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the dirty truth about starting hands which no "pro" will tell you

29 posts 07 Oct 2009 21:13

Edited on 07 Oct 2009 21:17 by RichieKGB

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Ever wonder why the "pros" tell you to play mainly the top starting hands and only stay ion with two pair or better?
Its so you can be a more predictable player and then they turn over 37os for the flopped straight after you stayed in with aces up.

The reality is that no starting hand is that much of a favourite in poker, you really need to see at least the flop before you know if your hand is dead. Nobody knows what the flop will bring and aces are not invunerable. 4 card ohama is just the same, unless you have 3 or 4 of a kind to start any hand has as much chance as flopping the nuts as any other.
A lot of "pros" will misdirect you with mathmatical odds and flashy technical bits like ROI, ICM and VSIP but its all smoke and mirrors. Most "pros" call for as cheaply as possible and hope to hit the reason they seem to win more than you is that they have huge bankrolls and never risk more than 1% of themselves at any one time. Unless you do the same you can never ever hope to compete, if you only gamble with 0.25-1% of yourself you can take many losses before it makes a appreciable dent.

They have to do this because they don't earn money like regular people so they can't just top up their bankroll with their wages. This is why they play as many hands as possible, hoping that they can hit a monster and get X50 on the original bet.
THEY WANT YOU to play predictable so they don;t over tax their brains thinking of all the possible starting hands only the top 20 or so. This is mainly because most did not finish thier education and are very limited in their thinking - just gambling probabilities and some "reading" skills.

Ever wonder why people say "Oh i am suprised you played that hand, i thought you were a good player?"
Its because they are attacking your ego and trying to brainwash you into playing predictable poker which they can read and exploit. At the end of the day its your money/your chips and you can do what you like with it - there is no "right way to play poker".
In fact the dirty truth is theres nothing really clever about playing poker its just a gambling game which is wholly dependant on the turn of the cards not invididual skill. Any player who can afford to enter 1000 tourneys in a year will win one of them at least and in cash games as long as you don't risk too much in one game you can easily protect yourself against a bad streak.

So next time someone berates you for your choice of starting hand remember its normally because you won with that hand and that's why they don't like your choice. And as for "pros" giving you advice - well these are the same people who are hoping you will take it so they can predict how you will play at the table. A perfect analogy is The Frog and the Scorpion -

""Hellooo Mr. Frog!" called the scorpion across the water, "Would you be so kind as to give me a ride on your back across the river?"

"Well now, Mr. Scorpion! How do I know that if I try to help you, you wont try to kill me?" asked the frog hesitantly.

"Because," the scorpion replied, "If I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim!"

Now this seemed to make sense to the frog. But he asked. "What about when I get close to the bank? You could still try to kill me and get back to the shore!"

"This is true," agreed the scorpion, "But then I wouldn't be able to get to the other side of the river!"

"Alright then...how do I know you wont just wait till we get to the other side and THEN kill me?" said the frog.

"Ahh...," crooned the scorpion, "Because you see, once you've taken me to the other side of this river, I will be so grateful for your help, that it would hardly be fair to reward you with death, now would it?!"

So the frog agreed to take the scorpion across the river. He swam over to the bank and settled himself near the mud to pick up his passenger. The scorpion crawled onto the frog's back, his sharp claws prickling into the frog's soft hide, and the frog slid into the river. The muddy water swirled around them, but the frog stayed near the surface so the scorpion would not drown. He kicked strongly through the first half of the stream, his flippers paddling wildly against the current.

Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp sting in his back and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the scorpion remove his stinger from the frog's back. A deadening numbness began to creep into his limbs.

"You fool!" croaked the frog, "Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?"

The scorpion shrugged, and did a little jig on the drownings frog's back.

"I could not help myself. It is my nature."

more poker bastard advice next week....

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the dirty truth about starting hands which no "pro" will tell you

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