If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush games, check out Jonathan Little’s elite training site at PokerCoaching.com.
When you are playing poker (or doing anything in life), thinking ahead will lead to better outcomes. For example, when you walk across the street, you should know what you are going to do if you suddenly see a bus heading straight toward you. Better yet, you could take a look in both directions before taking your first step into the street to be sure there are no buses heading your way.
In poker, before you make any bet, stop and think about what that bet will result in, both on the current betting round as well as the future betting rounds, and determine if the probable results are in your best interest.
Suppose someone raises first to act at an eight-handed table to three big blinds out of their 100 big blind stack and you are in second position with A♠10♣. While A-10 is normally a decent hand, in this situation, it is an easy fold because of the many bad things that can happen on the future betting rounds, with almost no good things that can happen.
While A-10 could certainly be the best hand at the moment, consider how the hand will play out. Before the flop, you could easily be dominated by the initial raiser, putting you in bad shape. To make matters worse, someone yet to act could three-bet, forcing you to either put in more money poorly or to fold. If you flop an ace and the initial raiser has a better ace, you will lose a lot of money.
If an ace flops and your opponent does not have an ace, you will win a small pot. If a 10 comes and they have an overpair, you will lose a lot of money. If a 10 comes and they have worse than a 10, you will win a small pot. If you miss, you will probably lose the pot when you fold to a continuation bet. So, you are likely to either lose a large pot or win a small pot, making a fold the clear best play.
Suppose instead of A-10, you had J♣10♣. Now, you will not lose your whole stack if you make one pair because it will be a marginal made hand, but if you flop a premium hand or a good draw and improve to a premium hand by the river, you will often win a large pot. You will also find numerous semi-bluffing opportunities, which will allow you to win some pots when your opponent misses. This is a situation where you will either lose a small pot or win a large one, which is a fine outcome.
Poker, like all games, is about trying to figure out the optimal decision for each situation. Each decision in poker is not made in a vacuum. Because of this, you always need to constantly think about how each decision will impact the next. As long as you think ahead and always have a plan, you will rarely find yourself too lost.
If you find that you are consistently confused, you are either making poor decisions on the earlier betting rounds or you have not studied the game nearly enough. Studying and drilling common spots using a GTO trainer (I recommend PeakGTO) will go a long way to ensuring you understand the game at a fundamental level. Good luck in your games!
If you want more resources to help you improve your game, I put together a course called Five-Day Preflop Challenge. This course is completely free inside Card Player Poker School!
When you join the Card Player Poker School (it’s free to join), you’ll also get:
- Free Downloadable Preflop Charts
- GTO Preflop Charts
- Video Classes
- Interactive Hand Quizzes
- Free Course: Master The Fundamentals
- Free Course: The 25 Biggest Leaks And How To Fix Them
- Free Training Every Week
Jonathan Little is a WSOP bracelet winner, two-time WPT winner, and the 2024 PokerGO Cup champion with nearly $9 million million in live tournament earnings, best-selling author of 15 educational poker books, and 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the Year. If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush the games, check out his training site at PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer.