Coach Steve

   A Realistic View on NL Cash

Sometimes you come across a cocky player who makes a statement like, "I never lose."  Any pro who hears those words is licking his chops because that person is about to have his first losing session of his life.  The bottom line is, losing is every bit a part of poker as winning.

Now that we have identified this fact, how does one become a winning player in poker.  The bottom line is, better players lose a little less than other players.  Notice I didn't say they win a little more than other players.  A winning player makes one better fold then a losing player.  A winning player plays his hands more aggressively so they win bigger pots for their winning hands than a losing player.

Any player at any skill level can win a big pot with a full house.  It's the player who can fold top pair with top kicker to a better hand, that makes a player a winner.  To be a little more specific, if  you fold top pair to trips and only lose ¼ of your stack and I go all in and lose my whole stack then you're a winning player even though you lost that  hand.

The pros  give up less with their losing hands and they win more with theie winning hands.  Sounds simple, but a lot of people take for granted that even the best players take their beats, lose a buy-in or two.  The difference is,  top players know they will lose a certain percentage of hands and win a certain percentage of hands and are comfortable that they will lose less money than they win. 

I wrote this article because  I want new players to have a realistic view of what poker can and can't do.  It can provide entertainment, escape, social gratification and even a living but, it can't be played at a level that losing is eliminated all together. The best players I know care very little about individual sessions and more about the outcome over 5 or 6 sessions (1000 hands for online guys).  They know they will win and lose over that time, the better players simply win more than they lose.

Steve