How to Think Like A Great Poker Player.

Chances are if you are reading my blog you are or are considering becoming a poker player. I have many topics and articles ranging from starting hand considerations to more advanced plays. Today's topic is on something that you must learn to do if you want to become good at poker, you can only win so much money following what is said in the books and my articles. They are merely a foundation for a set of skills that can't be tangibly explained in a book. These skills address the idea that you can not play perfect poker, the game is magnificent because it's much like chess, it is so dynamic and full of so many decisions that you can never play a perfect game.

So enough of building up this idea, here it is. You must learn to think like a truly great poker player, this is vague I know, I will explain first by illustrating someone who doesn't think like a poker player. You have a player at the table, he just finished reading his fifth poker book, and has a set strategy when he sits at the table. His pre-flop card selection is already set in stone, his aggression is the same always, he always continuation bets the flop, he only semi-bluffs the turn, and he only bets the river with a made hand. He's ABC, plays tight and aggressive like all the books in the world of poker advocate.

Notice that I didn't mention anyone else at the table. Remember the old adage, poker is a game where you play the players not the cards. A strategy like this will only fly in the micro limit games of hold em, and even there will only be marginally profitable. This is where you must begin to think like a great poker player. So what does this mean exactly?

Thinking like a poker player is a matter of understanding everything. Your strategy is that you have no strategy. You must be as unpredictable to yourself as you are to the rest of the table. You base every decision you make at the table not based on a preset strategy but rather the situation in front of you, the gathered information before you, and your analytical decision making process. Here's an example.

You have AK on the button in a 1/2 NL game. You had one limper before you, and you raised it 8 dollars. The small blind folds, the big blind calls, and the limper raises. You decide to call. The flop comes 4, 6, 9 rainbow.

What the beginner is thinking: I have an awesome pre flop hand, I raised it pre flop to protect it and I bet my opponents also have good hands too in order to call my bet and the limpers check-raise.

It's checked around and I raise it around the pot size. The big blind folds and the early position calls. The turn comes with a 2 not matching any of the suits on the board. The EP checks again to you, you decide to follow the book and raise it the pot again. The EP calls.

The river comes another blank, a 10. Suddenly the EP leads out with an all in bet, a little over the size of the pot. Suddenly you are in a position with only AK high and the book always told you that if you think you are beat on the river fold, the book told you that you should never push your stack all in unless you know you have your opponent beat.

You don't think you have the best hand, and you fold. Suddenly the EP flips over his KJ to show you that he bluffed you, you are enraged inside, but the book told you to cool your nerves and wait for another opportunity to slow play that bastard.

What the expert is thinking: Preflop: I am dealt AK on the button, I get to see all the action except the blinds before I act. You notice nothing special about the body language of the limper when he limps into the pot, you know he is passive pre flop preferring to let in a lot of action in the hopes of hitting a monster hand, you are cautious of him because he is crafty and good. You decide to put in an 8 dollar raise into the pot to isolate the limper and maybe just take down the blinds and the limper's money right here.

The big blind eyes you menacingly, a clear tell that he thinks you are trying to steal his blinds and he feels obligated to defend, again a good player but not very crafty. Suddenly you notice the limper is now eying you intently as well, but not in a way that is meant to scare you, he is trying to read you. He decides to put in a check raise, you stop and think.

This opponent has never limped with a super premium hand in early position, he shouldn't have to read you intently if he has a premium hand. You now can eliminate a lot of hands from his arsenal, the JJ+ and probably AK or AQ is unlikely in this situation. You decide to call his bet and see what the flop comes even though you know that not raising over the top is defining your hand as AK or JJ or QQ to your opponent. The big blind who is now feeling like a little fish in a big fight reluctantly calls.

The flop comes down trashy 4, 6, 9 rainbow. The big blind checks as does the early position, now you feel like you want to put in a bet in this situation, but you really can not completely discount either opponent from having a hand that hit this trashy flop and they may be slow playing top pair knowing that I probably have a premium hand like AK with little draws now. If I believe that then I will do what they don't want me to, check and see a free card. I check.

The turn comes down with a 2 completing the rainbow of suits, making a flush impossible on the river. The big blind checks again. The early position goes into the think tank and puts out a half pot sized bet. You know that he is prone to bluffing a lot, and you feel that even though he doesn't have a premium pre flop hand that he wouldn't bet a set or over pair in this situation, he wants others to bet for him. You recognize that this bet is merely meant to try and steal the checked pot. You decide to call him, and the big blind folds.

The river comes down another blank, the 10. You notice that the early position looks a little worried, he's trying to hide it, but you can tell he is shutting down on this hand, he checks to you. You decide to bet half the pot, and make him feel like you are value betting an over pair or set that you have been trying to slow play. He looks at you, shakes his head and says he just can't call you or raise you, and folds his hand. You muck your AK and take down the healthy sized pot with nothing.

Can you tell the difference? Obviously I typed a lot more for the expert player, but that's because he was thinking about everything in the situation around him. He had no strategy but to play every player based upon the tells you pick up on them and the information you have gathered since he first started playing. The expert used a combination of strategies written in many books in this hand based on the changing dynamics of the hand. I will explain them all here, but the true purpose of this article is to help people understand what it truly takes to think like a good poker player, not one who has just read a lot of books.

First, you picked up on tells. He recognized the big blind was defending his blinds and was trying to intimidate you, an obvious sign of someone with a weak hand. The early position was only trying to read you and pick up on your tells, but this tells me that he didn't have a super premium hand because he first would never limp into a pot with a premium hand and he secondly wouldn't have taken all that time to read me and think before putting in a check-raise.

The flop, you decided to take the free card. You hit nothing and you believe your opponents think this. Your strength pre flop wouldn't have connected with this EXCEPT unless you had an over pair. This is where the check not only gives you a free card, but plants a seed of doubt in the minds of your opponents, now they think you might be slow playing your hand by not making a continuation bet.

The turn, you decided to create a trap or setup for the early position. You recognized that he was thinking really hard, he wants to define your hand with his bet, and he also wants to make you think he is value betting the turn with his half sized bet. You know that if he had hit a set or had an over pair that he would have probably checked here hoping you would finally take a stab at the pot. His bet smells fishy to you, and you think he is trying to take this pot down. A call here will grow that seed you planted and make him feel even more so that he is being slow played here.

The river, the bluff. You see that after you called he goes form super focused and intent looking, even aggressive looking to looking a little shocked. He suddenly starts to look a little discouraged and you know you have him now. He's staring at the board when the river hits, and he just keeps on staring and doesn't glance at his chips. He decides to check trying to maintain his appearance of strength, and you bet into him with a value bet bluff. You make it look like you are value betting this hand and you know he has little to nothing. He ends up folding and you take down the pot.

So how do you begin to think like this? It starts with information, you must gather information in order to think about it. Find out which players are good, what their tendencies are and recognize patterns. Of course you think about the math, the stats, the starting hand charts, etc. but these are merely a guideline for a poker expert. If he feels like he is in a good position to bluff at a pot with 72 off suit then he will. You become more adept at making a play based on what you think your opponents are doing and what they are thinking more so than making a play because you have a certain two cards in your hand.

To truly think like a good poker player you must think about what other poker players are thinking. This requires a lot of patience and skill, but it's powerful to get into the minds of your opponents to set them up for bluffs, slow plays, and the like. This requires understanding how good of a thinker your opponents are, if they are beginners, you must realize that they will think like a book with very predictable behaviors. If they are crafty players who are as good as you, then you must now put yourself in their shoes, recreate the scenario and figure out his strategy and cards based on this information.

I will admit this topic is hard to understand, and many players go their whole poker careers not understanding this important idea.

To train yourself to think like a great poker player, you must analyze a lot of poker hands and not just your own. Analyze your friends hands, the hands posted on the many online forums and get your own hands analyzed by other people. If you can tap into the thought processes of others and your own, you can recognize areas your thinking is lacking and pick up on tips and ideas from other people's thinking.

Remember even if you believe you think like an expert, that you can never stop improving. Poker is a game of imperfect information, you can never gather too much information and analyze a hand too much. The only way to be perfect at poker is to have access to your opponents whole card cameras and a mind reading decide, since that would be cheating, you instead must rely on your tells, and learned strategies to play closer and closer to perfection.