Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

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May 27th, 2018
Back Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

There are few things that can get you off to a good start in a poker game as effective as making a good flop.

You have just taken your seat in a new game and the dealer throws you an ace five of spades. You call the bet and another player raises.

Three other players join you in calling the raise.

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The raiser is holding pocket kings. The flop comes king queen seven -- all spades. A perfect nut flop for you.

Remember what the announcer says to begin the Indianapolis 500 -- 'Gentlemen, start your engines!' Well, you have started your engine and it's blowing fire.

You come out betting. Two players, suspecting a bluff, call. The raiser holding three kings raises. When it gets back to you, of course you re-raise. And you keep betting your made flush to the river. Your luck holds up and the board doesn't pair, guaranteeing you a winner.

This is the best start you can get whether you are in a cash game or a tournament. The dealer pushes you a good-sized pot and your confidence soars. It's almost as good as a football team scoring a touchdown in the first minute or two of a game. The National Football League refers to it as momentum and you are certainly full of it.

Now for the sake of argument, let's reverse your position. Say the dealer sends you pocket aces. Again you raise. Another player who holds pocket kings re-raises you and the two of you cap the bets. This time, though, the flop goes against you and a king falls. When the river card doesn't help you, the dealer pushes the pot to the winner.

You don't go on tilt exactly, but you come mighty close. Losing the pot with such a good hand affects your play for the next several hands. It's hard to get away from losing with pocket aces.

Losing such a hand will set back the average player. The only way to combat it is to grit your teeth, toughen your standards, and play only premium hands in good position in order to make up the loss and get yourself back on track.

I compare a poker game to a nine-inning baseball game. A baseball team loves to score runs in the early innings. Those runs give confidence to the pitcher and allows him to pitch his best game without feeling the pressure of wondering if his team is going to score.

If the other team scores first, the pitcher feels the pressure and it affects his mood and the way he throws the ball. Some pitchers can recover their momentum, while others falter and eventually the manager has to replace his starting hurler with a relief pitcher.

In a thoroughbred horse race, the horse with the early speed has a decided advantage over the rest of the field. Good handicappers look for the horse with the likely early speed. If there is no other real speed in the race, that is their selection. If they are right about the speed, they cash in their winning tickets.

If you enter a poker tournament, you want to pile up chips early on. This gives you an advantage over the other players at your table and you can start playing them differently while adding to your stack. The more chips you have, the easier it is to attack the short stacks. As the tournament moves on and your chip lead increases, you put even more pressure on the other players and give yourself an even greater chance of ending up at the final table.

Here is another tip that should help you. If you have a reasonable starting hand, don't let a raise or even a double raise cause you to fold your hand. Be willing to gamble. Regardless of what your opponent is raising with, a good flop will change things in your favor. And there are few things more aggravating than folding a winning hand before the flop. You will have trouble forgetting it and it will affect your game for a long time after the fact.

When you sit down at a poker table, be optimistic. Smile and expect the best. Tell yourself over and over, 'I have the best seat at the table.' It will build your optimism and it will give you a winning edge. The rest is up to you.

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