Think Before you Act

There are many different reasons for winning or not winning at poker. Some people win because they get lucky and others lose because they get unlucky. Sometimes you can play perfect poker and make all the best decisions, and still lose. Poker is a long term game, and the players the consistently make the right decisions playing poker are going to win much more than those who do not. Of course, on any given night just about anything can happen in a poker room. I can promise you that more times than not, you will lose because you made the wrong decisions.

Think before you Act

This is something that should be obvious, but I am telling you right now; most people do not do it. If you watch any great poker player play this game, you will notice that they think before they act. Every single time you see Phil Ivey play make a move, he takes his time and really thinks through the situation. I use him as an example, because he is one of the best players in the world. Following behind him is many other players that do the same thing. It allows you to really analyze the situation and figure out what is going on. I am guilty myself of acting too soon and realizing after that I should have know it was a bad move. Let me give you an example.

My 7-4 vs K-K

I am playing in a local game ($5-$10 No Limit Hold’em). I am on the button and I have 7-4 of spades. There is one player that raised it up to $40 (so there is around $80 in the pot). It gets around to me and I decide that I am pretty sure this kid has pocket kings, pocket aces or ace king. So I figure if I can pretty much win this pot no matter what if he doesn’t hit, because he is a very tight player, also very straight forward. If he does hit, it won’t be hard for me to get out cheap.

So the flop comes and I hit my 7. The highest card on the board is a 9 and there is no flush possibility. At this point I am pretty sure I have the best hand, but still he could have KK or AA, maybe QQ. He bet $30 and I just called. The turn came up and it was a 4. Now I know I have the best hand, because there is just nothing he could possibly have to beat me.

Now this is where the point to the story comes up. On the river a king came up and he bet another $30. I went all in over the top and he instantly called me. Now, this was just a very stupid move that really makes no sense if you think about it. He might have AA, QQ or AK, which all give him a decent hand, but they are not hands he could call me with when I go all in. The only hand he could have that he could call me with would be KK. If he has that, I am finished. Needless to say, he did have KK and I lost a nice chip stack. If I would have just stopped and thought before I made that move, I would have known the right play would have been to just call (fold if he bet anything more than what he bet).

All it takes is one little mistake to mess up a lot of big things in poker.