You Play The Person Not The Cards

This is an old poker cliché but it has never served me wrong in the past. This method means you can win without necessarily having the best hands, which is I like it and your odds are improving already.

What Does It Mean?

Though this is the main piece of advice in poker few actually understand the concept and even fewer actually manage to use it to there advantage. There are a few simple steps that you can follow to help give you the edge.

#1 Bluffing

If you are a talented actor or gifted at lying then by all means show as much emotion as you want to try and disturb your opponents. However, few people are in this category but that does not mean they can not play the person not the cards. If you are not a good bluffer then do not bluff try to be as boring as possible this way you keep people guessing and do not look like an idiot. See the post on bluffing for more information.

#2 Observing and Finding The Tell

If you are to play the person not the cards then you need to make sure you pay attention to your opponents every move and try to find their tell. Every player has a ritual, test them out early on for any patterns in behaviour like taking more time etc... when they have a good hand. Even if you lose a few chips to find their tell it is worth it and you are half way to winning.

#3 Take Your Time

Too often poor poker players rush to place a bet when they have a good hand making the other players fold straight away and means winning no real money. Moreover, if the player then has a difficult decision whether to call, raise or fold then they will take more time and show weakness.

However, a expert player can use that to their advantage. If you normally rush to bet or fold but then take your time, the other players will think you have a tough decision to make and probably you do not have the winning hand. Therefore, if you take your time and only make a small raise when you have an unbeatable hand, then your chances of luring the rest of the table in, have dramatically increased. This is a subtle technique and requires the utmost concentration so if you do not think you are there yet then do not try it because if you do it wrong the rest of the table will be able to see right through you.

Subsequently, if you are a novice player then it is probably safer to take your time on every hand even if you only have a 7 and a 2 and are going to fold straight away. While you will gain no real advantage your opponents will not gain an advantage either.

How To Implement It?

Some of these tips can be implemented straight away while others will take time to develop as you play more and more poker you will be able to read people. Especially, if you play with your friends every week. In addition, because of the techniques above they will have no idea what cards you have and you will soon be earning yourself some drinking money for the weekend.

Be lucky!!

Chris