How Can I Play Like the Pros

A lot of the stories we hear about expert poker players at their finest reveal some mind-boggling, awe-inspiring decisions. The one that most stands out is Phil Ivey's all-in move against Paul Jackson at the Monte Carlo Millions. For those who don't know, Jackson had called Ivey's preflop raise, mini-raised Ivey's bet on the flop, and then, after Ivey reraised, made another mini-raise. Ivey asked Jackson how much he had left, and then moved in, offering Jackson 3.5-1. In a situation in which it seemed almost impossible that Ivey's opponent would lay down, Jackson did just that. Ivey had queen high. (It turned out that Jackson had 6-high, but that doesn't make Ivey's play any less spectacular.) And then there's Daniel Negreanu's recent call against Amir Vahedi, which Negreanu shared on his blog. Vahedi bet $7,000 into a $15,000 pot on the river on a board of J-9-8-4-Q. Daniel called him with two threes, which has 30 percent equity against a random hand on that board, and presumably a lot less equity against a hand that called a preflop raise, and bet the turn and river (Amir had done all of these things). Daniel's hand was good.

Ivey's raise and Daniel's call are the kinds of plays that get people labeled as fish in online cardrooms. Heck, if someone called a big bet against me with 3-3 on a board of J-9-8-4-Q, I'd label him as a fish. I'd bet Daniel himself would, too. We must remember, however, that neither of these "superstar plays" occurred online. In fact, they couldn't have occurred online. Daniel said his call was "based on a physical tell as well as an understanding of Amir's betting patterns." Ivey virtually never discusses his strategy or why he made a certain play at a certain time, but it is my strong belief that he picked up a tell on Jackson when he asked him how many chips he had left. Plays as other-worldly as these require all the abilities of a great poker player, and that includes face-to-face analysis of the competition. If an online player made one of these plays, he probably would be a fish; and if the play worked, it probably would've been a lucky accident.

Sometimes, my students will ask me how they can make plays like these - or at the very least, they will tell me about plays like these and subtly imply that they want to add the superstar play to their arsenal. They don't say, in so many words, "Matt, teach me how to make a superstar play!" But, that's what they're asking me to do.

The first and most obvious problem with this inquiry is that I don't play as well as Negreanu or Ivey. To get around that issue, let's change the question to this: "How can I make a play that I wouldn't ordinarily make, that looks almost silly out of context but might be the kind of play that I need to learn how to make in order to get to the next level as a poker player?" That's a question that I can at least attempt to answer.

Unfortunately, even for that question, there is no easy answer. There is no quick way to get a player to start playing better poker. It's counterproductive, in my opinion, to try to come up with a formula, or other set of rules, for making a superstar play. One of the few things I've heard Ivey say about his playing style is that he has no rules in poker. If you want to eventually make superstar plays, this "no rules" philosophy is a great starting point. My students might want me to tell them, "OK, if you have pocket fives, and three overcards come, but your opponent reaches behind his ear before betting on the turn, you should plan to call his turn bet, and then make a raise on the river that offers him a really good price, because that combination will lead to him giving you credit for a hand and folding his own medium-strength hand." But advice like this obviously wouldn't be helpful.

A far better approach than memorizing a series of fancy plays that could be used in hyperspecific situations is to simply work on all aspects of your poker game. Get better at picking up opponents' tells. Get better at analyzing opponents' betting patterns. Work harder on balancing your own game, so that the great players aren't making superstar plays against you. A dirty secret is that you make money just as easily by betting a medium-strength hand and getting called by a fish with a weak hand as you do by making a superstar play. Another dirty secret is that to make a great, unconventional play at the poker table, you must have a lot of confidence in your own abilities as a poker player. That confidence will come only as a result of great overall skill. A superstar play is not something you can just learn to do in a vacuum. You have to be a great player first.

Do you even need superstar reading ability to be a great poker player? Dr. Bill Chen would likely say no. He won two bracelets at the World Series of Poker last summer, relying mostly on what he calls a "core strategy." This means that he is thinking about how to respond to an opponent's bets and raises before they even happen. He creates a strong, largely predetermined, overall strategy for his own play, so that his opponents can't take advantage of him. He thinks much more about his own range of hands for certain action sequences than his opponent's range during a particular hand of poker. I don't think Chen would describe himself as a great reader of tells, and I'm not sure that he's ever credited himself with making a superstar play. It seems to work out OK for him.

Don't try to become Daniel Negreanu or Phil Ivey overnight. They certainly didn't become themselves overnight. I will tell my readers the same thing I tell my students: Work on improving your game in small increments. Eventually, the things you do at the poker table will surprise even yourself. 0x01 graphic

Matt Matros is the author of The Making of a Poker Player, which is available online at www.CardPlayer.com.