Poker Training Lesson No 1 - Pay Attention To Poker Stories

De CidesaWiki

I have found there are definitely alternatives for poker training whilst listening and learning from opponents, especially when they're sharing their poker stories. I know it often gets monotonous playing the same old voices bragging about their talents or degrading other opponents play. How often do you come across a poker player that desires to tell you how close they got to winning, but just got lost to a bad beat? Or even poor play from another opponent.

You should not simply consider this idle chatter... that is poker training.

These poker stories are an extremely valuable opportunity for you to learn about your opponents. Whoever is telling the story is actually divulging information that you can use against them. They truly are providing information such as:

what hands they like to play


the value they think certain hands are worth


what they might think about a good fold or an undesirable fold


what they consider is an acceptable raise


what may put them on tilt


what they believe is bad play


how they react to other players actions


and far much more....

Can you see these details is gold, it's a read, they're poker tells on your opponents. They may be friends or strangers, and regardless whether you get the ability to make use of this information on that particular opponent, you should store these poker stories in your 'poker vault'. Your poker training is to develop this vault to gather a vast range of knowledge of poker personalities and perspectives. You can and certainly will start to see patterns develop amongst players and this is often formed through conformity, players reading similar books and players swapping methods and telling each other what they believe is correct.

BUT do not start to believe everyone will act the same. This is the beauty of Poker, no body player can define the right or right way to play.

Every hand is similar to a fingerprint, they are all different. WHY? Because human emotion is involved. Any poker hand may possibly and will be influenced by many reasons, such as for instance past hands, reactions to opponents, chip stacks, limiting beliefs or even something unforeseen like a fight with a girlfriend at home the night before. You can never play the same hand the same manner twice. How could you tell? How do you know? What sort of poker training can help you learn these exact things? Well the clear answer isn't in the cards, it's in listening to your opponents and the poker stories they so often want to openly share with you. All you've got to do is ask the whole table, "what's the worst beat anyone has ever seen? " I guarantee, someone will pipe up and open the flood gates of sit back, listen and enjoy and remember to take mental notes of what's said. Of course, if you want to simply take it to another level, watch if the other players are listening too. Think about if other people is listening the way you are, are they that 'switched on', are they learning as much as you, are they someone to look out for too. You will always learn more from listening than talking, which reminds me of another one of my favorite quotes from the past US president, Richard Nixon:

"I learned that the people that have the cards are usually the ones who talk the least and the softest; those people who are bluffing have a tendency to talk loudly and give themselves away"

I have found this to be oh so true. The loudest are often the worse talented players (provided their volume is not deliberately to annoy or intimidate).

Can you imagine there was more to learning about poker than just reading books. Poker training and information may be gained from a whole range of sources. Listening to poker stories is just one of these methods, but they don't just have to be poker stories, they can be any kind of stories. An account told by an individual includes a personal spin to the story, therefore that person provides you with insight in to how they wish to tell the story. How they recall the story, thus you learn more about them and how they think. Live poker is about once you understand people and how they act and react in numerous situations. Your day you stop learning about people is the day you will minimize improving your poker dewa game.

Take it from me, any poker player at any level can always learn from this sort of poker training, go forth and listen and you could learn something. Good luck.

If you enjoyed this article be sure to visit the Poker Power blog as we have many more posts like this one designed to assist you to improve your poker skills and become an improved poker player. I look forward to you visiting.