Poker Essays
Poker
- A Safe Hobby For Small Budgets
By Pokershopping.com
March 2006
Introduction
Hobbies usually require a certain financial input.
Whether you keep bees or you travel around the world
driving fast cars, you will need to invest a certain
amount of money into your hobby. And you do it with
a good feeling of promoting your wellbeing. This holds
just as true for the hobby of poker - with the small
exception that poker might actually turn out to be
free of charge. If you do it well.
Applying
the right philosophy
Making poker a safe and cheap hobby requires a certain
attitude which, if you can acquire it, may be beneficial
to other areas of your life as well. It's about a
certain discipline, a mastery of your desires, controlling
your greed. It's about exercising your patience.
Stick
to your budget
First, decide how much your hobby is allowed to cost.
Book this sum in your poker account every month. In
this way, if you do well, you may build up a small
poker capital, a very nice thing that gives you the
opportunity to play with risk-free money. If you empty
your poker account before the end of the month, you
cannot play until next month. This is an absolute
rule of discipline. When this happens, think of not
playing as a test of character that will make you
strong. Furthermore, being "broke" is no reason to
ignore your hobby. The days or weeks until the next
deposit are a time for studies. Read and re-read your
poker books. Be active on poker forums. Analyze your
hand histories to find the reasons why you went broke
(see below).
Stay
in your league
Always play on a level that suits your budget, don't
sit down at poker
tables where the stakes are too high. You
will go between ups and downs like a yo-yo. This is
true for all players, even the best. The result of
a poker hand is always influenced by chance, which
means that good starting hands will lose to worse
starting hands time and time again. This is in the
nature of the game. Therefore, it is important that
you can take a number of losses before going broke.
You might want to play on a level where your monthly
deposit is big enough to buy in to, for example, 10
sit-and-gos, or make five buy-ins to a no limit or
pot limit cash game, or post 100 big blinds in a fixed
limit cash game. You will develop a feeling for the
appropriate level for your wallet. From an economic
point of view, you can never play too low. However,
psychologically you may notice that playing with too
low stakes may make you less motivated and lead to
bad play. Since it happens so often, you need to take
"unfair" losses without much emotion. After many hands,
chance evens out! If you have the strength of character
to continue doing the right plays despite these natural
streaks of bad luck, you will be a winner. And then
you may be able to move up to a higher level.
Watch
the repeat
An important part of the poker hobby is to analyze
your games afterwards. Analyzing games you have played
may not be as fun as playing, but you need to discipline
yourself. This is a test of character. End every session
on the Internet by requesting a hand history from
the site. Print it out. Read it on the bus or whenever
you can find the time. Carry a sheet where you jot
down the most important lessons from your latest analyses.
Once you understand why you made a certain mistake,
you can avoid it in the future. This of course will
save you a lot of poker
chips in the long run. As you gain more knowledge,
your analyses will be more and more precise. When
you start out, you may think: "I flopped two pair
but he probably had three of a kind so my fold was
correct." As a more seasoned player, your analysis
may go something like: "I flopped two pair, but it
was bottom two pair. My opponent raised my flop bet.
He bet half his stack rather than going all in right
away, which is a bad sign. After folding I had an
M of 15. There were only a few places left to the
money. It was a good fold."
Taking
a shot
This low-profile approach to poker requires a lot
of patience and long term thinking. It may not satisfy
you if you need big risks to feel alive. But even
if you feel fine in general, playing at a level that
suits your budget, once in a while you may be overcome
by an urge to spice things up. And why not? After
all, it's about having fun in the first place, right?
So by all means, take a shot at a table with higher
limits, or buy in to a tournament that is too expensive
for your budget, but where the first prize makes you
all dizzy. This will probably blow up your small winnings,
or force you to spend the rest of the month reading
about poker, but it is no disaster - as long as you
have the strength of character to step down to your
level again.
Continue
to next essay
Poker
Questions and Answers
Poker
Forum
Party
Poker
is one of the biggest poker rooms in the world and
you will always be able to quickly find the game and
limit of your choice. Don't waste your time on small
poker rooms that have not achieved critical mass.
Great interface, clean games and generous player points
system. Sign up bonus for new accounts.
Pacific
Poker is another one of the giant poker rooms
where you don't have to wait for ages for your game
of choice. One of the reasons I love playing at Pacific
is that the games often seem to be of a relatively
low standard. Some sites boast lots of famous players
and pros, but if you just want to win money then Pacific
is one of the best sites around. Good new account
bonuses, nice interface, super fast dealing and clean
games make this site one of the best.
Home|FAQs|Disclaimer|Contact
us
©2008 Ozmium Pty Ltd. All rights reserved
