the best kept secret to online poker - by Sonny Thompson

The Best Kept Secret To Online Poker
by Sonny Thompson
Playing poker is not only about the cards in your hand, but your attitude as well. Having played online poker for five years now, I can safely say that there are a few tips that are just miles and miles more profitable than the others. This tip is not only profitable, but will make or break internet players. This tip is patience.
This article may seem meaningless, but you need to realize that this one tip alone will separate the winning players from losing players. You will sometimes encounter cold runs of cards for weeks. This is not at all uncommon. I have been playing out losing streaks every year, over and over again which sometimes last up to 3 months.
Patience also has to do with your bankroll. Let me explain. Playing too high of a limit will send you bust really fast. But playing impatient will send you bust even faster. Poker is a game of ups and downs. If you can't accept this fact, play poker for fun. Plenty of people play for fun every day and don't mind losing. But if you want to win, you must be patient.
At times, it will seem like there is just too much luck in poker. You will miss every draw, play perfect, don't go on tilt, and you will still come out on the bottom. Luck can be a double-edged sword at times. It will obviously send the fish coming back for more, since even a good player can lose on any given night. Luck will also fool you. It will make you "think" you are playing good when you are playing like crap. It will make you feel invincible, as if you can play any hand and expect to win.
You will never find a professional poker player who is impatient. Poker is a game in which one should have a long term outlook. Every professional player knows this, as it is probably the factor which ultimately led to their success. I have heard that it can take over 1400 hours of play before you can expect to make a profit, and I wouldn't doubt it. I don't believe this is true, but I do believe that poker should be taken month by month. Hopefully, each month will return a positive profit. Occasionally, you will have a horrible streak and may lose for the month. This shouldn't happen too often. If you find yourself losing month after month, please ask yourself if patience could be your problem.

There are two types of impatience:
1.) Playing way too many hands.
2.) Putting your money in when you do not have the best of it.

Poker is kind of like the English language. It can be very tricky and have many exceptions involved. Even if you play the best hands, you could still be playing impatiently. For example, say you raise pocket kings and receive three callers. An ace hits the flop, but you bet anyways to represent it. You get re-raised by the player in last position and you know you are beat. Good players lay this down. Impatient players still call because they cannot accept the fact that their kings are no good. This is what is called putting your money in when you know you are beat. While you want to push good hands hard, you never want to be dead money. If you totally miss your flop with ace-king, don't go crazy. Live to fight another day.
You could also be playing way too many hands. I admit, sometimes poker can get really boring. Try staring at the computer screen for an 8 hour session. You start to get tired and tend to play more hands. The call button slowly turns in to a siren and you have to pry your hand off the mouse just to avoid clicking it. Online poker makes it much easier to hit this "call" button, or even the "re-buy" button when you are tired rather than alert. This leads me to my next point.
Always play when you are alert! Simple. I have had plenty of sessions where I become tired, and my draws start to seem more promising as my eyes start to bleed from staring at the computer screen. It is a proven fact that you cannot perform at your optimal level if you are tired. Another good tip is to log out or leave the casino as soon as you feel tired. You will probably become disinterested in playing your best poker and look for luck as your saving grace. Always use mental alertness as your edge against fish.
Good luck, and see you at the tables.

Great article. I often find that when i think im running bad, I'm really just playing too many hands and leaking chips. Then when you get into a flipping situation you dont have the stack to overcome a hit from a bad beat.

There is not one iota of faulty advice in that article.

thanks for the great post, the points you go over cannot be stressed too often. we all slip at some time and fail to be patient. your reminder should help a lot of us save money which means making money at poker.

nice post and kudos to the author!

Great post!!!! I agree 100% with what you wrote. Being Patient is one of the hardest things to do in online poker. especially when you sit back and watch all the donks go all in and win hand after hand. Of course there luck will end at one point but at times it is hard to watch. I have been playing more patient as of late and I see a big difference in my game.

Again. thanks for the post.

so be patient and don't call bets when you are behind.

thanks for the tips Professor.

Very nice post/article. The advice given is good, patience is one thing I srive for.


~H

Very good writing. I suppose many of us know it already but it`s very hard to put it into practice.
Reading it again and being confronted to it here I hope it will save me some money, or even better gain some.
Thnx. for the good reminder.

good stuff, i been getting good at being patient.

who is sonny thompson?

Getting away from the table when you get tired is key. I can't tell you how much money has leaked out of my BR from playing tired over the years. I can usually grind it out for 12 hours no problem. After that, I start getting a little cloudy. I know it differs for everyone. I think I heard Gus Hanson or Ivey say that he played for 48 hours straight before. Don't think I could keep my edge up or my eyes open for that long.