How to Handle Power Players

Poker is the only casino game where you are competing with other players for the money.

In slots, you are playing against the House. Same goes with dice, baccarat, blackjack or any of the other table games which are created to give the casino an edge over the players. The edge can be small -- baccarat, for example -- or it can be huge like Keno.

It takes years of play for a person to develop into a consistent winner at poker. In golf, players are given handicaps based on their ability in order to make the playing field more even. Such is not the case in poker.

Every poker room that I have ever played in has its formidable players. You can usually find them playing in the games with the highest stakes. They are the ones with stacks of $5, $25 and $100 chips in front of them.

When I first started playing poker more than 30 years ago, I picked up every instructional book I could find on the game. One piece of advice that was repeated time and again was to avoid playing against players whose skills and knowledge outshined your own. In other words, stay out of the deep water.

While that is a pretty good rule to follow, I have discovered a rather remarkable truth that has changed my concept of how to win at poker. Even the best players have bad days.

For years, Tiger Woods was the big winner on the Professional Golfers Assn. circuit. It seemed nobody could beat him and he won millions of dollars in the major tournaments.

Then Tiger hit a slump. I vividly remember watching him hacking at the ball like a weekend duffer, unable to make shots the average golfer could make. The other professional players took advantage of Tiger's mental lapse and their game improved sharply as they went for the gold.

My favorite poker game these days is a $6-12 mixed game of Omaha High-Low and seven card stud high-low. The game is played daily at Talking Stick Casino just outside Scottsdale, AZ. and it's played with a kill, meaning when a player wins over a certain amount of money in a pot, the stakes double to $12-24. With the maximum allowable raises, those pots can get mighty big.

While I consider myself a good high-low player, there are some players at Talking Stick who can be intimidating. They are aggressive, they buy into the game for anywhere from $400 to $1,000, and they are tough to beat.

But they can be beaten.

The other night when I took my seat at the table, I found myself surrounded by four of the toughest players in the game. I had bought in for $100 and these guys were sitting there with anywhere from $500 to $2,000 in front of them.

I kept my composure, played the right cards, let them do the raising, and I walked away from the table a winner. Two of the best players had a terrible run of cards -- it happens. Their raises turned out to be losing efforts, and the rest of the table, including yours truly, profited.

Don't let the other players intimidate you. Maintain your composure, play good cards, and watch the chips add to your stack. This is what real poker is all about.

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 ).