How Poker Winners Go Nuclear

Winning poker players have many weapons at their disposal. While they rarely display these tools of destruction until they are needed, you can rest assured that if you have a really good player at your able, he is going to lay out an attack plan designed to go after your chips.

You might think, 'Why me? Why would any player target me at a poker table? Why not go after the other players?'

My 40 years of poker play against some of the world's top players has convinced me that the best players are almost omnipotent in how they gauge their opposition. They adjust their strategy according to how good you are and do that with the other players at the table as well.

For example, you enter a pot. The player in seat one has a big stack of chips. During the weeks or months you have played at this particular card room, you rarely see him leave the game with less chips than when he started.

He raises your blind. The guy in seat six is another good player who rarely bluffs. He calls. You look a your hand, see nothing worthwhile and fold. With that little bit of work out of the way, they check each other down.

The arsenal of a professional poker player contains weapons that the average player doesn't have or cannot use as well as the people who generally end up with most of the money when he game breaks up. Here are some of those weapons. I will save the best one -- the nuclear bomb -- for last.

(1) ASSESSMENT OF THE OTHER PLAYERS' CAPABILITIES: Good players have already categorized your play as well as the other players at the table. When you enter a pot with a call, a raise or even a double-raise, they pretty much know the range of hands you are holding. This gives them a decided edge over the table -- an edge they will maintain throughout the game unless you take actions to blunt that edge and turn it to your favor.

(2) A READING OF TELLS OF THE OTHER PLAYERS: If you have a tell, a good poker player will find it. If you develop a pattern of play after making a raise and either betting or checking after the flop and fourth street, an astute player will know precisely how to play you. This is especially true if he has position and you are first to act.

(3) CALLING WITH POOR CARDS WHEN A GOOD PLAYER HAS POSITON: In an un-raised pot, a good player with position can play the table like a drum. George Hardy, one of the best poker players I ever met, worked in management for the Binion family at The Horseshoe for many years. He used to tell me, 'It's easy to beat most of the poker games in this room. I can do it behind the button or with position without even looking at my cards.' Hardy never went into great detail, but I know he was an excellent judge of character and could read the other players like they were an open book.

(4) THE ART OF THE RAISE: A winning poker player's nuclear weapon is the raise. Whether the game is limit or no-limit, a good player knows the power of the raise and how to use position to make it doubly effective. A good player can use the raise to win a pot when he holds a losing hand. He will sometimes be caught bluffing. That is the price of playing poker.

Finally, if you wish to get serious about winning at poker, watch the World Series of Poker on television. Look at how the world's best poker players use the raise to control the game. Remember that winning poker means understanding people, position and knowing how many 'outs' you have to make a winning hand. All the rest of it, as William Shakespeare wrote, is much ado about nothing.

Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.

(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).