Jan. 08, 2005
 

The bravest thing you can do when you are not brave is to profess courage and act accordingly. -- Corra Harris

When you first realize that the strength of your hole cards doesn't necessarily extend beyond the first round of betting, hold'em becomes a scary game. Most obviously, the beautiful pair of aces, the American Airlines, the nut hand, the two cards you'd like to get more than the .45 percent. They are likely to appear when you begin to peek at your hand, those two lovely cards can turn to immediate disaster once the dealer lays down the flop.

When you are in a tournament and your stack has been diminished for any reason (but especially if it's taken a bad beat), hold'em becomes a scary game. There you are, facing one of the game's toughest players, and you can hardly see his eyes behind the mountain of chips in front of his face.

When you are playing low-limit online and you are down to your last two or three big bets and your Neteller account is empty, hold'em becomes a scary game. You are either going to have to win NOW, or watch the last of your buy-in get eaten up in blinds while you wait for a decent hand.

When you take the last empty seat at your favorite cardroom and you suddenly realize everybody thinks they can play like the guys on TV, hold'em becomes a scary game. With more than two wild, loose, careless players in your game, you realize you are going to have some of the best hands dumped in the drink on the river.

When you know you hate to lose and you would be embarrassed by a poor performance of any kind, hold'em becomes a scary game. Having to give up or worse yet, sticking around when you know you're beat increases the tension and causes undue anxiety.

But take heart. You are not the only one playing this scary contest. Even the pros have a tough time with the game, maybe not to the same degree, but they do have their concerns.

What you have to do eventually is overcome some preconceived notions, some misconceptions, and some perceptions that can't be backed up by solid game theory.

Take those aces. The outcome of your hand when you have those two value cards depends on so many factors, from the style of play you can expect from your opponents to your position to your chip count, to your personal attitude based on previous wins and losses. You'll play the aces differently based on any of those elements plus you'll take into consideration your position. Show too much strength in early position and you might not get any action. Play passively and someone is liable to outdraw you.

In that tournament, when your stack is nearly gone, your plan of action shifts; when your down to the digitized felt in that cyber poker room, your plan of action has to shift ­especially if your opponents are all wearing T-shirts that read Carpe Diem and they are playing like it's the last diem of their lives.

So what? If you play the same cards the same way every time you get them, not only will the game be very boring, but also, your opponents will read you like the newspaper. That's why poker is such a fascinating, challenging game.

How do you shift gears? I can't answer that because until you have enough experience, everything you do could be right or everything you do could be wrong. You are not the complete master of your fate until you can read a situation quickly and adjust to it.

It's akin to driving in the pouring rain in Las Vegas rush hour traffic. You know most of the other drivers around you don't realize or care that they have to compensate for slick surfaces, wet brakes, poor visibility, flooded streets, and stalled vehicles. So you make up for the conditions and you react much better (we hope) as a mature adult than you did when you were seventeen and thought you were invincible.

You learn to deal with and handle adversity through study, practice and experience!