Common Poker Etiquette Mistakes

If you ever play live poker in an actual casino, you will notice there are many rules involved in the game. Some of these may be un-written rules, but carry the same weight the official ones do. The list of un-written rules can be quite long, and over-stepping your boundaries could lead to disastrous results on some cases.

If you’re looking for a head start on your next trip to the casino, follow these tips to help keep you in line and makes sure other players aren’t stepping over the line as well.

Bragging

This mistake should be quite obvious, but it’s still one you see quite often. A player scoops up a big pot and goes on a rant about how much she or he just won. While the feeling of pulling in a big pot is exciting, think of how the losers of the pot must feel. They just lost out on a ton of money and are probably not enthused about it.

If you think for just a split second about how you would feel if you lost that pot, you will likely change your mind when thinking of gloating about how much you just won.

Listening to headphones

I’m all for music and don’t mind people listening to their music players on occasion at the tables. But when it gets to the point that every time it’s their turn you hear a loud-”HUH?!...Is it my turn?” This is quite possibly the most annoying thing ever, not just in poker, but life in general.

If you must listen to music while playing, just put one of the headphones in. This will allow you to hear the action at the table and help move the game along. Not to mention it’ll keep you out of a few fistfights.

Hygiene

This should go without saying, but for some reason, people can be dirty and nasty. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve sat next to a player who smelled like they haven’t taken a shower in weeks. I immediately get out my chair and find another game when this happens.

Perhaps even more annoying and downright disgusting is what some players do with their hands. You’re not the only person touching those chips, buddy; please stop picking your nose. You will see players do some gross things with their hands and then touch the chips that may soon be in your stack. Unless you have Rainman abilities, you might want to keep a bottle of hand sanitizer with you at all times.

I’ll leave you with one last tip: always make sure you understand the house rules where you’re playing. The rules at casinos vary from place to place and keeping up on these official rules is in your best interest. We are humans, after all, and we make mistakes. This goes for dealers and players alike. And if you spot someone breaching etiquette, don’t be afraid to speak up and point the situation out.

Written by Chris

www.ColorUpCards.com

Costly Pre-flop Mistakes

It amazes me that poker players still have a tough time when playing pre-flop. With all the information on the web (not to mention our Hand Odds poker flash cards) and the simplicity of playing pre-flop, it should be relatively robotic. This is especially true for tournaments or SNGs, where you’re often faced with only 2 choices: fold or go all in.

Granted, there is some higher spectrum math that’s involved when deciding what to do in a SNG or MTT due to prize structures, but overall, many players are still making the same mistakes over and over. If you feel you may be making some costly, wrong decisions, keep reading to find out what are some of the biggest mistakes players make pre-flop.

Limping in

This is an obvious mistake, yet I still see countless players limping in and then folding to someone’s raise, or even worse, calling and folding on the flop. I truly hope bad players never stop doing this, as it’s been my bread and butter for quite some time. But still, if you’re going to play a hand, just raise it up. But for the most part, if a hand isn’t good to raise, you should just fold.

Calling out of position

This one ties in with limping, as you will see the two mistakes made at the same time in many cases. A player limps in from early position; a middle position player makes a raise, then the limper calls when they are out of position.

If you learn anything in poker, it should be that position is crucial in a hand of poker. Being in position means you will be able to act after your opponent and gather more information. Overall, being in position is much easier than being out. (Again, for more on this, see our Hold’em 101 and Hand Odds decks.)

3 Betting

The art of the 3 bet is tricky and one of the mistakes that can be excused. At least you’re applying aggression and giving yourself more than 1 way to win a hand, but far too often I see players use the 3 bet when it’s blatantly obvious that it shouldn’t be applied.

The best example of this would be when a loose player opens the button and a person 3 bets from the blinds with a weak hand as a bluff. If you were paying attention, you would know this Button is unlikely to fold and your 3 bet is basically worthless.

It’s perfectly fine to 3 bet, and a must if you have a decent hand, but as a bluff against a player who rarely folds, you’re just wasting money. I get it that players want to try and out-play one another, but part of being a skilled player is knowing when to fold, as well. Folding can be a powerful play that saves you money. Money saved is just as good as money won, in my book.

Examine your game and be honest with yourself: do you make many of these same mistakes? If the answer is yes, or even a maybe, you should start to think about ways to change it. But that’s the good news – these mistakes are easily fixed with some minor tweaks and will wind up saving you a ton of money in the long run.

Written by Chris

www.ColorUpCards.com

Why Many Players Fail at Poker

I’ve been around this game long enough to see players come and go. I’ve also seen my fair share of good players who couldn’t cut it for various reasons. It’s disheartening to see someone who has the skills to be one of the better players around, yet lacks many of the traits to have long term success.

Being a good player isn’t just about being good at cards. The list of variables involved that make up a long term winner is long and not many possess them. Here are a few reasons why many poker players fail.

Being a Degen

A degen is just slang for being a degenerate. When I call someone a degenerate, it means they have bad habits that revolve mostly around gambling. If you follow poker at all, you’ve probably heard of Phil Ivey’s high stakes Craps habit that often interferes with poker. If you’ve never seen some of the videos on You Tube, I highly recommend searching them out. A few have him playing Craps for $100,000+ a roll. It’s entertaining and a bit surreal all at the same time.

A player who takes their winnings and can’t keep them in their pocket for longer than 5 minutes will almost always fail at poker. Taking your money to the Craps or Roulette table is a recipe for disaster and should be avoided at all costs.

I’m not saying you should never play these casino games. I would still generally recommend not to. And if you play poker to support your Craps habit, you won’t be around for long, I don’t care how good you are.

Poor Bankroll Management

There are a few sites out there that will let you stake poker players or get stakes for yourself. I often wonder why a good player would need to be staked if they are so good. There are legitimate reasons a player could need staking, but that’s for another article.

A good portion of the time, a player will need staking because they cannot manage their own money well. A common scenario would be a player hitting a nice payday in a tournament and immediately playing all the highest buy in tournaments until he’s broke.

Just because you win a little or a lot does not mean you can instantly start playing $500 buy in MTTs every day. Stick with what got you there and continue to play at levels you’re good at.

I was guilty of this myself when I first started, but I learned quickly that it’s the wrong approach to the game. There should be no excuse for a good player who’s been around for a while to jump up in buy-ins just because she hit a nice score. It’s fine to play a few things out of your usual range, but have limits and continue to use a proper bankroll plan to ensure long term success.

Tilt

This one is common in many players and can be deadly to even the best. The better players usually know how to control tilt, but at times it’s unavoidable.

When a player goes on tilt, many things can happen, and none are ever any good. A typical player on tilt will likely fall into a stupor of rage only to open their eyes and realize they just lost a ton of money that could have easily been avoided.

Getting upset about losing money is nothing to be ashamed about, but it’s how you react to it that matters. Getting up from the table or just sitting out a hand is perfectly fine if you it will keep you calm and focused. Do whatever it takes to avoid going on tilt and you will thank yourself later.

There are many other reasons a player will fail at poker, but these are some of the more typical ones you will see throughout the course of a poker career. It’s sad to see skill go to waste and at times, you may offer help, but sometimes a player is destined to fail no matter what.

Written by Chris

www.ColorUpCards.com

PokerListings.com Features Color Up!

Yesterday we were featured in a news article about crowd-funding and Indiegogo on PokerListings.com. In his article, “Crowd-Funding Kickstarts New Wave of Poker Products,” Arthur Crowson examines Color Up as one example of a small poker business looking to raise support via online crowd-sourcing platforms. He interviewed Color Up’s founder, Sandy Metivier, to find out more about Color Up’s currentIndiegogo campaign.

The article makes interesting points about the risks and rewards of turning to others for supporting one’s small business, especially with the number of poker fans out there who want a great product. Alongside Color Up, businesses Goldfire Studios and Vanda Playing Cards are also featured in Crowson’s article.

You can read more about how Color Up and other small poker businesses are putting crowd-sourcing to work onthe PokerListings website. Thanks to Arthur and PokerListings.com for showcasing our hard work and development! 

Give to Color Up on Indiegogo! 

www.ColorUpCards.com 

Dead Man's Hand

Poker
players have spent so many hours at the poker table that we’ve come up with a
nickname for every single set of two starting cards you can get dealt
initially. Two Aces are “Rockets” or “American Airlines,” two Kings are “Cowboys,”
and Ace-King is known as “Big Slick.” These bigger hands are also the most
well-known, of course. Not as many people know, for example, that two black
fours are knows as Darth Vader (because they are The Dark Side of the fours),
and even fewer refer to a 3-2 as a Can of Corn (I don’t even know the origin of
that one).

As the
examples above illustrate, some of these nicknames take a bit of an imaginative
leap to figure the logic behind them. However, there is one nickname that is as
literal as it gets. An A-8 is referred to as the Dead Man’s Hand because Wild West legend Bill Hickok was shot dead
while holding it.

In
absolute honesty to history, you should know that Wild Bill was actually
holding two Aces and two 8s. He was playing 5-card draw, which was standard
poker in South Dakota at the time. This means he also had another card in his
hand, but apparently nobody bothered to remember what that one was. Under the
circumstances of the events that unfolded, I can’t say I blame them.

The
irony is, that as literal as the nickname was, and as unbelievable the
circumstances under which it was born, “Dead Man’s Hand” actually says a lot as a name about the value of the hand itself
in Texas Hold’em. An A-8 (together with A-6 and A-7) tends to give you the
confidence of the Ace, but combines it with a weak kicker; that combination is
often outright deadly for your chip stack. Whereas an Ace with something lower than
5 at least gives you a straight draw, an A-8 does not leave you many hands that
will make you feel good about your chances.

Let’s
consider your options with the hand. You certainly can’t raise with it. Any
callers will almost surely be ahead of you and might have you in a big hole.
Going with an A-8 against and Ace with a better kicker only gives you 3 outs,
which basically means you are as good as dead. People often raise with less
than monstrous hands to mix up their style, but you are better off doing it
with something like Q-J that gives you a chance to hit a monster.

Most
people will probably try to limp in with an A-8. It is not a bad strategy, but
if you are in an early position, you are likely to get raised and have to fold.
And if there are a lot of limpers, most probably everyone is on a drawing hand
and at least one of them is going to improve to something big. Dead Man’s Hand
doesn’t give you good chances to improve to something big.

For a
lot of people, it is hard to fold an Ace, especially if you have been mucking
rag hands for a long time. It is exactly is such situations when a lot of
players misjudge the A-8 and go big with it, finally wanting to get into the
action and hoping the Ace will come good for them.

An A-8,
of course, has its useful purposes. This is mainly in the situations when an
Ace-high is likely to be good till the end. Examples include heads up, or very
short handed play and harassing small stacks. But in other situations, you
should be careful that your chip stack does not follow the fate of Wild Bill.     

Written
by: Konstantin

www.ColorUpCards.com

Note Taking Is Your Friend

One of the most overlooked skills in online poker is note taking. Taking notes while playing online is the equivalent of having a tell on someone in a live game. The information you gather on your opponents can be crucial and invaluable later on down the road.

Many players, even top players, underestimate the value of good note taking. It’s hard to understand why not everyone takes diligent notes while playing. It’s rather easy to do so, unless you’re playing 15 tables at a time, but even then you should never compromise quality for quantity.

Taking a note on a player while playing online is made simple by poker rooms these days. Each site has their own way of going about this, but the basic concept is clicking on an opponent and writing down your notes in the text box. This will generally leave an icon on the player’s avatar that will let you know you have notes on this player.

What makes a good note?

While taking notes is a start to using this tool successfully, you need to know what a good note will look like. Many of us use tracking software that will have information on players such as how often they play a pot, how often they 3 bet, and how often they fold to a c-bet.

If you are using any form of tracking software, you need to focus on more detailed notes to bolster the tracking you’re already getting. Far too often, I will see a player write a note like, “player folded to c-bet on draw heavy board.” This is the perfect example of a useless note.

If you were to glance at this note a month from now, you would have little to no information on this player. The note does absolutely no good for many reasons. First off, you have a note based on 1 hand, whereas the player may have folded on a dry board or decided to check raise another player on a draw heavy board. There are just too many factors that can change the decision of a player during the course of many hands.

So what exactly involves good note taking?

 

The first step to a good note is to make sure you write down the date of when the note was taken. This is important, because players you run into a month or two down the road may have learned new skills and changed the way they play slightly. It’s completely normal for a decent player to change the way they play certain hands, or even their overall game. A note taken 2 years ago could be worthless on some players. Knowing when the note was taken is vital to its effectiveness.

Next step is to write down the actual cards on the board. Simply writing, “player folded on a draw heavy board,” means nothing.

You also want to have a note that was based on more than just 1 hand in some cases. For example, if a player calls a c-bet but folds on the turn a large percentage of the time, this is a handy note to have. Any player can fold 1 or 2 hands in this manner, but if you start to notice a trend, or pattern of play over many hands, take a note on this.

To conclude, I’d like to cement the idea that note taking is not a waste of time, as many players might argue. It can be one of the best skills you learn, and should be considered a time investment that will pay off big in the future.

Written by Chris

www.ColorUpCards.com

Support Color Up on Indiegogo: http://igg.me/at/Poker-Flash-Cards/

Color Up Indiegogo Campaign Surpasses first $1,000

Thanks to the generosity of our amazing customers, friends, families, readers, and supporters, Color Up has gotten off to a great start with this Indiegogo campaign. We reached our first $1,175 in just 10 days, and are so excited to go out and earn the next $6,825 to reach our goal. It’s still a long way to go, but we are sure we can do it.

If you haven’t caught up on the campaign, here’s what’s going on. Color Up is ready to take our marketing and online presence to the next level to reach poker players who really want an easier way to learn and improve their skills. Getting found online these days is difficult – there are thousands of results for “learn poker” on Google. We need SEO (search engine optimization) experts to help us redesign our website and marketing so that we can reach all those people out there wondering how to make learning poker better, faster, and easier.

If you’ve already given and spread the word, thank you so much. Keep spreading the word to your networks and supporting Color Up.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out or share the campaign yet, visit us here. Share on Facebook and Twitter.

And of course, give whatever you can to support Color Up’s growth and get awesome perks. $10 will get you sunglasses and a poker flash card deck of your choice. $25 gets you the sunglasses and all three decks – our pro pack! $50 gets you all of the above plus a Color Up t-shirt. And if you really want to complete your Color Up ensemble at the table, give $500 to get all of the above plus a Color Up hoodie and a sweet one-of-a-kind artist-designed baseball cap. You’ll be unreadable rockin’ all that gear at the WSOP next year.

Thank you for your support of Color Up! 

Who Is the Poker Players Alliance Really For?

The PPA, or Poker Players Alliance, is a Washington lobby group that is supposed to be looking out for the poker players of America. They have been around for quite some time and have a large voice in the poker community.

When I first started playing poker, I joined the group by making a donation; I mainly wanted the cool t-shirt to impress my friends. If only I could have warned a young Chris that poker apparel is really not that cool. I actually never got the shirt and this was just the beginning of my decade long angst towards the PPA.

Go on any major poker forum and you will see someone representing the PPA. Each state will also have a representative, though I’m not sure how they are picked. My guess is it’s just someone who steps up and says, “I’ll do it.” This is my belief because most of the time, the people who are state representatives are not all that friendly and have the tone of a know it all. This leads me to believe they wanted to be an authority figure so they could show everyone how smart they were.

This is just one of the many reasons the PPA fails at every aspect of protecting your rights to play poker. They make claims of representing “us” in Congress and speaking on behalf of “us”, but in reality they are only out for themselves.

In the time they have been an organization, they have had little to no impact on any changes in the poker world. This is especially true when it comes to online poker. Every day for the past 3 years I have received an e-mail from Sir John Pappas (head of the PPA) asking to contact my local officials and tell them I want to have online poker in my state. This is a mass email sent to all members of the PPA, but it’s the same B.S. in every single one.

The state of online poker for Americans actually gotten worse and the PPA will tell you the wonders they are doing down in D.C. They are typical politicians who only look to serve the interests of themselves and don’t care about the players.

What’s even more frustrating is that every time a poker bill is introduced to Congress, they somehow make it sound like they made this happen. They don’t actually come out and say it, but the wording they use will lead some to believe that they had a big part in it.

The funny part is, none of these bills have been effective and the PPA will tell you that they will try to talk to the bill makers and make changes that they were pushing for to begin with. The truth is; these guys have no real power over anyone. They simply ride the coattails of politicians like one of those little fish that follows a shark around and eats the scraps that float by.

To further solidify my opinions on the PPA, recent news has been leaked about a bribe to Sen. Reid, the main Senator trying to pass the online poker bill. You can read the full story here. My focus on the story went to the conversation between two of the men involved. There was a recording of a conversation during this meeting that discusses the bribe and who was at the meeting when the bribe took place. Guess who just happened to be there? Good ole John Pappas, head of the PPA.

Now these reports are fairly new and no one knows for sure what’s going on, and no charges have been filed, but it sure is damning evidence.

What’s even more amusing is that during this taped conversation, one of the men has to be reminded who John Pappas is. If the PPA is such a strong force in the poker community, his name should be known, but to anyone who has any kind of real power, he’s just another nobody.

Written by: Chris

www.ColorUpCards.com

Color Updates: Vanessa Selbst on Color Up, plus our new campaign

On Monday, poker pro Vanessa Selbst Tweeted about Color Up, “I came across these @colorup poker flash cards... they seem like a cool way to learn impt info for beginning players. colorupcards.com”

In addition to this public positivity from a poker celebrity (thanks, Vanessa!), Color Up is very excited to announce a new campaign we have had in the works for some time. We love our products and have enjoyed the fact that we have been helping people across the world learn the game we all love so much.

However, we want to expand our horizons and start to get the word out that Color Up’s poker flash cards are the best way to learn how to play poker. In order to achieve our goals, we have launched a campaign to raise $8,000. This new funding will allow us to finally get the exposure we feel we deserve and best of all, continue improving on an already great product.

If you’re interested in learning more about our campaign, our goals, or just want to watch a cool video that shows the faces behind Color Up Cards, you can check out our Indiegogo page here.

While we aim to let the public know about our products, we have already received some amazing feedback from people who already own Color Up Cards and have begun to receive recognition from some of the best poker players in the world, including the aforementioned Vanessa Selbst.

You can imagine our team’s excitement and joy to see my favorite player talk about yours truly. Those who know me (Sandy, the founder of Color Up), would without a doubt tell you that I am a huge fan of Selbst and consider her to be one the best players in the world. To see someone of her stature talk about my company was one of the proudest moments in my life.

If you don’t know who Vanessa Selbst is – well, that’s just ridiculous, of course you do. But in case you forgot:  she is considered one of the top poker players today. The native New Yorker has already won more than $7 million in tournament prizes and she’s only 29. Most recently, Selbst won the high roller event at the Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure for over $1.4 million. Prior to this, she won her second WSOP bracelet, showing she’s not just a one trick pony and knows how to play all the games by taking down the 10 game mixed event. She’s also a graduate of Yale law and speaks often about her passion for social justice (how cool, a poker millionaire who cares about people, too).

With over 50 cashes on her tournament resume, Vanessa has proven she’s here to stay and ready to be one of the best players in the world. She’s a feared cash game player and one of the nicest people you will ever meet. You can read more about Vanessa and follow her poker journeys on her website, www.vanessaselbstpoker.com.

I’d like to conclude by thanking all those who have supported Color Up during this great ride. We hope to be around for a long time and with the support we have gotten already, we believe we have the ability to be in the poker industry for a long time. Supporting our campaign will get you great Color Up gear (clothes, poker flash cards, even a customized chip set), plus our eternal gratitude. Thanks for supporting Color Up. 

“Red Pros” Return to Full Tilt Poker

Some of the famous pros who used to frequent the high stakes tables on Full Tilt have begun to make their way back onto the site, bringing back the “Red Pros.” “Red Pros” are called such because if they’re playing at a table, that table will be highlighted in red in the lobby so us regular folks can see where they are. For those who are unaware, Full Tilt was purchased by Poker Stars about a year ago, and has re-launched the site under its same name. You can transfer balances between Poker Stars and Full Tilt for easy access to either site as well. Neither site is open to the American public, but they still hold the large share of worldwide players.

Let’s get back to the topic at hand – the pros. I’ve been seeing many of the big names once again hit the felt at Full Tilt.  This is obviously a good thing for online poker, as playing against these pros was once one of the biggest attractions of Full Tilt: being able to see the names we knew from TV, and battle it out with them at nosebleed stakes (super high stakes, for those new to the term), was terrific for the game in general.

However, after reading a story about Patrick Antonius, I began to wonder just how often these pros are catered to. I’m sure not as much as they once were, but I imagine still to a good extent. For example, consider how many screen names Antonius has had at Full Tilt. Early in his poker career he used “I_Knockout_U,” “try_hrdr_fish” and “–ANTONIOUS–”. Having 3 screen names is bad enough, but when you add in his other names, “CryMeRiver9” and “Finndagrind,” we now have 5 screen names used by him on one site.

He now only uses his actual name since he’s a “Red Pro” but his screen names are widely known and no one really cares about it. If this was myself or any other regular player at a site, we would have been banned a long time ago. Using two – or more! – screen names is enough grounds for removal of almost every site.

  

Now, I’ve been in this game for a while and know how the system works. I’ll admit that in the early days of online poker, I would use multiple screen names to get more bonuses from a site. Once I would clear a deposit bonus, I would simply create a new account and do the same thing. I never used it to cheat at the tables and don’t condone what I did, either. Unfortunately, it’s a common practice in the world of online poker – which is why the companies don’t like it.

Some kids play before they’re 18 and use the names of parents or siblings who are of age. Once they reach a point where they can legally play, they will change the name to their own so they can make withdrawals. Again, this is not justified, but it happens.

The difference between what I just described and what Antonius has done are two completely different scenarios. For one, everyone knows about his multiple names, including Full Tilt. And when I or others would use different accounts to get bonuses, it was almost always only once. Here we have 6 different names used by one person at the same site.

If this type of information is readily available for all to see, yet no one says anything about it, it’s a guarantee that it’s being done by almost all of the pros. There have been plenty of rumors circling the air that many of the high stakes pros share accounts or use other names to play fish when they spot a juicy game.

What I’m trying to get at here is that something should be done about double standards like this for the pros. I understand that the pros want to be able to be anonymous online, but why should online be any different from a casino, where they’d be recognized? And if someone’s a real fish, they won’t know who you are or they’ll be so cocky they’ll misjudge your game. This just looks bad for online poker, and for those who try to push the sport into the mainstream take a step back when these incidents occur. It’s no wonder we have yet to see legislation in the United States. This is just a minor issue, as are many others, but when you have a lot of minor issues they add up to a big one.

Blogged by: Chris

www.ColorUpCards.com

How to Avoid Bad Beats

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Everybody
who has ever been dealt a poker hand has a bad beat story. Actually, these are
far more often told than any other type of story. You did everything right. You
had the perfect hand at the perfect time. You already made plans how to spend
the money... and then something went wrong. The Villain caught a legendary
one-outer on the river and crushed you. Some Donkey who should’ve folded on the
flop got the nuts on the turn and destroyed your moment. It has happened to
every single one of us. And it has cost us.

So, we all
need a foolproof strategy to protect our hands from the bad beat. It will be
the most profitable poker trick you have up your sleeve. Unfortunately, the
title of this blog is utterly misleading and a trick in itself. You can’t avoid
bad beats. And you shouldn’t really try to.

There
are two types of bad beats. The first is when you get dealt a monster hand and
somebody just comes on top of you with an even more monster hand. Consider for
example where you start with pocket kings and the flop comes K, J, J. You bet,
somebody goes all-in and naturally you call, only to see your opponent holding pocket
Jacks. Cue nausea and rage.

The
second type of bad beat is when you get called with a very inferior hand, which
through chance improves enough to beat you. I recently had a set of 10s on a
rainbow flop, only to get beat by a runner-runner spade flush. Cue misery and
cursing the poker gods.

  

These kinds
of hands cost you a lot of chips, but they are inevitable. They are a law of
nature, and that law is called the law of large numbers. When you hold the
kings full of jacks, there is a 220 to 1 chance someone has quad jacks. It’s a
very small probability, but it’s positive. When you play a lot of hands, it is
guaranteed to happen at some point. The probability of getting beat by a
runner-runner flush is actually much higher, so it will happen even more often.
Poker is, after all, about probability and chance, and those are the chances
you’re betting (and hoping) against.

The
unnerving part is that there is practically nothing you can do. It is almost
impossible to fold the kings in the first scenario I gave. Even if you get a
perfect read on your opponent, you can still put him on a number of hands, only
one of which beats you. You also can’t let go a set when you are ahead just
because there is the probability of a suck-out, as in scenario two – you’d just
be a weak player afraid of all the possibilities. These types of hands will
generally be the most profitable hands you play, but sometimes you’ll feel the
pain of the bad beat. And with time, you will remember the one bad beat much
more clearly than the ten times you have won big pots in similar situations –
the human memory just has such good recall for stress and pain. The good part of
all these bad beats is that statistically, you will also bad beat other people,
so in the end things will even out. That’s the law of large numbers working in
your favor this time.

The most
important thing is to learn to separate a real bad beat from a really bad play.
The two are often confused. I have seen players slow-play a top pair on the
flop, get beat, and then curse their luck. That’s not a bad beat – it’s letting
your opponents see free cards and letting them take your money. It’s bad poker.
Luckily, that’s the avoidable part.

Written by: Konstantin

www.ColorUpCards.com