Words matter. These are the best Daniel Negreanu Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Don’t try to make a big bluff on the turn with a drawing hand. With only one card to come, even a big draw is an underdog against a made hand. Keep the betting small.
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.
Blind stealing is not exclusive to late position play. You can steal blinds from any position, and you should!
In small ball poker, you’ll need to widen your starting hand requirements beyond pocket pairs and A-K.
Powerful drawing hands, like a pair with a flush draw or even conventional straight and flush draws, are often good opportunities to try a semi-bluff – making a bet or raise that you hope will not be called, but leaves you some outs if it is.
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.
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.
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 golf, no one learns to hit a draw, a fade, or a cut shot until they’ve been taught how to hit the ball straight. Similarly, novice poker players need to learn how to ‘hit it straight’ before taking on more difficult concepts.
You have to play more hands than usual to be successful in tournament poker. While a conservative approach can help you squeak into the money, the only way to win is to mix it up and get involved with a wider range of starting hands.
I seldom reraise before the flop no matter what my hand is. By so doing, I’m able to disguise the strength of my hand and can trap unsuspecting opponents who interpret my smooth call as a sign of weakness.
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.
In tournaments, players typically raise when they enter the pot. In cash games, though, players are more likely to limp in before the flop. That’s because cash games are usually deeper-stacked, meaning that players will have a higher ratio of chips in relation to the blinds than they would in a tournament.
It’s never a good thing when an opponent has a solid read on you pre-flop.
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.
Playing tricky poker doesn’t have to mean making bizarre moves or playing way out of character. Rather, it’s simply about taking advantage of what you know about your opponents and how they perceive your style of play.
You don’t need a Ph.D. in mathematics to be a successful poker player.
Playing deep-stack, no-limit hold’em is a very complex game where the most critical and difficult decisions come after the flop.
Premium hands are simply few and far between when large pots are at stake.
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.
The art of reading physical tells isn’t an exact science.
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.
In karate, as your skill level increases, your instructor presents you with the next belt. But in poker, only you can decide when it’s time to graduate to the next level. That’s a tricky proposition for some players because it’s difficult to assess your own progress.
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.
Whatever game suits you best, learn to play both Limit and No Limit Texas Hold’em. Your overall game will definitely improve.
When you play No Limit Hold’em, the ideal strategy is to take minimal risk, do little bluffing, and hope that weaker players call you when you have a strong hand. But that’s the perfect world. Sometimes you’ll face opponents that play very conservatively and will rarely pay you off when you have the goods.
Check-raising with a drawing hand on the turn is simply a kamikaze gamble. It might work once in a while, but if you consistently attempt it, too often you’ll find yourself watching the rest of the tournament from behind the rail.
A common mistake made by amateurs is that they fail to take advantage of players who bluff excessively. Instead of playing possum and letting their aggressive opponents continue to bet, beginners raise too early with monster hands, allowing their opponents to fold.
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.
Success at poker is ultimately the result of solid fundamentals and the ability to read your opponents’ betting patterns. This is especially true when playing online. But playing live poker is a completely different animal. In this venue, the presence of physical tells can not be overlooked.
Poker is not a team sport. It’s every man for himself. It’s perfectly okay to root for your buddies and hope they do well, but when it’s time to play the game, you have to give it your all. All by yourself, that is.
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.
Playing middle pairs like 10-10, 9-9, 8-8, and 7-7 can be difficult but only if you overvalue them and mistakenly play them as you would premium hands.
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.
Less control can be exerted in Limit games because it’s more difficult to force players out of pots with structured betting. In No Limit, though, hands can be protected from being outdrawn by making large bets that force opponents to fold weak draws.
Playing Limit Hold’em will certainly improve your No Limit game. There are subtleties to the Limit game that will enhance your technique at the No Limit tables. Mastering these uniquely aggressive Limit tactics will enable you to steal more pots when you sit down to play No Limit Hold’em.
Hyper-aggressive poker works best in deep-stack tournaments.
Swallow your pride and be completely objective about your own poker skill level. Only then can you implement an effective betting strategy.
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 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.
Common wisdom in Texas Hold’em suggests that you should raise before the flop if you’re planning to play a hand. The saying goes, ‘Raise or fold,’ but is that correct? Well, it’s not the worst advice, but limiting yourself to one of these two options would be a mistake.
In the world of poker, it’s not heroic to try to function on a couple hours of sleep.
Playing correctly from the small blind can be frustrating and confusing. On the one hand, you already have half the bet in the pot, which should entice you to play more hands. On the other, you’ll have to play out of position on every street, which suggests that you should actually play fewer hands.
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.
The World Series of Poker has always attracted a competitive international field.
