I was talking with a friend yesterday – one that doesn’t play poker – and I found myself having to defend my losing some 50 tournaments since my last big win. I had to explain my 156% ROI, and lecture on how the long term is what’s important. You see – I won $25,000 playing online poker last year, by playing mostly $10-$30 tournaments, but all she saw was the fact that I lost $540 back in a month.
Having this conversation made me realize that her erroneous outlook is actually all too common, especially among today’s amateur no-limit players. And when I say amateur, believe it or not, I’m probably talking to myself more than anybody. I don’t believe in overnight success – regardless of how much these players boast about their poker-playing skills, in my opinion, they’re really playing blind – because they’re usually not experts, in the sense of having played many hands previously and developed a strong, repeatable strategy.
If you’re making any money at the poker tables, and you’re devoting some time to learning how to win at poker online, you’re probably focusing a lot of effort on analyzing your competition and learning their racing patterns and such. But at the end of the day, if you’re having fun at the tables – whether you’re playing for juice or your adrenaline, the pressure’s often off, and you can pick up some surprisingly strong hands doing that.
While studying your opponents is still a key part of developing a winning poker strategy, you need to consider a few tips to narrow down what you’re up against.
Blackjack
For a game that’s only a little more complicated than poker, blackjack is a good way to make quick money. A dealing shoe holds two and a dealer has one, but the player can play against the dealer (as in poker) or the house (as in craps).
The good thing about playing against the house is that you actually have a fairly good chance of beating them. The bad thing about playing against the house is that you often can’t tell if they’re mistakes – they might be mistakes, or just really good hands.
The one thing you’ll learn quickly when you sit in a blackjack game is that the house has a terrible advantage over the player, around .60%. While the casino does have an edge, the player is at least a 50-50 against the house. Take that away, and the house’s edge plummets even lower, to .51% – easy to make money with!
Poker
While everyone knows Texas Hold’em is the big game in Dewapoker, Omaha is more fun to play when you’re up against some human opponents. While the Royal Flush and Straight Flush are big hits, getting those can get a little boring. Poker offers up a wide range of hands, some more playable than others, but you’ll still find them quite a bit of fun to play. Poker can be a considerably less complicated game than it looks, but it’s not nearly as difficult to learn to play. There are some fantastic games out there, both online and in person-and anyone willing to put in the time and energy to learn can be very good at poker.
While it’s possible to spend hours studying the game, or reading thousands of pages of books, unless you’re literally born with the ability to study – you’re going to be able to pick up the game quite quickly. Again, unless you’re a relative novice, resist the temptation to just keep going back for more. Learn the ropes, and you’ll save yourself time and money.