Overcoming Luck

OVERCOMING LUCK AND BEATING THE ODDS

Luck is a huge factor in poker. Just to win a major event these days
you must get lucky more times than you can count. You are going to have
to win every race that you find yourself in. Skill is important, but you
must be sure to overcome the luck and beat the odds.

With a lot of the new internet players hitting the felt, hand
expectations have dropped. There are many players playing hands with marginal
consequences. Because of this the luck factor in poker has increased.
Even if you are going into an all in situation with the best of it, worse
players are calling and sucking out. Even though it is impossible to
avoid this, there are ways to keep the skill high and the reliance on
luck lower.

Make sure you are playing the right hands. You shouldn't be getting
involved with a marginal hand against an aggressive player. If you know
you are going to get called, you shouldn't be wasting your chips to try
and bluff. Now, if you know your opponent is weaker you can mix up your
game more and play different types of hands. It is all about reading
your opponent to decide where you stand in a hand.

Try not to go into any situation with the worst of it. Try to stay away
from drawing situations, and don't get all your chips in the pot if you
don't think you are ahead in the hand. If you are going into hands with
the better percentage of winning then you don't have to rely on luck as
much to help you win. You do, though, hope to avoid bad luck where the
person sucks out on you! You shouldn't necessarily hope for good luck
in a tournament, but hope that bad luck stays away. If you always play
with the best of it then you won't need good luck.

If someone does suck out on you and you are still in the tournament you
must make sure you avoid letting it get to you. You have to realize
that this hand is done and you have to move on to the next one. If you are
mad about something that happened at the table, you should never let
your opponents know, because they will try to take advantage of that. You
should act as if whatever happened didn't bother you a bit, and know
that if they sucked out on you they may not be as good as you and you
will be able to get your chips back from them later.

There is so much poker advice out there, but in general you should be
playing tight but aggressive. You should have an idea of everyone's
playing style at your table. Play the looser players tighter and the
tighter players looser. Mix up your game and be sure never to get all of your
chips involved when you have the worst of it. If you do this then you
won't have to rely on luck, and you will find yourself beating the odds
and hopefully becoming the next World Series of Poker Main Event
Champion.


SHERMSTICK

thank you shermstick, some sound advice there

good advice. the online poker is very luck based and I don't have very good luck. for the past month it has been one suck out after another. I have the strongest hand up to the river and then bam..sucked out on the river card I have seen people all in with unsuited low cards hit the flush to win more times than I care to count hopefully a string of bad luck that will evently go away

Very nice Sherm, and how true that is,, good advice Sherm>> buck