using psychology to get inside the head of your opponents can really give you an edge over them. What some people forget though is that it’s equally important, if not more so, to understand how your own psychology plays a role in your results. Many people who have solid overall strategies nevertheless fail to live up to their potential as players due to a lack of emotional control. Tilt – including “winners tilt” – the desire to get “unstuck” while in the midst of a losing session, playing while tired, and off-table habits can threaten your ability to earn a profit from poker. The articles below discuss some of the psychological problems that affect poker players and ways of dealing with them. Before long, you’ll be able to make calm, dispassionate decisions, and you’ll therefore be able to play your A game for extended periods of time.
Featured Poker Psychology Articles
Taking the Next Step
In poker, it’s important to keep improving your game so that you can move up in stakes. By carefully considering bankroll management, studying the player pool at your new level and approaching the bigger game with the right mindset, you can increase your chances for success.
Beginner’s List of Poker Leaks
Poker is a complex, difficult game, so it’s only natural for beginners to make a lot of errors. The problem is in identifying these errors — if you knew what they were, you wouldn’t be making them! Take a look at these common leaks to see if any of them are present in your game.
Playing Long Sessions
By learning how to play longer sessions at the poker tables more effectively, you can increase the amount of money you win. By carefully choosing the right tables and using lobby filters to your advantage, you can keep yourself in good +EV situations for extended periods of time.
Bankroll Management 101
Bankroll Management Calculator The above tool will help determine which buy-in level you should be playing at, based on the size of your current bankroll. It will give you 3...
The Psychology of Losing
You can’t win every hand or tournament when playing poker. But an extended losing streak can often have severe emotional repercussions that may compound over time, causing you to lose even more. Learn how to break out of the cycle and start winning again.
Most Recent Poker Psychology Articles
Taking the Next Step
In poker, it’s important to keep improving your game so that you can move up in stakes. By carefully considering bankroll management, studying the player pool at your new level and approaching the bigger game with the right mindset, you can increase your chances for success.
Your Bankroll and You
There are many things that are important in Poker; your position during a hand, your starting hand (cards), your opponent tendencies, the odds for a certain draw to hit, how that draw fares versus your holding, bluffing opportunities, recognition and exploitation of...
Biggest Money Making Secret in Poker
After reviewing this month’s play, I came to the same conclusion I came to last month, and the month before that, and the month before that. But I have failed to act upon that conclusion. Further, many of my professional-minded friends, after reaching the exact same...
ISF – General Hand Reading
When it comes to getting better in an early stage of your career, hand reading is a premium. You can understand poker as much as you’d like, but it’s not going to help if you can’t read hands well. It’s hard to know what to do when you have no idea what your opponents...
A Sensible Approach to Controlling Tilt
Being emotionally compromised while playing a precision game like poker is the same thing as taking your buy-in and dropping the chips by the handful into a wood chipper. In summary, it's a bad idea. (Unless burning through money is a hobby of yours. In which case,...
Mindset, Technique and Money Management
I am going to reveal something that I think is of immense use to any poker player. While it is critical to know how to play the game well, this is only a tiny part of being a successful poker player. Playing poker has so many similarities to financial trading that it...
Be Vito, not Cyclone Hart
I've been reading about the psychology of winning lately, and I came across this interesting anecdote from a New York Times article: --- Cyclone Hart was a powerful puncher who fought as a middleweight out of Philadelphia about 25 years ago. He was as dangerous a...
Top Poker Tell Tips From 5 Pros
Poker tell: “A tell in poker is a subtle but detectable change in a player's behavior or demeanor that gives clues to that player's assessment of his hand. A player gains an advantage if he observes and understands the meaning of another player's tell, particularly if...
Expanding Your Pre Flop Range
After familiarizing yourself with key poker fundamentals such as bankroll management, positional awareness, and aggression, there are a few other aspects of your game you can improve to take the next step in your poker playing career. One of the best ways to improve...
The Psychology of Winning
A lot of literature on poker psychology focuses on how players should handle themselves when they are losing. Whether it is a downswing, tilt, or other factors, people tend to only focus on their play/mentality when things aren’t going their way. Few...
Nine Noobie Myths About Microstakes NLHE
I feel like tons of the noobies in the BC have serious misconceptions about microstakes poker. Here are a few I've seen lately. 1. The micros are just too fishy to be beat for any decent win rate. 2. The micros are too hard to be beat since UIGEA. 3. The FTR regs at...
Finding the Motivation to Improve at Poker
Poker motivation can be difficult to find to say the least, and having a strong support system is one of the best ways to keep pushing forward.
The Proven Best Poker Training Books of All Time
Learning how to play poker correctly is a tough enterprise. Fortunately, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel — by reading the tips and advice of players who have gone before you, your own learning curve can be significantly accelerated.
Leveling by Gametight
Leveling is an in-game battle of psychology. It stems from this: Level 0: What do I have? Level 1: What does my opponent have? Level 2: What does my opponent think I have? Level 3: What does my opponent think that I think they have? Level 4: What does my opponent...
Bankroll Management: A Basic Concept Revisited
Every serious poker player knows that bankroll management is a huge part of the game regardless of what variant they’re playing. What are the keys to it? Playing at the highest stakes you can beat and ensuring your bankroll is large enough to give you a reasonable shot at winning over the long haul.
