Poker strategies section. Psychological techniques for playing poker Psychology of online poker

The game of poker is accessible to everyone, but not everyone has the ability to “read” a player’s behavior. The success of any activity depends on three factors: talent, work and luck. Moreover, the presence of at least two is required. This applies to poker in particular. Many people misunderstand the meaning of the game, and if they lose, they say: “I was unlucky today.” Luck is only 33.3% of success. Next comes work and talent, and let’s not lie, let’s say that not everyone is gifted with talent. In this case, work is needed and great effort is required to play poker successfully.

The whole problem is not even in the bankroll management strategy, as many poker textbook sites say. Watch any WSOP poker tournament and you'll see that a pro can take the pot with even the worst card preflop. It's all psychology. Maybe you are overwhelmed with excitement, the euphoria of winning, emotions when the bank exceeds your contribution by 5 times, but you need to be able to hold on and fold in time if you understand that someone has a stronger card. But how do you learn to keep your emotions in check? There are many psychological nuances aimed at people of different personalities, but there are also basic tendencies that everyone can take advantage of.

To become a more or less experienced poker player, you need to learn the basic mistakes of all beginners. One of the most common mistakes is playing hands unreasonably aggressively. The error occurs when there is a strong card in hand. In this case, the beginner hurries to raise on each round of trading. Strong players simply fold and, at best, a beginner takes a pot of 3-4 big blinds. The opposite situation is also possible when playing hands passively. This mistake is much worse, since passively playing hands, firstly, brings almost no income, and secondly, taking into account the game on a table of 5-10 people, you will gradually lose money. Finally, another scourge of modern poker is rightfully called unreasonable bluffing. This error speaks for itself. Bluff is not a synonym for the word deception, as many believe, it is a special tactic. Only a fairly experienced player can bluff profitably. To achieve success in this tactic, you need to take it higher - deal not with your own psychology, but with the psychology of your opponents. Unreasonable bluffing is the worst mistake, as it allows you to lose money in the shortest possible time. In no case should you think that these are the main psychological aspects when playing poker. Whole books are written on this topic in several volumes with examples. And this is a simple article, which for those who don’t like to read a book, provides the minimum basis, using which you can last a little longer in a professional tournament. Go for it!

In this article you will learn about a very important aspect of poker – signs. Special signs will tell you, for example, whether your opponent is bluffing. Observe your opponent's body language and monitor his speech. I divide signs into categories: intentional and subconscious.
Number one – strong means weak. It's time for you to bet and your opponent is obviously staring at you. This is most likely done on purpose, this action is aimed at intimidating you and taking you out of the game.
Number two is a weak combination. If the player shrugs and says, “I'll bet,” in a tired voice, then you need to have a good hand to back the bet. This is a player to be wary of.
Number three - consciously looking away from the game, this is also a sign. A player who looks away is more dangerous than a player who looks at you. If you see an opponent who has taken his eyes off the game, beware of him.
Number four - when betting, your opponent looks at the chips, this is a sign of weakness. He is trying to convince you that he is not interested in your chips, he is interested in something else, more important. Don't be intimidated.

Let's move on to subconscious actions.
Number five is a strong combination. Shaky hands - not many players fake nervousness on purpose, and real shaking is hard to fake.
Number six is a weak combination. Watch how the bets happen, if everything goes smoothly, but at the end some strange things appear, sudden movements of the fingers, laying out the chips - this is an underline that may indicate weakness. Your opponent is either bluffing or unsure of his combination.
Number seven is trembling and anxiety. This is usually expressed in actions, the player shows no patience.
Number eight is breathing rate. This subconscious sign is one of the most powerful in poker. The point is that a player who has a strong hand is very excited and needs to breathe faster. On the other hand, a person who is bluffing tends to hold their breath or stop breathing altogether. Such a player is afraid that any gesture he makes will prompt his opponent to support the bet.
Number nine - looks at the chips. Once the dealer has dealt the cards, this is a good time to read your opponent's behavior. Make sure your opponent takes a quick look at his chips after looking at his cards. This means that he likes how the game is going and plans to continue.
Number ten – touches the chips. Such a gesture, in anticipation of a partner’s bid, can mean both strength and weakness. If this is done on purpose, then the opponent wants to intimidate you. Remember, strong means weak! However, a player with a strong hand may sometimes touch the chips before placing a bet. Experienced players never do this.

There's one more thing to know about signs, don't get too hung up on them. Most signs don't give you a 100% guarantee. Signs are one of the factors, along with strategy, that leads you to a certain decision.

The game of poker is built on the basis of not only mathematical and logical, but also psychological laws. The concept of “the psychology of playing poker” can include all kinds of behavioral reactions, as well as any changes of an emotional and psychological nature that poker players encounter during a session.

It is the multidirectionality of poker vectors that requires a professional player not only to know the rules, the ability to calculate probabilities and master logical thinking, but also to understand the fundamentals of human psychology. A successful poker player must have developed intuition, build a competent strategy, be able to read an opponent, influence his decision-making process and analyze his own behavior at the table from a psychological point of view.

The longer a player is familiar with poker, the more obvious it becomes to him that the psychology of poker is one of the most important parts of the game, the understanding of which frees the poker player from unpleasant surprises at the table. Beginners often think that poker psychology is too complicated to master, and therefore they prefer to master the basic skills of ABC strategy and do not even try to understand this issue deeper. We hasten to assure you that this approach, although it can be successfully used in the initial stages of the game, will only cost you money in the long run. The Poker House website presents a number of short and understandable lessons that help you quickly understand the peculiarities of poker psychology in online and offline battles. Read the materials in this section and you will understand that conquering the psychological side of the game is actually much easier than it might seem at first glance.

Psychology of a poker player

The entire psychology of poker and the strategy associated with it is divided into 2 main subsections:

poker player’s own psychology;
opponent's psychology.

The first subsection includes analysis and understanding of one’s own psychological blocks and characteristics. It is thanks to the ability to understand your own tells, as well as with the help of simple rules for fighting on tilt, that you can significantly improve your game. The psychology of a poker player in this case is understood as something like a session of independent psychoanalysis, and therefore it would be most reasonable to call this subsection of poker psychology as “Self-control”. Topics that will be covered here include:

your readability for opponents;
the importance of creating an individual image at the table;
the need to change the line of play during the session;
ways to overcome tilt;
control of timing of decision making, etc.

The second subsection of poker psychology includes the player’s ability and ability to determine opponents’ tells and use the acquired knowledge for personal gain. Understanding the motives and habits of your opponents allows you to calculate the actions at the table several moves ahead and win without much difficulty. Conventionally, this subsection of poker psychology can be entitled “The ability to read an opponent.” Concepts such as:

determining the opponent’s psychological state based on external signs;
determining the character of the enemy;
recording notes;
levels of thinking, etc.

Studying Poker House lessons will not only help you master self-control, but will also allow you to quickly and effectively analyze your opponent's gestures, behavior, speech and gaze.

Psychology of online poker

The importance of studying the psychology of poker often remains undeniable for most offline players, but online fans often consider this part of the training unnecessary, which is completely in vain. Poker is always a game with incomplete information, and by limiting oneself to using an exclusively logical-mathematical approach, any poker player will only increase the variance of his sessions and lose extra money.

Of course, in a live game we can analyze the visual manifestations of our opponent’s emotions, while online we are limited only by statistical data, but this can often be quite enough to successfully apply a winning psychological strategy.

The psychology of online poker is based on understanding the frequency with which an opponent makes certain moves and remembering his reaction to various outcomes of battles. In this sense, the psychology of playing online poker becomes nothing more than calculating statistics over the longest possible distances, but some players have such a level of skill that they can calculate the tilt of an unfamiliar opponent even by minor changes in the level of his aggression and other subtle signs. In addition, familiarity with the basics of psychology helps online poker players win much more often by bluffing effectively and creating a certain image at the table and playing hands correctly.

Improve yourself with Poker House and poker psychology will soon become your reliable assistant on the way to mastering the professional level of poker playing.

The psychology of gambling in general and poker in particular has become a full-fledged science in recent years. In gambling, the attitude towards psychology is much more serious than even in psychological clinics and private specialists, since money is at stake, often quite a lot. This subject is taught to casino employees as a full-fledged science, since it is the croupiers, administrators and staff serving the gambling halls that bring income to the establishment.

For playing poker, psychology issues stand on their own., especially for real table play. This is not only a battle of poker skill, but a battle of character, psychological preparedness, endurance and balance of every move.

Psychology of the game process

Poker psychology is a broad concept that involves assessing the behavior of other players at the table and determining various actions on their part.

A poker game is a battle, with several opponents at once, who also calculate the others and try to play on weaknesses. Victory in this battle is only possible if you know what other players are thinking. Moreover, you need to understand that they can also know about the course of your thoughts and you need to again be aware of how this will affect the course of their thoughts. Poker psychology is nothing more than a serious system for assessing the behavior of opponents based on numerous criteria, applying the picture to your game and using the results to win.

At the same time, the player needs to not only evaluate each player at the table and note the flaws in his game, but also carefully hide any manifestations of interest in him, and also hide emotions with a mask of simplicity and uncertainty.

Of course, professional players taking part in famous people, recordings of their games are in the public domain and are analyzed by everyone who allows the opportunity to sit down with such a player at the same table. However, despite this level, these players are constantly updating and improving their knowledge in psychology as a science and the psychology of poker as its direction.

There are several examples in the world where experienced poker players, mixed martial arts stars and other athletes are also professionals in the field of psychology and human behavior, graduates of prestigious educational institutions in this field, and some have their own works.

Psychology of poker as an example

The situation is as follows - nothing came from the hand, but the flop contains a pair and you . The other player re-raises because he has determined that in these situations you are bluffing and tries to draw out the maximum number of bets before refusing to continue playing.

In fact, the situation may be as follows, having noticed similar behavior on your part the opponent, without having it in his hands, simply draws money into the bank. The correct reaction in this situation would be to call the opponent and repeat the bluff bet with an opening. Thus, poker psychology will force your opponent to think about whether you have a combination and, if he really has nothing, to fold.

This psychology of playing poker is a model, which applies to the player who evaluates the behavior of opponents, as well as strict betting and game control.

Poker newbies who are defined as fish have a different poker psychology because they are likely to maintain or raise a bet on the flop with a weak hand in hopes of strengthening it on the turn.

There are more complex situations where the psychology of online poker is revealed in full light.

Example. The flop brought a pair of cards of the same suit, while the opponent had a bet early.

Watching his opponents, a strong player saw that in the presence of potentially strong cards, his opponent often resorted to strategy. An analysis of one’s own behavior in a given situation tells the player that the opponent’s hands are likely to be the same.

A further increase in the bet with the arrival of the turn and river will force the player to abandon the idea, especially when the cards for did not arrive. However, we should not forget that the psychology of poker is a generally accepted concept for players and in order to throw off opponents who may also be playing with weak hands or even bluffing, the player continues to answer bets until the very end.

It is easier to use poker psychology in a real game than when participating in online tournaments, since a purely gambling situation is also mixed with a verbal and non-verbal assessment of each opponent, identifying moments of excitement, deliberate calm, imposing what he sees on the actions performed at the table and making decisions on one’s own conduct of the game.

Psychology of online poker

When it is impossible to look your opponent in the face, any assessments are made from his actions at the table.

An opponent's bet at the end of a situation in which you will call clearly indicates that he is not bluffing.

Example. All board cards are face up and your opponent raises your bet.. The psychology of the game of poker involves trying to create confusion at the very end of the hand, but few people are willing to risk the pot empty-handed.

On the other hand, when your raise at the moment of opening all the cards on the table is interrupted by a reraise opponent, poker psychology says that you need to fold, since the probability of the other player having a stronger combination is very high. However, it is possible that an opponent uses active aggressive tactics just to create such an impression and get a significant pot on a pass at the very end of the hand. The psychology of online poker often confronts such players. Very often, when they see a significant amount in the bank on the penultimate or last round of betting, they go all-in, knocking out weaker players.

The solution to this issue is to carefully study the behavior of a particular player. in every hand. The psychology of online poker allows you to try on the situation that your opponent is facing and look at the game through his eyes, for example, recording identical repetitions of behavior and trying different reactions to them. Especially you should not refuse to answer after opening the board. A refusal supports the opponent’s bluff and will lead to a repetition of the situation, while an answer, especially if there is a good combination in hand, if it does not knock the player out of the game, especially at high levels, will noticeably cool his ardor.

Finally

The psychology of poker is a fascinating activity, especially at the moment, when a qualitative assessment will lead to predicting behavior and smoothly leading the opponent to larger and larger bets in a obviously losing situation.

The Psychology of Poker is Subject to Models or Labels, which are convenient to pin on opponents after a preliminary assessment of their behavior at the table. This one is “cautious” and comes forward only with a strong card, the other one is “inadequate” and rushes for a raise in any situation in the hope that others will pass from his impudence. The psychology of online poker is full of such shortcuts, and the faster you learn to make a preliminary assessment, mark confirmations or refutations for it, the more profitable and interesting the game will become for you.

Players who know first-hand about the exciting card game know that the psychology of poker is based on two key positions:

Self-control of a participant during a card competition. The ability to make the right, most profitable decisions during the tournament.
Understanding your opponent's position.

The psychology of playing poker is extremely important! And all because quite a lot of those who have a good knowledge base are not always able to cope with their emotions at the moment when it is necessary to make a rational, informed decision.

Due to an excess of excitement, there is a risk of making incorrect, losing actions.

Of course, poker is a competition with an abundance of combinations and hands, which, one way or another, is accompanied by faith in luck, in other words, the player’s fortune.

The psychology of poker knows such a definition as tilt, in other words, it is “clouding of the mind”, which is based solely on the belief in one’s own luck.

This condition often affects beginners who are just trying their hand at poker. In some cases, this situation can extend to real pros.

In the latter case, poker psychology considers various variations of tilt.

Secrets to avoiding the “tilt state”:

The psychology of poker in matters of studying tilt is based on certain rules:

You should enter the competition only when you have the opportunity to concentrate as much as possible on the tournament.
This psychology of online poker, or rather one of the rules, is especially important. A player’s irritable state, a painful or even simply tired position can work against the poker player.
Participation in the tournament in this case does not bode well. Therefore, it is better to refrain from playing on such days.
First of all, the player’s concentration on the active search for the most correct solutions.
The result, in this case, is secondary. It happens that in the course of playing the right game you still have no luck, but the opponent, who does not think at all, enjoys victory.

At such moments, the psychology of poker assures that correct, balanced actions, one way or another, will be paid in full.

Speaking about the second important aspect that poker psychology is famous for, namely the ability to understand the actions and thoughts of an opponent, it should be said that such a skill is worth its weight in gold, it is especially significant.

Those poker players who understand why their opponent acted in a certain way in a given situation can classify themselves as thinking analytical players, real professionals.

In order to predict your actions as accurately as possible, it is important to understand why:

the opponent made a similar bet;
responded to a certain monetary contribution;
folded the cards.

The psychology of online poker requires a lot, but this is the only way the game makes sense and it cannot be called thoughtless and stupid.

It is important not to forget that other players at the poker table may turn out to be worthy opponents and, just like us, try to recognize the tactics and determine the course of the game by the participant.

For this reason, it is important to always be on the lookout and mislead your opponents. The psychology of poker provides many tactics and techniques that will be useful in practice.

Today, they even offer relevant manuals where you can learn more about deception techniques. This is a completely effective and practical method that will be useful to anyone who wishes to fight their opponent in this way.

Sometimes such tactics cannot always be justified with logical arguments, but nevertheless, they are effective and quite effective.

The psychology of poker, as it may seem at first glance, is very multifaceted and varied in texture. But if you seriously study this issue, then everything is subject to systematization.

Anyone who puts things in order in his own head will certainly understand how to play and win, how, by studying his opponent, he can achieve excellent results and reach the poker Olympus.

All the lessons in this course talked about different types of players and how important . In fact, poker without psychology is like watching a movie with your eyes closed, or listening to a concert with your ears closed.

A player cannot improve his without the ability to understand people. For example, if you believe what your opponents say or consider their actions to be honest, then you should not .

In one of the initial lessons we looked at the characteristics of poker players, we also looked at the characteristics of different types of players and showed some against them. The structure of the players' characteristics (in the game and outside of it) is based on their psychology and emotional characteristics. However, in this lesson, we will focus our attention on what helps players succeed by looking at three main areas of their characteristics:

Players' belief system.
Skill level.
Psychological factors.

Characteristics of winning players

Winning players have quite telling features. They try to avoid losses, especially in difficult hands. A player's internal belief system indicates whether a player is good or not. Such winners will behave positively and confidently. The winner will sit with a distant smile, but at the same time they will be in control of the game, they will avoid fuss about it. Other strong players, on the contrary, like to show that they control the game. They are less likely to win because instead of deceiving their opponents, they show who they really are.

Winners only play with money they can afford to lose, and only on hands they can win. You won't see these players betting against bad pot odds on a consistent basis. Regardless of how they manage their account, they only risk money that they can afford to lose. Their position is similar to the position of investors - do not waste money. These poker players always have a clear plan.