Jake Gyllenhaal

November 07, 2005

Categorize your Paradisepoker opponents. If you're playing in fairly low-limit games, most of your opponents will simply play their own cards, and won't try to put you on a hand. If they do, they're likely to use intuition or some sort of twisted, pretzel-logic and come to the wrong conclusion more often than not. Deception is usually futile against these players. Confused? Want some news you can use?

They lead to self-defeat because the vary heart of these questions are based on an assumption that life at the poker table is beyond your control, and we all know it's not. When you acknowledge that you are responsible for your actions at the card table, you might ask instead: How can I keep applying the winning strategies I've learned? What can I do to continue to prepare to win? How can I increase my winnings by recognizing and eliminating the "leaks" in my game?

Shade

He might also have a pair of Eights, Sevens, Sixes, or even Fives. Since your Paradisepoker hand is probably better than most of his potential holdings, my inclination, if I were in your shoes, would be to raise - although folding is not a bad decision either. After all, the small blind, whom we cannot put on a hand because he could have anything, might just have a real hand this time.

And because so much is hidden from view, our hometown hero has a hard time seeing the relative differences in skill level, and as a consequence frequently sees himself on a par with the best players in the world. Something like that's just not going to happen when he's watching Kobe Bryant take off from the foul line and dunk the basketball, because our Paradisepoker hero knows he needs a trampoline and a stepladder just to reach the rim.

Your Paradisepoker opponents, just by virtue of their playing style, can increase or reduce implied odds. Players who seldom bet or raise but call to the bitter end, increase implied odds because you can draw to your hand on the cheap, knowing all the while you'll get paid off if you make your hand. If you're last to act, you can take advantage of what your opponents have done to increase your implied odds.

Tilt - the Movie

Against only one or two opponents, your A-K may be the best hand regardless of whether the flop helps your hand. But if you are contesting the pot against more than two opponents, you need to be extremely careful. With a multitude of opponents, any flop that doesn't help you probably helps one of your Paradisepoker opponents. When that's the case, "fit or fold" is usually the best course of action.

A second lesson is that when you are called in low limit games, your opponents probably have something, even when no good draw is apparent, and determining just what that something is can be tough at times. Because of this, one pair is not as likely to win a pot against a gaggle of opponents as it will in a bigger limit game, where far fewer players take the flop and those that do probably won't have the kind of hands that will cause you to stand there amazed.

When you acknowledge that you are responsible for your actions at the Paradisepoker table, you might ask instead: How can I keep applying the winning strategies I've learned? What can I do to continue to prepare to win? How can I increase my winnings by recognizing and eliminating the "leaks" in my game? If you ask yourself questions based on a paradigm acknowledging your locus of control, your mind automatically directs itself toward positive suggestions.