Stealing
Poker Strategy
/
Marcus Bateman /
24 March 2011 /
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Most of the greatest poker players are born thieves when it comes to their table play. Although (for the most part anyway) people of the highest integrity off the table and in terms of respecting the rules, when it comes to picking up chips that somebody else should own, good players are all master criminals.
This instinct to constantly look for holes in people's defences, and endlessly probe at any pot or blinds that people seem to be disinterested in adds up to huge sums of money over the long run, as pot after pot that should rightfully have been won by a better hand slides towards the thief. Poker is a world where many people have very set ideas about certain things, and this can lead them into basically automatically giving up in certain spots with certain hands - something good players are masters of exploiting.
As an example, some people will look at a small pair, see some high cards on a flop, and simply back down completely. They have a specific guide in their head to how poker should be played which they basically never deviate from - in this case, that you should not stick around without a set with small pairs - and their money that is now in the middle is effectively someone else's before the hand even ends.
Despite a huge prevalence of hand ranking charts, explicit advise and set rules in many poker texts, the reality of poker is that there is nothing ever set in stone. It is a game of pure relativity, and as such, it is critical that you stay wise to what is going on around you.
Just like in reality, poker is constantly innovating, and particularly in terms of who gets to steal and how. Imagine how badly a bank would fail if it decided that there was only one possible way to commit fraud against it and only implemented one security measure - it would no doubt fail just as badly as poker players who think rigidly about every hand in every situation against every opponent do. They lose very quickly as dynamic players tear their simple defences apart - something it is crucial to stay on top of in tough games, where opening up your defences to thieves can quickly lead to disaster.
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