Online Poker Comes Down to Elimination of Mistakes
There is the old adage about online poker that holds a great deal of truth and perhaps the key to success which goes as this; “Poker takes an hour to learn but a lifetime to master.”
And part of that lifetime experience of mastering online poker is to learn from your mistakes and to never make those mistakes ever again. In essence, poker is much like sports in that the teams that don’t beat themselves are the teams that survive, often against better personnel.
The first mistake to avoid is losing control of your emotions and ability to think rationally. Some of the greatest experts at poker, players who have enormous talent, knowledge and ability are unable to turn profits and win consistently because they lack self-control and the ability to shake off “bad beats” that are part of the game. Lesser players who are able to keep control of their emotions will prove to be the more effective players in the long run.
Second is the ability to manage your poker bankroll and chip stacks. Again, this is far more important than actual expertise and knowledge of the game itself. There are many super skilled poker players that simply fail to advance because of their total inability to manage their money.
Part of the mental aspect that you must have is the near certainty that your poker opponents will make mistakes and that if you can avoid errors and last long enough you will often get gift wins because of those poor decisions of others.
You can quickly move up in poker and enjoy success far more quickly than others if you simply don’t allow yourself to go on tilt and to eliminate stupid obvious errors at first before moving on to the more complex aspects of the game.
A big start in cutting down on mistakes is to respect the odds, positioning, and chip stacks far more than respecting the possibility of being bluffed. With the new breed of aggressive player, buffing is now the norm rather than the exception and players who play in fear of being bluffed will psyche themselves out and make errors out of paranoia rather than on the merits of the situation. It is imperative that you accept the fact that today’s poker is hyper aggressive and bluffing is going to take place on the majority of hands. But no bluff can beat the odds and the steady play of a strong fundamental player.
