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ANALYZING GAME CHARACTERISTICS

To think about poker strategically would be difficult. Most people would play the game by looking for the right cards. They would hope that their stating cards would be good, that the flop would hit them, that they would outdraw the other poker players, and that the other poker players would not outdraw them. Thinking would never progress beyond what cards would improve my hand, and what I should fear. To go beyond the superficial analysis of cards, you would need to develop the mental discipline to analyze the kind of game you have been in, both before, during, and after play.

While your name has been on the waiting list, you should scope the games you might enter. During the game, you should think about the key decisions you had made. You should keep a poker diary and analyze which plays have worked and which had not. To orient your approach to the game in terms of the strategic grid (figure on Page 73),here will be a list of questions you must ask yourself while observing games:

• Are raises frequent or rare?


• Are showdowns frequent or rare?


• On average, do many players pay to see the flop, or just a few?


• On average, how large are the pots in relation to the final bet size?


• Are common drawing hands (see the charts on Page 52) getting the correct pot odds?


• Are players showing good starting cards showdown, or just about anything?


• What is the demeanor of each player?


• Are people relaxed and socializing or serious and intense?


• What are the sizes of the chips piles?

• Does a large pile represent a large buy-in or a winning poker player?


• Does a small chip pile represent a small buy-in or a losing player?


• Do raises scare players out of the hand or egg them on?


• Are there obviously aggressive players?


• Are there obviously tight players?

For online poker games, the ability to take written notes would mean that you could be even more systematic in game analysis. When Sid checks out online games, he uses the chart on the next page to note the actions on at least ten hands prior to joining the game (Sid doesn’t take notes while playing because it is too time-consuming). Extreme behavior has been especially revealing about the nature of the game. Would every hand end in a showdown? Have there never been any pre-flop raises?

You should answer yes to those two questions and it were a loose-passive poker game. By mentally asking yourself the kinds of questions listed, you would be able to orient yourself on the strategic grid and know the critical factors in your decision-making.