Poker is a pretty aggressive card game but that doesn’t mean that you need to always be pushy. It just means that you need to focus on the things that really matter and push away the things that don’t. Far too often poker players think that if they’re just pushy enough, everything else is going to fall into place. That’s something you’re going to have to avoid because if you aren’t careful, you’re going to end up doing something that you can’t take back, just because you think that you’re the aggressor.
This is actually considered a weakness, as some of the best players in the world know when they can be dominant and when they will have to give the illusion of being weaker than the other player. Remember that poker is all about psychological warfare more than anything else. So if you think that you’re going go make most of your wins just by being the pushiest player, you’re actually in for a shock.
It all goes back to knowing what type of hand to keep and which one to give up. You always have to look at your board before you try to commit to any type of pot, no matter how sweet it might look. In fact, you might end up getting pulled into a big pot on purpose, when the other person knows full well that you have a good hand. That’s something that trips even seasoned players.
There are ways to break through it. You might feel that you’re doing the best for your own strategy by always being the bully. However, what you’re really doing is marking yourself. If you’re always the attacker, then people are going to be on the defense. The better approach is to make sure that you are always adjusting your strategy on the table. If you want to be a wolf, be a wolf — but learn how to hide. That’s really going to be the best way to ensure that you aren’t going to have to worry about the type of players that are constantly tracking your moves. You will be able to change your persona so much on the table that they aren’t going to really know what to honestly do with you.
Be sure that you are reviewing your card games, if at all possible. If you can look for patterns where you’re making the same mistakes over and over, that’s only going to make it more likely that you really do get what you want to get in the long run.
What you ultimately want are more in the money finishes when it comes to poker tournaments of all kinds. It would be hard to get so close to winning the money and then avoid it, right? This means that you need to look at your strategy. In the world of poker, people are actively looking for bullies. Therefore you will be in plain sight when the “hunters” come, and that’s not where you want to be.
Good luck with your poker strategy!