'It takes courage to be a good poker player,' Doyle Brunson once told me in an interview.
I must have not been listening to him very carefully because Brunson's words failed to really register with me until recently. Now I know exactly what he meant.
Doyle developed poker courage early in his card-playing career. Over the years I have seen it exhibited by other players and I have used it myself. It is an awesome talent and a real gift to the player who understands how it works.
Let's begin this learning session in this way. You have just raised the pot with a typical raising hand -- A-K or A-Q, suited or otherwise. The flop comes and you miss it as you will a large percentage of the time. The flop is 8-8-2 or something similar.
The typical player will make a continuation bet and a couple of players will call him. Fourth street is no help. Now what do you do? Many players will make a bet on fourth street. There will be fewer callers this time, including the brave soul who hopes to improve his hand on the river.
The river card comes and it is no help to you. What do you do in this situation?
Poker courage requires you to make a bet.
This, I believe, is the factor that determines if you are going to be an average or a really good poker player. You need the courage to bet on nothing. Sometimes you will win and sometimes you will lose -- BUT YOU MUST MAKE THAT BET. To do otherwise would be to throw away a vital tool in a poker player's arsenal of weapons -- the power of deception.
Poker players, especially the good ones, have long memories. They remember attempted bluffs that failed and they remember how you have played past hands. Those memories determine how they respond to your betting action in the future.
It's all part of poker. Poker players are actors. We play parts as we go through action. We win, lose and sometimes we go through a lot of pain before we gain a winning edge.
Some players are not very good at acting. Their deceptive moods are challenged by a skeptic who decides to see what makes him so proud of his hand. That is when the person doing the betting loses it and throws his cards at the dealer like it was his fault they misplayed the hand.
When I play poker, I am the captain of my ship. I can sail my vessel through shallow water where there is danger of my crashing on hidden rocks or running aground. My fate is totally in my own hands.
While I prefer a smooth voyage, I have a gleam in my eye and will seek out danger on occasion. This means taking a chance when the odds are against me. It means betting when my hand doesn't have a chance of winning. Poker players call it firing the third barrel.
I often fire that third barrel when I have assessed my opponents and decide they are not going to call me. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose.l I will beat the better players who understand pot odds and lose to the amateur who doesn't. It's all part of the game. Good luck. Let the action begin.
Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.
(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).
