Typically, the sage advice for average poker players who play free poker and find themselves playing a pot against good players is to not play the pot at all.
In cash games, in a table surrounded by good players, the "novice player" only has to leave and find an easier table. But in tournament poker, it is not so simple to avoid being trapped on a table with some good or even exceptionally talented poker players.
In this article you will learn why good players will generally easily beat the novice, and, if you are a novice or less advanced player what you can try to do to survive and even win if you find yourself circled by hungry sharks!
Generally a good player can defeat a novice player because a good player knows the general pattern of novice player play, given the Board cards, the novice's actions and his position. Good players can also put them on a hand.
The good player knows when the novice has a suited connector; a pocket pair, or even, in some extreme cases, a Set. The good player can play a Straight weakly (or even fold it occasionally) when the Board pairs and the novice suddenly pours down his chips.
First lets understand how the novice tends to play so we can understand why the good players have such advantage.
For the purpose of this we will say that a player wins a pot when:
(a) He wins the hand in a showdown
(b) He makes all his opponents fold. So if the novice player is to win a pot against good players what hands should be played and how?
For example, if the novice aims to win the showdown.
Then he has to play the good players through the preflop, turn and river.
At each step, simply by reason of experience, the experienced player is able to get more information about the novice player than the novice can get from the good player.
If the experienced player has more information, then he knows immediately whether the novice player has a good hand or not.
He can continue to showdown and probably win a big pot, if he keeps on value-betting our novice. Or he can lose a little pot, if he slows down and just checks. Or he can make the novice fold.
Imagine our novice now tries (b) to make his opponents fold.
Let us assume the Board can help him only a little, and his hand, from the flop up to the river, will not be of showdown quality.
Throughout the flop, turn, and the river, the good player will extract more inferences from the Board cards than the novice player will.
If our novice, who normally has the tendency to get excited, overrepresents a hand unnecessarily, then he will just be called by the stronger player (unless he plays really strongly, but he can't overdo this either).
From these, we gather that the pieces of information needed to make a decision is:
1. Your cards.
2. Your perception of your opponents' cards.
3. The Board cards.
4. Tells your opponent provides.
5. Tells you give away to your opponent.
6. Previous tendencies of each player.
7. Position.
Both the novice as well as the good player has (1) and (3), but the strong player's judgment is usually more accurate with all these criteria.
A good player, for example, will believe that 8-7 (his cards) is not so nice-looking in a flop of 10-7-3 (the Board cards), but a novice player may.
As for (4), (5), and (6) which stems from (1), (2) and (3), the good player is usually more aware of these. And good players care more for (7) than novice ones.
So if our novice wants to play a pot against a good player, he cannot really rely fully on the information above, for he cannot interpret them well.
So our novice should find a spot in which the good player also cannot rely on most of the information above, so that they will be on equal footing.
When is it? Answer: Preflop.
How to play? All-in.
Preflop, your perception of the opponent's cards is less accurate than after the flop falls. Also, since there are no Board cards yet, tells are less reliable.
Finally, because a novice is less likely to have previous tendencies resulting from experience, the strong player has little hold on (6). And preflop all-ins are dependent on hand strength mainly than position.
By moving all-in you can make your opponent fold (which is a win) or entice him to a showdown.
Don't call yourself all-in, however, unless you have a premium hand. Once your opponent does this move, if he is a good opponent, he knows that you are vulnerable.)
When he does want a showdown, he is deprived of postflop information that will increase his chances of making an good decision. At this point, although the good player is still good, he has to play in terms of novice play.
The good hands the novice may have are still the traditional all-in hands: A-A, K-K, Q-Q, etc. A-K (or similar) is quite shaky, but if you can lull someone with 7-7 to play with you, you are still about 50-50 with him.
Whereas if you take him to the Flop, he will have more opportunities to play his 7-7 better than you would play your A-K, and you will be defeated most of the time. Let us say your chance to win above is just 25% postflop; why not take the 50-50 instead?
Conclusion
Playing against better players is clearly an important way to improve your game but make sure you only get into tournaments where you can afford the losses that are, quite honestly, going to be frequent!
It takes some time to learn how to play poker online or offline at a level above the unthinking donk "chip flinging" seen on many free poker players it seems can't or won't put the time in, they claim to play just for fun which misses out on the key fact that winning lots and beating all these "fun" players is a lot more fun!
Yes it is crazy that so many play with so little skill, but it is also very good news for you as a player who aims to learn to play well. The reason why is that when you really learn how to play poker well you can go mercenary and hunt the "fun donks" down in low stakes real money games as well as free poker sites that pay out real money while you happily build your skills and bankroll!
In cash games, in a table surrounded by good players, the "novice player" only has to leave and find an easier table. But in tournament poker, it is not so simple to avoid being trapped on a table with some good or even exceptionally talented poker players.
In this article you will learn why good players will generally easily beat the novice, and, if you are a novice or less advanced player what you can try to do to survive and even win if you find yourself circled by hungry sharks!
Generally a good player can defeat a novice player because a good player knows the general pattern of novice player play, given the Board cards, the novice's actions and his position. Good players can also put them on a hand.
The good player knows when the novice has a suited connector; a pocket pair, or even, in some extreme cases, a Set. The good player can play a Straight weakly (or even fold it occasionally) when the Board pairs and the novice suddenly pours down his chips.
First lets understand how the novice tends to play so we can understand why the good players have such advantage.
For the purpose of this we will say that a player wins a pot when:
(a) He wins the hand in a showdown
(b) He makes all his opponents fold. So if the novice player is to win a pot against good players what hands should be played and how?
For example, if the novice aims to win the showdown.
Then he has to play the good players through the preflop, turn and river.
At each step, simply by reason of experience, the experienced player is able to get more information about the novice player than the novice can get from the good player.
If the experienced player has more information, then he knows immediately whether the novice player has a good hand or not.
He can continue to showdown and probably win a big pot, if he keeps on value-betting our novice. Or he can lose a little pot, if he slows down and just checks. Or he can make the novice fold.
Imagine our novice now tries (b) to make his opponents fold.
Let us assume the Board can help him only a little, and his hand, from the flop up to the river, will not be of showdown quality.
Throughout the flop, turn, and the river, the good player will extract more inferences from the Board cards than the novice player will.
If our novice, who normally has the tendency to get excited, overrepresents a hand unnecessarily, then he will just be called by the stronger player (unless he plays really strongly, but he can't overdo this either).
From these, we gather that the pieces of information needed to make a decision is:
1. Your cards.
2. Your perception of your opponents' cards.
3. The Board cards.
4. Tells your opponent provides.
5. Tells you give away to your opponent.
6. Previous tendencies of each player.
7. Position.
Both the novice as well as the good player has (1) and (3), but the strong player's judgment is usually more accurate with all these criteria.
A good player, for example, will believe that 8-7 (his cards) is not so nice-looking in a flop of 10-7-3 (the Board cards), but a novice player may.
As for (4), (5), and (6) which stems from (1), (2) and (3), the good player is usually more aware of these. And good players care more for (7) than novice ones.
So if our novice wants to play a pot against a good player, he cannot really rely fully on the information above, for he cannot interpret them well.
So our novice should find a spot in which the good player also cannot rely on most of the information above, so that they will be on equal footing.
When is it? Answer: Preflop.
How to play? All-in.
Preflop, your perception of the opponent's cards is less accurate than after the flop falls. Also, since there are no Board cards yet, tells are less reliable.
Finally, because a novice is less likely to have previous tendencies resulting from experience, the strong player has little hold on (6). And preflop all-ins are dependent on hand strength mainly than position.
By moving all-in you can make your opponent fold (which is a win) or entice him to a showdown.
Don't call yourself all-in, however, unless you have a premium hand. Once your opponent does this move, if he is a good opponent, he knows that you are vulnerable.)
When he does want a showdown, he is deprived of postflop information that will increase his chances of making an good decision. At this point, although the good player is still good, he has to play in terms of novice play.
The good hands the novice may have are still the traditional all-in hands: A-A, K-K, Q-Q, etc. A-K (or similar) is quite shaky, but if you can lull someone with 7-7 to play with you, you are still about 50-50 with him.
Whereas if you take him to the Flop, he will have more opportunities to play his 7-7 better than you would play your A-K, and you will be defeated most of the time. Let us say your chance to win above is just 25% postflop; why not take the 50-50 instead?
Conclusion
Playing against better players is clearly an important way to improve your game but make sure you only get into tournaments where you can afford the losses that are, quite honestly, going to be frequent!
It takes some time to learn how to play poker online or offline at a level above the unthinking donk "chip flinging" seen on many free poker players it seems can't or won't put the time in, they claim to play just for fun which misses out on the key fact that winning lots and beating all these "fun" players is a lot more fun!
Yes it is crazy that so many play with so little skill, but it is also very good news for you as a player who aims to learn to play well. The reason why is that when you really learn how to play poker well you can go mercenary and hunt the "fun donks" down in low stakes real money games as well as free poker sites that pay out real money while you happily build your skills and bankroll!
