Daniel Negreanu
Tournament play demands patience to survive and win. Winning at cash games demands a whole other level of thought and deception. You need to reach into your bag of tricks and run the occasional big bluff to be a consistent cash game winner.Collection: Patience
I dropped out of school to play poker, and at 21, I moved from Toronto to try my luck as a pro in Vegas. I ate the typical meat-heavy diet of most poker players in the '90s: burgers and steak, along with French fries, mash, and a bucket-load of wine, beer, and vodka. There was nothing fresh in my diet, and I felt terrible.Collection: Diet
In poker, position is power. When you've got position, play more hands and apply more pressure before the flop.Collection: Power
To be a great poker player, you're going to have to learn this fact: Everything that's said at a poker table is worth listening to. It's all information that you can use to make better decisions, whether people are talking about baseball, politics, or, oh yeah, poker.Collection: Politics
How players react to questions that you ask can give definitive information as to the strength of their hand. Even an opponent who says nothing at all might be sending a silent signal. A mere shrug, an awkward smile, or even a frozen stare can be meaningful.Collection: Smile
Picking up a tell - a hint that a player unknowingly gives that reveals the strength of his hand - often means the difference between winning and losing a big pot.Collection: Strength
Bluffing is most effective when done sporadically; bluff too often, and you'll blow your credibility.
Never underestimate the importance of preparation for any single poker session or tournament.
If you want to make money playing poker, find a game with a few suckers, fish, donkeys, live ones, or whatever you choose to call a bad player. Just don't let that sucker be you.
The art of reading physical tells isn't an exact science.
Always keep in mind that poker is about limiting your losses and maximizing your gains on every hand you play.
Swallow your pride and be completely objective about your own poker skill level. Only then can you implement an effective betting strategy.
As a general rule, the more precious the chips you'd consider betting, the more you should lean toward playing it safe. Check it down; cautious play is usually the recipe for long-term success in poker.
In small ball poker, you'll need to widen your starting hand requirements beyond pocket pairs and A-K.
Obsessing about statistics won't make you a better poker player. In fact, you'll end up wasting too much valuable time on that stuff when you should be concentrating on crucial issues, like getting a read on your opponents and studying the psychological aspects of the game.
Protect your hand when you're confident you're in the lead. Don't be greedy and try to milk your opponent for a few more chips when the pot is already large.
I am most challenged by playing cash games against the world's top players. These games force me to think several moves in advance, like in a game of chess. And though I also find tournaments fun to play, they just don't provide the constant brain buzz that cash game players crave.
Beginning players are predictable and rarely bluff. They tend to focus only on their own hand and simply hope to catch the one card they need to improve.
Before you even consider making a value bet, try to determine if the bet will have any value at all. Attempt to put your opponent on a hand that he'd likely call a bet with on the river. To do this, you'll have to mentally play back the details of the hand. Think about your opponent's playing tendencies.
Chess is a great training ground for poker players because it's a math-based game, much like backgammon is.
When it came to healthy eating, my parents did their best to set me on the right path. At school, my friends ate McDonalds at lunchtime, but I had a packed lunch that my mother made for me. I hated it at the time, but looking back, I'm glad.
I became vegan in 2006 when I started taking healthy eating seriously.
I try not to push veganism specifically. If I'm asked for my advice, I say just eat healthy.
Rarely is it correct to play a hyper-aggressive style of poker. But there are certain situations where a seemingly reckless approach will actually be the most profitable strategy to employ, like at the Main Event at the World Series of Poker.
Hyper-aggressive poker works best in deep-stack tournaments.
The goal of hyper-aggressive poker is to create a wild and crazy image that will return dividends when you're eventually dealt a monster hand.
Hyper-aggressive poker is most effective in games where players are happy to just call rather than reraise.
The biggest differences between Omaha and Hold'em is that you get four hole cards in Omaha as opposed to two in Hold'em, and in Omaha, you can only use two of your hole cards and must play three cards from the board.
One pair rarely wins an Omaha pot, even if that pair is aces. In Hold'em, on the other hand, a pair of aces is right around the average winning hand.
High-stakes gamblers love heart-racing Omaha-type action; normal poker players don't!
It's rare to find these true coin flip situations in Hold'em but surprisingly common in Omaha. That's one of the reasons why Omaha is the perfect game for action junkies who relish the notion of flipping coins for large sums of money.
The World Series of Poker has always attracted a competitive international field.
Playing chess can make you a better poker player because it forces you to think several moves ahead. That kind of intense mental exercise develops a deeper level of thinking than is typically encountered when playing poker.
Experienced no-limit Texas Hold'em players understand the importance of reading flop texture.
The danger of paired flops is directly related to how high the pair is: there's less risk in a flop like 2-2-7 than Q-Q-8. Why? Because most players will fold a hand that contains a deuce but will play hands that contain a queen like A-Q, K-Q, Q-J, or Q-10.
High flops like K-Q-9, K-J-10 or Q-J-8 are dangerous to pocket aces. That's because these flops will more likely to connect with the range of hands that your opponents will typically play, like 10-J, K-Q, 10-10, or 9-10.
The most obvious difference between a cash game and a tournament is that in tournament play, once your chips are gone, so are you. In a cash game, you can always dig into your pocket for more money.
Playing deep-stack, no-limit hold'em is a very complex game where the most critical and difficult decisions come after the flop.
Deep-stack games like High Stakes Poker are the favorites among both poker pros and avid fans of televised poker. In these games, the most talented players shine and the most exciting action takes place.
The value of small pocket pairs comes from the possibility of flopping three of kind and winning a sizable pot. To that extent, playing this type of hand is a low risk/high reward proposition.
Moving all-in with a small pair from early position only makes sense when you are severely short-stacked and desperately need to pick up the blinds.
It's never a good thing when an opponent has a solid read on you pre-flop.
The most important reason why it's dangerous to risk all your chips pre-flop is that you simply can't be certain that you are even in a coin flip situation at that time.
In No Limit hold'em tournaments, size your bets based on your opponent's skill level. You can cut corners by betting wisely - save a little here and make a little extra there.
It's one of my basic premises for tournament play: Choose to bet the lesser amount when a smaller-sized bet will accomplish the same objective as a bigger one.
I like to peruse the Full Contact Poker online forums to read and comment on posts about interesting poker hands and whether they were played properly. I find that many of the contributors consistently suffer from the same problem: they are far too preoccupied with statistically insignificant aspects of a poker hand.
Any call that jeopardizes a big chunk of your chip stack just because you think your opponent might be on a bluff is flat-out wrong.
It's imperative to save a few chips whenever possible when playing small-ball poker. You never want to risk a high percentage of your chips unless you're dealt a monster hand.
In tournament play, it's generally advisable to avoid risking large sums of chips in coin flip situations, like pocket sixes versus A-K. After all, the pocket pair is only a very slight heads-up favorite.
The ability to perform basic math calculations is certainly an integral part of playing fundamental poker. But in tournament poker, it's equally important to understand that survival often trumps mathematics in coin flip situations.