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"How does one become a winning poker player?"
"What separates the winners from the losers?"
"What's the most important thing a player can do to become a winner?"
Like most things in life, to be successful, it takes effort, and poker is no different. You must think about and work at poker to improve.
There is a common denominator in these questions, and it's easy to remember. You can find it in the theme line of Kenny Rodger's song The Gambler: "You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em."
One of the biggest differences between winning and losing players is that the losers don't know when to get away from a hand. They continue to "chase" (call the hand all the way down) and hope to get lucky. There's an axiom in poker: "If you can't beat a calling station, you can't beat anybody." This is true. Calling stations are losing poker players.
Certainly, to become a winner, selecting a good starting hand is extremely important (probably the most important thing for beginners). But regardless of what you start with, knowing when to jettison a hand is the key to successful poker.
We all see weak players who play a lot of hands. Bad players are considered "bad" because they play too many hands. Many of the best players also play a lot of hands! They do. You might be wondering, "How can that be?" How can some players who play a lot of hands be "bad" and others who play a lot of hands be "great"?
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There are two major reasons. First, the top players are betting/raising while the weak players are calling. Second, and most important, the top players know when to get away from a hand. As the song says, they know when to fold 'em.
To illustrate, here's an example: Assume that a player held the 7H 6H and the flop came Q-10-8 offsuit or A-10-9. Weak players would continue to call, hoping to make a straight (which may not be good if they make it). Good players would virtually never call and continue to play after the flop. They would simply throw the hand away.
In Omaha (high and high-low split), one mistake that weak players make is drawing to straights and flushes when there is a pair on the board. Good players rarely do this. In Omaha eight-or-better, how many times do you see weak players calling raises when drawing to a low that is not even the "nuts" (to say nothing of their hoping to win just half the pot)? It happens all the time. This kind of play is throwing money away in the long run.
When you think about getting away from a hand and knowing when to fold 'em, always think about a famous Omaha story. It goes like this: Did you hear about the guy who lost seven river bottom farms drawing to king-high flushes in pot-limit Omaha? He missed the first four flushes he drew to, and made the last three.
The moral of the story is that he shouldn't have been drawing to the king-high flushes. He went broke when he missed the flush, and he went broke when he made it. You've got to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em.
You will become a much better poker player by not "chasing." Learn to throw your hand away and don't worry about being bluffed out. Worry about the money you are wasting by calling hands to the river. Saving bets will put a lot of money in your pocket at the end of the year. As Mike Caro likes to say, "Money saved is money earned."
By learning when to fold 'em, not only will there be "time enough for counting when the game is done," there will be much more to count.
