Shark Vet - Guest Post

Patience is huge in Poker. Especially in large field Freerolls where many are newbies or all in crazy. One of our best Shark players posted this in the forum.

By Howwler

However.. getting back to public freerolls this is my take on playing these things:

Just be careful and patient for the first hour.. you'll see a number of maniacs playing Freerolls because of the simple reason.. they're free AND.. there's another coming along in half hour.

I find that waiting for monster hands the first hour works well for me. Toss small pockets if one or two players are already in (and you'll see a lot of that during the first hour). Also, don't go in the hand if you've got J10 or below in early position.. inevitably, someone will be all in either in middle or late position with either KQos, AJ or A10 and a number of times.. with nothing bigger than A rag.. There be maniacs in Freerolls.. and I can't express this too many times!

If you can't find those monster hands during that first hour.. be patient.. they'll come. In the meantime, play your game so you don't get booted out for inactivity.

Patience - don't have it, get it... Can't get it? Find another hobby.

aggression - be selective with it, don't be aggressive each and every hand - what works for Gus Hanson and Sharky doesn't work all that well with online poker freerolls - too many donks out there playing 2 7os like it was pocket aces!

Patience - don't have it, get it... Cant get it? Find another hobby.

Loosen up a bit during the second hour.. most of the maniacs either quadupled (yeah.. some of 'em get damn lucky, I've seen a 4-7 os pick up a straight with an all in against pocket J's) OUCH - or they're gone! There are dummies out there that will play anything in Freerolls.

If you made it to the third hour your doing well and you should have a healthy chip stack at this time. Now's the time to pick on the smaller stacks and bluff alot on the button or the cutoff. You should be able to feel out your opponents by now. Most of the players that made it this far with the smaller stacks are tightening up. They want to make it to the next hour and they're protecting their chips.

In the fourth hour.. You should be tightening up a bit here.. protect your chips, wait for the premium hands and attack those shorter chip stacks. Premium hands are great for raising those big chip stack players. They're also great for all in plays. Scares the hell out of any player that's made it this far... if they don't have the stone cold nuts, they'll fold and even if your picking up blinds at this stage.. they'll add to your stack considerably.

I don't play Freerolls very often but when I do, it's usually Bobblehead Freerolls in AP. I do enjoy the apparel that AP gives out through these.. although not quite as nice as the swag Shark offers.. but still.. nice enough.

And one more thing...

Patience - don't have it, get it... cant get it? Find another hobby!

It's DAMN important to be patient or give up poker - simple as that - if you think that the 1 or 2 or so hours on TV you see the pro's play is long LOL forget it - some of those tables last days! Hell, the championship heads up match took 15 hours to complete, so get comfy!

__________________ Part 2

I mentioned Patience in an earlier post but I'd like to continue one step further and try and quantify what skills you should possess in poker: (however, I will still discuss more patience - be patient now.. )

What to have and how to use it when playing poker:

We're told that to be successful, we need a profound knowledge of the game of poker and a good working knowledge of our opponents during play but did you know that we can quantify these skills we need so badly?

Unfortunately, we can't quantify any aspects of the game of poker without truly analyzing what you should be putting into it. These should fall under the following categories:

1: Patience
2: Strategy
3: Math
4. Note Taking
5. Emotions and
6. Miscellaneous

First and foremost, the first skill you bring to the table should be Patience, Patience and more Patience.

If you don't have it, find yourself another game that doesn't limit your ability to sit for hours, waiting for a decent hand to play and take up either golf, which in itself is a great cardiovascular activity, or billiards, which relies heavily on knowing angles and the ability to see colors... The only patience you'll need in the above noted games is waiting for your opponent to take a stroke so you can play.

Try waiting out a table full of poker players anxiously awaiting a decent hand, hour after hour, slowly playing what cards they can, constantly deliberating over 2 pocket cards... patience, patience, and more patience!

It should be noted that about among other skills, Patience should represent about 51% of your play. [51%??? You've got to be kidding me.. but in all seriousness, that's what it does come down to].

Strategy (including but not limited to knowing and playing pocket cards by position, slow playing, raising, check raising, aggression, etc.) should represent 20%.

Math (includes pot odd, implied odds, probabilities, etc.) equates to 10% of your game.

Note taking, (whether through poker software, i.e. Poker Tracker, using the respective poker site software services, table selection, ect.) should represent 8% of your game.

Next is Emotions (which includes self-control, tolerance for stupidity, bad beats as well as a tolerance for being out played as well, etc.,) represents 6% and next is;

Miscellaneous, (which includes a countless number of minor abilities, including behavioral.) which accounts for 3% of your skills.

For those of you that actually counted, youÂ’re probably saying that the above only accounts for 98% so what's the other 2%?

That my friends, is Lady Luck. She dispenses at will, either giving or taking the additional 2%. Possibly 1% for bad luck and the other for good... we each get our fair share of good and bad luck.

But.. whatever the luck she brings, good or bad, it's out of our control. Just make sure that other 98% is completely in your control !

Great Post Hal.Email Me for a Shark Hat or Bad A$$ Tee Hal! Size and street addie please.
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