Changing your mindset (Part 1)

There are a lot of threads out and about, regarding 'bad players' and how 'bad' certain players are and how 'bad' they play... I was one of those players, who classed an opponent as either bad or good, and have just had a brainwave: this is not the way you should approach your views on other players. You can put players into two separate categories of winning players, and losing players (usually and most likely linked are that bad players are losing players, and good players are winning players), but not 'bad' and 'good'. I have found out of late, that it does not matter whether your opponent is commonly categorized as one or the other, but I prefer to view players now as either exploitable or not.

Some of the best hold ‘em players I have faced, I have been able to crush regularly because I have found out ways to exploit they're game, and other incredibly 'bad' losing players have crushed me, as I have not yet found out how to exploit them successfully. There is no 'set way' to play poker, everyone plays differently, and there is no wrong or right way (within reason), the only thing that matters is if you can successfully exploit the opponents you commonly play, and win against them. If you can do this, then it does not matter how technically badly you play, as you are winning. You do not have to play the same way as all the 2+2 forumites think you should play, and any really successful player knows that you have to have your own style of play, not used by anyone else, to make serious money!

Exploiting weakness

Next time you sit at a table with someone who you have tagged as being a huge fish, ask yourself whether you have tagged them as a fish purely because other players have all classed them as a fish and mouthed off about how 'bad' they are, or whether you have tagged them as an easy target because you have found a weakness in their game that you have learnt to exploit. If it was the first, then you should rethink playing them until you find the specific weakness that you can abuse but if it was the latter, then you have found yourself great value.

Read Part 2...