What's Your Poker Strategy?
There are several factors that distinguish a successful poker player. Conservatism is one of his traits. He does not bet and raise when he just have an average hand. When he has been dealt a bad hand, he knows he does not have to play with it and folds straight away before even placing a bet. He is patient and will wait for the right hand before he strikes, but he is wise enough to realize that he will be losing some money on many hands.
He has good timing and knows when to play a tight and aggressive game. When dealt a good hand, he starts to make money by raising again and again. The good poker player is observant of what goes on at the table and has a feel of the odds of drawing the right kind of card. On the basis of what he sees, he knows when its time to fold and when to raise.
He has a knack for weighing the risks versus the pot. Even if he has a hand that he normally folds, if it takes too small a risk for the possibility of winning a big pot he calls just to stay in the pot. If, for instance, it will cost him only $5 to stay in the hand with a pot of $300 then it's certainly worth the risk even with a mediocre hand that he normally folds. If the reward is 60 times the risk of winning it, then the pot by itself makes the odds of winning it good.
It's a waste of time thinking over the odds and musing at all the possible results of a hand every time cards are dealt. From his experiences, the good poker player is able to evolve his own standards such that if at the opening draw that expectation is not met, he folds.
A bluff is resorted to as a last resort, and will only work if nobody expects it. A good player knows that it is fatal to have a reputation as a bluffer because that will take away one vital winning strategy to get out of sticky situations—the option to bluff. But, it is also not good to have a reputation for not bluffing at all because other players will fold every time you bet aggressively. While poker is a game of chance to a certain degree, a good poker player will get bad beats from time to time and a bad poker gets lucky every now and then. But, by and large, the good poker player wins money overall.