Trusting your read on another player at the table will increase your profit in almost every situation. Why? Because you will lose fewer chips or win more chips because of your understanding of your opponents situation. Most importantly you are willing to ACT on that understanding.  Where as many times we will know we have the best hand but because there is an over card on the board and our opponent has a tendency to call large raises with small pairs we fold.

These are the kinds of plays that take you from being an average to good player to a very good player. Most people can work hard and easily become very good fundamentally sound poker players. But how many of us are truly working to improve your overall game to the point of really understanding where your opponent is at in the hand? Are you willing to act when you know you are correct? That is when you know you have taken your game to the next level when you can make that kind of play and be correct most of the time.

This is just one of many scenarios I believe advanced players make the correct play in most situations. They are not perfect but they know their opponents tendencies and act on their reads a lot more often than us amatuers do.

We can all learn from that.

I am sure we have all discussed with our poker friends just how much you need in order to be bankrolled properly for tournament play. It doesn’t matter whether you play mid stakes, high stakes, or low stakes. If you play tournament poker you need a bankroll that can withstand bad runs. Most everyone that I know has gone broke several times. Some learn from their mistakes and go on to do very well. Others, never learn how to properly manage their bankroll and they are no longer playing the game anymore.

One of the things I see most professional players preaching is that you never spend more than 10 percent of your bankroll on any one tournament. You can scale this to your particular stakes easily and it is a great rule of thumb to follow. If your bankroll is $500 dollars then you should play tournaments that are no larger than $50 dollars. Your average tournament buy-in should be around $10 bucks. For a good to above average player they will typically be in the money around 10 to 20 percent of the time and have a first, second, or third around 5 percent of the times they cash. As with anything your results will vary depending how well or poorly you are running at the moment.

Your tournament bankroll should be around 100 times your average buy-in. If you want to play $100 dollar tournaments then you need $10k. If you want to play $1000 buy-ins then you need $100,000 and so on. If you can consistently play well and endure a little bad luck every now and then you will continue to be successful and keep your bankroll intact.

I just got done reading Poker Wizards by Warwick Dunnett.  This book is not your typical poker book and I welcome Warwicks approach to bringing you useful information in a very easy to read manner. You will not find a whole lot of number crunching algorithms or anything of that nature in Poker Wizards. However, what you do find is a wealth of knowledge from some of the best No Limit poker professionals in the world.

Yes, Warwick Dunnett sat down with the likes of Dan Negreanu, Mike Sexton, Kathy Liebert, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and many others and asked them to share their thoughts at length on how they approach the game of poker. Just the idea that you get that kind of in site is extremely appealing and informative. Warwick chimes in at the beginning of each chapter introducing each of the “Poker Wizards”  with a brief bio and how they started on their journey.

Lastly, Warwick himself chimes in with his own take on playing in poker tournaments and cash games and the various facets of play such as:

• Discipline
• Strategy
• Money Management
• Online Poker

Again, this book is an extremely easy read and one that has plenty of meaningful content with no fluff. I particularly enjoyed the sections on Mike Sexton and Kathy Liebert as they explored various levels of thinking and the “why?” in how they approach No Limit poker tournaments. I recommend this book for intermediate and advanced players as the reader should have a good understanding of poker concepts and fundamental strategy and play.

When I first sit down at a poker table I make it my business to keep my mouth shut and my ears keenly tuned in to all of the “socializing” taking place at the table. It may seem kind of silly to most but being a good listener is always important to your game even when the conversation does not directly involve you. I also pay attention to how players put their money in the pot and betting patters. Again, that’s nothing out of the ordinary and we should all be doing the same as a part of our play. Whether you play online poker or live poker betting patters are still a way to determine how a player feels about a particular hand. Each of these tasks that I consciously perform are associated with how I categorize the various players at my poker table.

After about fifteen to twenty minutes I have a fairly good idea of what each player is capable of and whether they are tight, loose, aggressive or passive. It is only after gathering this information that I can reasonably determine who the weaker players are and who are the players that will play back at me. The idea is to pick on the weak players and get them to fold their hand when they do what weak player do – show weakness. Think about it. You want to accumulate most of your chips early from the weaker players before another strong player does if at all possible. All good poker players are aware of this fact. When another good player at your table begins to knock out weaker players it now becomes a burden on YOU. Yes, you do need to pick up a few hands in order to achieve your goal but it doesn’t stop you from stealing blinds from weak players that sit to your left. Position is less of a factor with these kinds of players because they are passive after the flop. You need to be aware of this and take those abandoned pots away from them.

Abandoned pots occur after a raise has been made and the raiser / weak player checks after the flop. Your mantra should be “you check I bet” and most of the time against these kinds of players they are going to fold when they miss the flop. Obviously, the opposite is true against better players. Most of the savvy ones are going to make a continuation bet no matter what hits the board. You also must safe guard against unusual aggression from a player you perceived to be weak and be prepared to fold if necessary. So keep that in mind when your sitting down in your next tournament. Take the weaker players chips before someone else does it first!

I few weeks ago I was contacted by professional poker player Warwick Dunnett to see if I would be interested in reviewing his new book. I responded immediately and a copy was shipped to my home post haste. Since then I have enjoyed the first few chapters and look forward to finishing it up shortly. I will be posting a complete review when done.

So far it has been a very interesting read and includes wisdom from such players as:

• Mike Sexton
• Dan Negreanu
• Kathy Liebert
• Chris “Jesus” Ferguson

These are just a few of the professional poker players that helped contribute to Poker Wizards. So far it has been a very interesting read.