Looking at poker back to front
As you go through your poker education and development then hopefully you will eventually reach the stage where you eventually see the truth or what are known as useful truths that basically means that you are in possession of data and have a way of playing that is useful and highly pertinent to you. However most people never reach this stage of their development and part of the problem is that egotistical types think that they really know the game once they reach a certain level.
Down at my local pub they have poker evenings, these are games that I do not play in personally but I often hear people talk about poker and I have also observed the action frequently. But it is amazing how often you see players have what is a warped version of the game and they look at poker back to front. In their minds poker is all about bluffing and this means that they look to call bets that they shouldnt and bluff in situations when they shouldnt.
In their minds their opponents are trying it on when they bet and raise and when they dont then they themselves need to bluff as often as possible. This is a warped way to see poker because when you see a player bet and raise and especially in multi-way pots then they are usually doing so with a hand rather than fresh air. Remember that we are talking about lower stakes games here but another factor behind why players get a warped version of poker is through watching it on television. This is a terrible way to learn the game because what you are normally looking at is highlighted versions of final table poker tournaments.
Players are already under time pressure to amass chips due to ever increasing blinds and so players need to be highly aggressive. All in moves are common and also essential in many situations. Another scenario that you often see novice players get themselves into is slowplaying their strong hands. Once again in their minds then checking a powerhouse is a very deceptive move. The down side of doing this is that it is also very expensive if the betting round gets checked by all. This prevents you from not only being able to get money into the pot during that betting round but it also makes it harder for you to stack your opponent in the hand.
So checking strong hands because you fear the nuts and raising bets with nothing because you see bluffs everywhere is not a good way to Play Poker. Most of the time and especially in multi-way pots and full ring games then bets and raises mean exactly what they appear to mean. In high-stakes games or even heads up situations against decent players then they can mean something else. But if you are looking at poker in a back to front way then you need to have a good long hard think about how you are viewing poker because habits that are picked up early in your development can be very difficult to break.
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