Welcome to 2018!
What are some things you want to accomplish this year?
How will you develop your poker game?
My 2017 ended with a trip to Sydney, Australia, where I played a few WSOP Circuit events. My only decent result was finishing 7th out of 341 players in the $1100 NLH 6-max event. Another deep run but no big money. That’s okay though. Tournament variance is tough to conquer. We must keep the right (positive) perspective when playing poker. There’s always room for improvement.
Today’s Poker Advice:
When I go to play a session I like to enter the game with a focused frame of mind. Take my seat, say hello, observe the players, stay off my phone, and focus on the game. I watch the action and also my tablemates. Who are they? What are they doing when they aren’t in a hand? What can I learn about their perspective? I try to be objective, while digesting the information. Also, I don’t want to make complete assumptions based on one hand. We need more information than that. We don’t know what has happened up until now.
But what does all this say about me? Lately I have done a poor job identifying how my opponents react to me, which has led to a few bad decisions. This has to deal with gameflow, which is basically someone’s perspective of the game based on what has been happening. A player might be a calling station, but if they’ve recently been incorrect a few times, be less likely to call down. If we can register what has happened up until now, pinpoint how someone is feeling at that exact moment, and what they think of us, we will make better decisions overall.
Hard Rock Homecourt!
Over the next couple weeks I’ll be playing a bunch of tournaments in Hollywood, Florida. Notably the WPTDS $1100 $1MM GTD and the WPT $3500 $2MM GTD. Seminole Hard Rock has been my home card room ever since I started playing poker, but I’ve never won anything there! It’s time for that to change. Hopefully I can pull everything together, play great, and get lucky!!!
Best of luck. Run good, play better.
-Tristan Wade