Using Psychology to Your Advantage

In five distinct sections, Schoonmaker shows how many players rely excessively on intuition, even when they know they should be applying logic. He shows players how to do a cold, hard assessment of their own play and the psychological errors that they make. He shows how players can identify these psychological errors in others to use to their advantage.

Psychology and the Evolution of Poker

Schoonmaker understands that in the 21st Century, poker is constantly evolving, as more and more people take up the game, as technological advances like hole card cameras and Internet play predominate. He talks about how players can analyze and adjust to these changes to stay ahead of the curve.

Understanding Your Own Psychology

Schoonmaker also offers techniques for understanding and combating the effects of tilt, an emotional overload that can occur from a series of bad beats or one terrible one, or from a run of bad luck. If a player lets it, tilt can destroy them, and Schoonmaker’s techniques and observations can help prevent this from happening.

Any poker library that includes a section on psychology would be incomplete without this volume. Those who benefit from it may also consider taking a look at Schoonmaker’s follow up work, “Your Best Poker Friend,” or the book’s predecessor, “The Psychology of Poker.”

The Poker Pro Grind

Your first tip is to get that rock star lifestyle idea out of your head. While a handful of poker players can obtain fame and fortune, the large majority are grinders, toiling away at their laptops in relative obscurity, pushing small edges hour after hour, day after day, to make their nut. Sound dull? That’s because when you are a poker pro, poker is your job. It can be a good job and a lucrative one, to be sure, but to be successful, you’re going to have to work. If it doesn’t feel like work, it’s going to be tough for you to last.

The Poker Pro Honesty

Once you’ve come to grips with the reality of what being a poker pro is like, you have to find out if you have the right stuff. This means record keeping. It’s not good enough to think you’re a consistently winning player. We tend to remember our wins and forget our excuse our losses. If you’re going to play poker for a living, you need to know you’re a long-term winner. That means recording every session, the time, duration and how much you won or lost. You’ll need to do this for months and show a consistent profit before you should consider dumping your day job.

The Poker Pro Bankroll

Once you’re sure you’ve got what it takes, you need a bankroll. This bankroll should be separate from your household expenses. However, since you’re going to be a pro, you’re going to have to pay your expenses out of that roll, so you need to calculate exactly how much you will need to beat the variance of the game and pay all your bills. Your current bankroll should enable you to do this for three months even if you break dead even at the tables. If it doesn’t, you’re not ready yet, or you need to find lower stakes games.

Once you’ve got your skills and your bankroll, you can go to work. Good luck! Remember there is no shame in going down in stakes and no shame in keeping poker as a profitable hobby if you don’t have quite what you need to make it a full time occupation.

If you’re wandering into a live poker game for the first time, there’s no need to worry. You’re playing the same game you’ve always played, just in a slightly different venue. Still, it’s good to know some of the understood etiquette of the game.

Private Vs. Public Games

If you are invited to a home game, it’s a very different situation than if you are playing in a public card room. In a home game, you should be on your best behavior to be sure you will be invited back, especially if you are a winning player. In a public room you should still behave yourself, but you may get a little more latitude.

In a public game, you are free to leave the table whenever you want, although if you pick up your chips, your seat will go to another player. In a private game, you should make it a point to stay a while, especially if you are integral to keeping the game going. If you have a big win, it is customary to give the opponents some chance to recoup their losses, rather than leave right away.

Chopping

In a public card room Texas hold’em game, if it is folded around to the small blind, he and the big blind may decide to “chop,” taking back their bets and starting a new hand. This is done to save time and so that the House does not benefit by taking a big percentage of a small pot.

The small blind may have to give up one chip in a chop. If you chop once, common etiquette demands you chop throughout the entire session, not only when it’s convenient for you.

Checking It Down

In some blind vs. blind situations, a player may want to “check it down” rather than chop. This happens in bad beat jackpot games when both players have a hand that may result in a bad beat jackpot.

Usually this means one player holds a pair and the other a big ace. Players simply check to the river and show down their hands.

Five Card Stud

In order to overcome this problem, players developed a variation called Soko, also known as Canadian stud. For the most part, the rules are the same as in five card stud: Players put up an ante and get one card down and one card up. The lowest card showing is forced to make a small bet called a bring-in, subsequent players going clockwise may fold, complete the bring in to a full bet (or raise if it has already been completed), or call. Three more cards are dealt out face up, with a betting round in between each. After each player has been dealt five cards and made final bets, there is a showdown and the best hand wins the pot.

Five Card Stud Variant – Soko

The distinction that makes Soko interesting is in the rank of hands. In Soko, there are two additional hands. The four card straight (or Canadian straight) and the four card flush (Canadian flush). These hands fit in between one pair and two pair. This makes determining what an opponent has a little more challenging.

How Soko Makes Five Card Stud Better

In normal five card stud, if you hold (As) Ac 4d 6s and your opponent holds (X) 3h 5h Jh, you know that if your opponent doesn’t catch an ace, pair one of his up cards, or catch a heart on the fifth card, you are a lock to win. However, in Soko, your opponent may already have a four flush, meaning if you don’t pair one of your upcards on the final card, you may lose. Since a pair is commonly sufficient to win in regular five card stud, the additional Soko hands increase the complexity of the game significantly.

These three books became must reading for any no limit tournament poker player. The ideas that Harrington crystallized in the volumes are ideas that nearly every poker player can now recite by heart.

“Harrington on Cash Games”

For his next work, Harrington brought his expertise to the world of cash games. “Harrington on Cash Games,” a two volume set, was written to help players apply the same analytical approach that Harrington advocates for tournaments. Following this approach, anyone should be able to become a strong player.

“Harrington on Cash Games” Volume One

In volume one of Harrington on Cash Games” he discusses the basic ideas and elements that you need to know to be successful at poker. Ideas such as the basic principles of poker, why to bet, how to determine how much to bet and what it means when others bet. He then moves on to discussing the finer points of aggressive pre-flop and flop play.

“Harrington on Cash Games” Volume Two

In volume two, tight-aggressive turn and river play are analyzed. Harrington then goes on to explore the different kind of game situations that a player might face, such as whether or not to play a loose aggressive style, how to beat weak games and what to do about physical tells.

Using These Books

What’s nice about Harrington’s work is that the books are peppered with problems taken from real life examples of cash game play. Readers can play along with great (and not so great) players, trying to figure out what they would do in a given situation and then seeing the results. This can be of great benefit to the reader.

The books do not contain the kind of game-changing concepts that “Harrington on Hold’em” offered. However, they do provide a rich source of poker information for any reader that cares to give them a shot.

Welcome to Durrrr Land

Durrrr Land is usually the highest stakes tables at Full Tilt Poker, the popular online poker site. On any given day, you might find Durrrr multi-tabling both pot limit Omaha and no limit hold’em games, taking on all comers, although these tables are usually shorthanded due to the nosebleed stakes and the fact that so few players are willing to go up against Durrrr.

Phil Hellmuth in Durrrr Land

In 2008, Phil Hellmuth got a rude introduction to Durrrr Land in 2008 during the National Heads Up Poker Championship. On the third hand of the first round, the aggressive Durrrr got it all in with pocket tens against Hellmuth’s pocket aces. When a ten arrived to save Durrrr and give him the win, Hellmuth went on one of his usual tirades. Since Durrrr was barely old enough to legally play live games in the United States at the time, few players knew him well, and Hellmuth, as usual, failed to give his opponent enough credit. He has since acknowledged Durrrr’s skill, although both agree he got lucky on that particular hand.

Barry Greenstein in Durrrr Land

Barry Greenstein also got an unsettling taste of Durrrr Land when Durrrr was invited to play on GSN’s High Stakes Poker. In the critical hand, WSOP champion Peter Eastgate raised the pot to $3,500 with AK off suit, and Greenstein re-popped it to $15,000 on the button with AA. Durrrr, in the small blind with KQ of spades, decided to call. Eastgate called behind. The flop came 4s 2s Qh, giving Durrrr top pair and the second nut flush draw. He led out for $28,700, and Greenstein, with his aces, reraised to $100,000. Durrrr reraised to about $245,000, and Greenstein, perhaps putting Durrrr on the flush draw, top pair, or a bluff, moved in. Durrrr quickly called, to create a pot of nearly a million dollars. In a particularly cruel twist of poker fate, it was not a spade, but a second queen on the turn that crushed Greenstein.

How to Use the Poker Tournament Clock

The most important thing to do with the tournament clock is to set the round time. This is the time that the big clock face that all the players will be watching is set to. Whatever you decide, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, etc. as soon as you activate the clock, it will begin counting down from this number. Once it gets down to zero, you’ll raise the blinds and set the clock to continue, at which point it will again count down from whatever number you have set. The clock will generally flash or beep when the end of the round is approaching, so keep a lookout for this.

Other Details with the Poker Tournament Clock

You’ll also need to decide what the blinds will be for each round. Typically in a hold’em game, the blinds start at 25-25 or 25-50, and then get progressively higher. For fast games, blinds can double every round: 25-50, 50-100, 100-200, etc. For a longer blind structure, you may want to introduce some additional rounds: 25-50, 50-100, 75-150, 100-200, 150-300, etc. You may also wish to introduce blinds into the game. If you do, the blind size should not change in the round where you introduce the blinds, but they should progressively increase thereafter: 50-100, 100-200, 100-200 25, 150-300 50, 200-400 75, etc.

More About the Poker Tournament Clock

Rising blinds are critical to a successful poker tournament. Without them, poker tournaments could go on forever, with all players playing ridiculously tight. Use of the tournament clock makes it easy to handle round times and rising blinds.

Poker Accessories: Card Shufflers

Finding that shuffling is slowing down your game? Even when two decks in play, shuffling can bog things down. Many of your guests won’t be skilled shufflers and when they try to mix the cards, it can create a lot of unwanted down time. An automatic card shuffler can shuffle the cards for you to keep the action going.

Poker Accessories: Buttons

Nothing gives a poker game a professional feel like poker buttons. There’s the dealer button of course, a standard for every hold’em game, but there’s also a button for kill games, missed blinds and for players sitting out. Everything you see at your local casino can be had in your home.

Poker Accessories: Cut Cards

You don’t want anyone seeing the bottom card in the deck, as it can give away information to a player who shouldn’t have it. Casinos prevent this problem by using cut cards, a plastic card that the dealer cuts onto to hide the bottom card. Now, you can too. You can get cut cards in a variety of colors, so you have one for each of your decks with a few spares just in case.

Poker Accessories: Card Protectors

You only have to have your pocket aces swept away by the dealer once to appreciate the importance of a card protector. Sure you can use one of your chips as a card protector, but what if you want to go all-in? You can order custom card protectors that personalize your poker game as well as being practical. No one will mistake your customized card protector for an extra chip and no one will accidentally muck your winning hand when you have one of these stylish pieces protecting it.

Number One Poker Movie: Rounders

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Rounders, the first major motion picture to be centered around the game of hold’em, is considered by many to be the best poker movie of all time. It is known for its accurate depiction of the game, its players, and the atmosphere surrounding it. Released five years before Chris Moneymaker’s historic win at the World Series of Poker, it is credited for being a key contributor to the 21st century poker boom.

Number Two Poker Movie: The Cincinnati Kid

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Number Three Poker Movie: A Big Hand for the Little Lady

A movie in which little poker is actually played, this one is more about a strange set of occurrences surrounding a poker game. When a traveling farmer gets over his head in the highest stakes poker game in town, he seems confident as he holds what he hopes is the winning hand in a massive pot. In the excitement surrounding his inability to call the final bet, he collapses, forcing his wife to take over the hand. The movie revolves around her efforts to raise enough money to continue the game and win the pot.

Number Four Poker Movie: Maverick

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Number Five Poker Movie: California Split

In a movie that is more about the ups and downs of the gambling lifestyle than it is about poker, there are still some notable poker scenes, including the chaos of an early California card room and a cameo by Amarillo Slim.

A B C Poker

“Elements of Poker” is all about eliminating what Tommy likes to call the “C” game. The A game is the game we are playing when we are at our peak. We totally focus on the game and everything is going right. The C game is the opposite of this. If we can get the C game out of our repertoire, we can enjoy instantly improved results.

The Supposed Elements of Poker

If any other poker book hasn’t helped you, the “Elements of Poker” may be your salvation. Most books talk about understanding pot odds, the importance of aggression and knowing the quality starting hands. These books talk as if understanding these concepts is all it takes to be a world champion poker player.

The reality is that if this were true, everyone (or no one) would be a champion. Pot odds are not that difficult to understand and many people who understand them are not getting the results they want.

The Real Elements of Poker

Tommy Angelo talks about the elements of poker that really cause a poker player who knows how to play well to watch his bankroll disappear. There are four separate chapters on tilt, information about bankroll management, knowing when to quit and knowing when to give respect to your opponents. This book covers all the less “tangible” aspects of successful poker play.

If you haven’t been happy with your poker results because you always seem to call, raise or bluff at the wrong time, you might want to consult another book before this one. However, if you know all the basics and are still struggling to keep your bankroll together, Tommy Angelo’s “Elements of Poker” may be just what you need to turn things around.