LOCK STOCK & £900! A friend of this column is a junior assistant in a city firm of stockbrokers. He’s not on a particularly high salary and his real joy in life is playing poker in the evenings while he attempts to rise through the ranks of the financial district. A normal seven day period would see him online three evenings a week with a live social game at weekends. We asked him what strategy he employed. His answer was simple and something new players among you might want to take onboard.
He treats his hands as though they were company stocks. If he really likes the look of them, he invests. If they’re absolutely premium hands he invests aggressively and if they’re dogs he dumps them immediately. Not flexible. No improvisation. He’s just a brutal young would-be broker of his own cards and attempts to keep emotion out of the mix. He made £900 last month playing online Omaha.
WHEN TO INVEST The above prompts the question when are hole cards good enough to invest in? Here are the bench marks to help you make the decision. If you have a pocket pair you’ll flop a set approximately twelve per cent of the time. If you’re holding ace-king you’ll flop a pair almost forty per cent of the time (This is a blue chip investment) If you have two suited hole cards you will flop four cards to a flush over ten per cent of the time. Obviously your table position will play a part in your investment decision.
OUR ADVICE The stock-style-strategy certainly works for very disciplined individuals and you are more likely to come out a winner if you can stick rigidly to it. For us, it’s a little cold. Improvisation when you have the experience will add a new winning dimension to your game. The ability to change gears in your game when you’ve assessed the kind of table you’re playing is probably the most important skill you can develop. The best way to develop that experience is through an excellent FREE poker tutorial. The poker lessons at dailystarpoker.com are top notch and easy to follow.
ALL THE ACES poker column: Sunday, February 12, 2006: Lock Stock & £900: Treating Poker Like A Stockmarket Investment
