After a hard day of playing poker and suffering some horrendous suck outs that resulted in losing multiple SNGs, and not to mention some of my own semi-retarded play that cost me even more money. I sat down knowing I had to start working on my real job as a web developer for a small company. However I will put that on hold for the next 30 minutes because I made a list baby! You're darn right I did, yes maybe it's dumb but I am a list kind of guy. So what is the list? Well if you read the title you would know already. But for those of you that are just to excited like Jo-Jo the circus act that rips his bunny in half in excitement (TommyBoy Reference) over the fact that there is finally a new article out, I will restate the title : "Top 5 Traits or Qualities to be a Great Poker Player".
So I guess the next thing on my mind is what qualifies me to even begin to say what does or does not make a great player. Well the answer to that question is a solid "I'm not". Yep big shocker, I am not qualified to know. I don't know that many people are, but I like 1000 other poker writers am going to throw my hat in the ring and give it a go.
Numero uno, that is Spanish for number one for you white boys. Patience, Yep pretty simple patience. Patience not only waiting for the good cards, but patience in dealing with people that are out of control and don't know how to play. Or well are playing in such a manner in that you need to stay out of their way. And patience in riding out the rough times and the dry spells. Frankly I don't have a lot of patience, ya big surprise there ( I hear snickering in the background from those of yall that know me).
The next Item that made my list was Courage. Courage to make the tough calls and courage to make the tough lay downs. And then there is my favorite, courage to go all in with absolutely nothing. Can you lay down that over pair? Can you call with the low pair? Or how bout calling with no pair at all? Sometimes poker is a test of your courage as well as sanity. I probably have too much courage and that gets me in trouble, calling with A-Q after the river has come out and we still don't even have a pair and some guy has gone all in. Yes, A-Q was the winning hand.
Reasoning and analytical thought. Being able to figure out why your opponent has acted the way he has or bet the way he has and tying it all together with the current hand. Being able to figure out at the drop of the hat that you have a 33% chance of catching your card, but knowing that you are still ahead because they to don't have a pair. Reasoning also falls in with being able to lay down big hands because it is reasonable that your opponent caught and you would be throwing good money after bad.
Memory. Being able to replay every aspect of the hand you are in and even being able to remember how a person played a hand 2 months ago. This will give you a window of opportunity and knowledge and armed with that you can do great things. Hand replay ties in with reasoning, cause as you replay the hand you reason your way through the moves the players made. I think I have improved over the last several months in this category. Take for instance the last Weston Poker Tourney, I was in the small blind and Jim was in the big. It was folded to me and I look down and see A-shitty, Jim had gotten up to go use the restroom and we were waiting on him as he walked towards the table., I knew in my heart that once I raised from the small blind that Jim being a aggressive player was going to push all in or re-raise. So I told myself I am going to call him with A-shitty, cause it will all be a bluff on his part. I raise and sure enough he quickly looks at his cards and goes all in. I immediately call proud to show the world that I caught him in a bluff.... oopps... he had 99. But my skills as a master river rat saved me as the dealer threw an ace down, hell ya .. Now that takes skillz.
The final trait is something that you cant really name, but I will call it that 6th sense. It's an unknown quantity. That both tells you to get involved in a hand and then also tells you that you had better stay out of the way. It's those near misses that drive this trait home. You have K-10 and that is a hand that you like to see a flop with. But for some reason on a whim you fold, you don't know why but you just do, because something in your gut told you it was a bad idea to play that hand. The flop comes A-10-10 and you are thinking damn I should have called. Then the fireworks go off as two people go all in, the cards turn over and one of them has A-10 the other has AA. and you my friend just escaped death at the table, a near miss, but you are a seasoned pro and knew it was skill that told you to fold , as you brag to the others that are not really paying attention at the table as to what you folded.
So these skills or traits or qualities are what I was able to come up with this afternoon after pondering my horrific play this morning. I feel that sometimes I sit at a table and I am firing on all cylinders and all these qualities I possess, I am unstoppable, but other times I know I am not in the game and that I know will kill me at the table. I have to remember why I am there and why it is important to bring the A game. It's hard to play perfect poker all the time. Heck it's impossible. But the higher percentage of time you do the higher percentage of times you will come out positive instead of wonder what went wrong.
You can't win what you don't put in the middle, and you can't lose what you don't put in the middle. Balance that out in your play and in your head and well you might start playing differently.
