Understanding and Miss Understanding of Situations

A player will be unaware that he is making errors, and in that respect, is just making parallel mistakes to the blunders that unskilled players who populate the low stakes games make. However, because he has enough knowledge to vary his play, it can take time to pinpoint his particular theoretical ignorance.

To give an analogy from another game: When playing Ping Pong, one way to counter a strong under-spin shot is with an under-spin shot called a `push'. It is easy to recognize a player who has not developed that aspect of his game because he will keep hitting the ball into the net by not using the right stroke.

Other counter strategies indicate that a player has reached a higher level of skill. Either a table tennis player uses a `pick' hit (where he `slaps' the ball with his paddle and heavy topspin goes toward his opponent) or a `roll' (where he slowly changes the spin by rolling his paddle from low to high on the ball). Both are attacking shots and more difficult to execute than a 'push'.

Even for a casual observer, it will be easy to note the difference in ability levels among players by the shot choice a player uses to counter the strong under-spin shot. In poker, someone unfamiliar with the game will rarely recognize this difference in skill, and even veterans might sometimes not know exactly what they are watching because it deals in areas of knowledge they do not understand.

This is just one example of how these considerations work into your overall plan. You will always be taking into account what your opponents will do with the cards they hold. The challenge is to be increasingly accurate in your play. Whether your game is Hold'em, Stud, or Omaha there are various important concepts to understand peculiar to that game.

theories about poker

counter strategies indicate

innumerable situational considerations