Online Poker Press

A friend of mine was recalling an online no-limit poker game he had been playing in earlier this week to me over dinner recently and told me about how his table during that session had two absolute fish sitting next to each other. They would call off bets on every turn with middle pair or worse, and just had a bad overall understanding of the game. My friend felt so bad for these two that he decided to never try and trap those players when in hands against them, instead opting to just make smallish bets and take down average pots. He asked me what I thought about that and I told him the truth…..he’s insane.

Maybe something has changed in the past few years, but to me playing poker is about winning money. Sure, there might be some instances like in conservative home games where you could ease up and not bully the table, but when playing online and in a live card room, I believe you should only be sitting down to play if you’re determined to pick up every chip off the felt before you leave.

As I’ve said before, poker is ALL about picking on the weak players, because they are the easiest to beat. Sure I might get lucky with a big hand against a top player occasionally, but more often than not I will be winning the absolute minimum against great players. However, those that will call raises and go all-in with mediocre hands are the reasons why pro players even sit down at the table to begin with. It might seem like they only play against other pros while watching them on TV, but trust me, their bread and butter is made during sessions against weak opponents.

Moral of the story, if someone is willing to buy-in to the game you’re playing, they’re also willing to put their stack at risk, and it’s your job to take it from them if possible. It might sound harsh, but to coin an old popular phrase, that’s poker folks.