Is patience necessary to play winning poker?
Everyone seems to have their own opinion about that. If you talk to a number of other poker players, you might get several different answers to how much patience you need to play winning poker.
And obviously it also depends on the game you are playing - SNG, MTT, Bounty MTT, Cash games, or anything else.
And then it depends on if you are playing a turbos, slow ones, hypers or ... how patient you can be depends on lot on the game. But it also depends on how good or bad your poker run is at the time.
And as if that wasn't enough confusion, the amount of patience you need also depends on your style of play.
If you are comfortable waiting for your big hands and waiting for the right situation to put your chips in play, you may blind down so many chips that when you finally put your chips in late in a tournament, the blinds may be forced to call you with inferior hands and stand a decent chance to beat your hand range. And then you'll be out and your patience will have been wasted.
Then again, if you are playing a cash game not a tourney, you can open up a number of tables and just wait for good quality starting hands and wait until you get those hands and play them aggressively and usually you will make money. And your patience will have been rewarded.
However, if the cash game players are paying attention to how few hands you are playing they may easily fold hands like AQ to your raise but happily call your raises in position with suited connectors or medium pairs that stand to do well against your big hands that you may have trouble letting go because you waited so long for your big hands and you don't want to let them go easily.
And obviously it also depends on the game you are playing - SNG, MTT, Bounty MTT, Cash games, or anything else.
And then it depends on if you are playing a turbos, slow ones, hypers or ... how patient you can be depends on lot on the game. But it also depends on how good or bad your poker run is at the time.
And as if that wasn't enough confusion, the amount of patience you need also depends on your style of play.
If you are comfortable waiting for your big hands and waiting for the right situation to put your chips in play, you may blind down so many chips that when you finally put your chips in late in a tournament, the blinds may be forced to call you with inferior hands and stand a decent chance to beat your hand range. And then you'll be out and your patience will have been wasted.
Then again, if you are playing a cash game not a tourney, you can open up a number of tables and just wait for good quality starting hands and wait until you get those hands and play them aggressively and usually you will make money. And your patience will have been rewarded.
However, if the cash game players are paying attention to how few hands you are playing they may easily fold hands like AQ to your raise but happily call your raises in position with suited connectors or medium pairs that stand to do well against your big hands that you may have trouble letting go because you waited so long for your big hands and you don't want to let them go easily.
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What to do when you're running bad?
We've all been there, we do everything right in our poker play, yet still somehow independent of your perfect choices with your poker starting hands, you still end up losing over and over again.
We've all been there, we do everything right in our poker play, yet still somehow independent of your perfect choices with your poker starting hands, you still end up losing over and over again.
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