Whatever your poker level — beginning, intermediate, or expert — you can always improve!
In The Kaizen of Poker, Sheree Bykofsky will help you take your game to the next level — and to the level after that. By learning how to identify and focus on the skills and strategies you need to improve most, you will find yourself raking in more pots and leaving the game a winner far more often. Do you play too many hands? Bluff too little or ineffectively? Not know how to read the other players’ strategies and cards? Take the “Morning After Challenge” and start outplaying the opponents you want to emulate. Expanding on Secrets the Pros Won’t Tell You About Winning Hold’Em Poker by Lou Krieger and Sheree Bykofsky, here she takes the Japanese concept of “Kaizen” — continuous improvement — and applies it to the card game we all love best.
Whatever your poker level — beginning, intermediate, or expert — you can always improve!
In The Kaizen of Poker, Sheree Bykofsky will help you take your game to the next level — and to the level after that. By learning how to identify and focus on the skills and strategies you need to improve most, you will find yourself raking in more pots and leaving the game a winner far more often. Do you play too many hands? Bluff too little or ineffectively? Not know how to read the other players’ strategies and cards? Take the “Morning After Challenge” and start outplaying the opponents you want to emulate. Expanding on Secrets the Pros Won’t Tell You About Winning Hold’Em Poker by Lou Krieger and Sheree Bykofsky, here she takes the Japanese concept of “Kaizen” — continuous improvement — and applies it to the card game we all love best.
The Kaizen of Poker: How to Continuously Improve Your Hold'em Game
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The Kaizen of Poker: How to Continuously Improve Your Hold'em Game
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Overview
Whatever your poker level — beginning, intermediate, or expert — you can always improve!
In The Kaizen of Poker, Sheree Bykofsky will help you take your game to the next level — and to the level after that. By learning how to identify and focus on the skills and strategies you need to improve most, you will find yourself raking in more pots and leaving the game a winner far more often. Do you play too many hands? Bluff too little or ineffectively? Not know how to read the other players’ strategies and cards? Take the “Morning After Challenge” and start outplaying the opponents you want to emulate. Expanding on Secrets the Pros Won’t Tell You About Winning Hold’Em Poker by Lou Krieger and Sheree Bykofsky, here she takes the Japanese concept of “Kaizen” — continuous improvement — and applies it to the card game we all love best.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781773051376 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | ECW Press |
| Publication date: | 06/05/2018 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 270 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
A literary agent and author, Sheree Bykofsky is also an avid poker player and teacher. In 2005, Sheree placed first in the World Series of Poker Ladies’ Circuit Event. She finished first out of more than 400 players in an online tournament to win a seat at the WSOP. Sheree lives, works, and plays poker on the Jersey Shore.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
DID YOU ARRIVE AT THE GAME FRESH, FOCUSED, AWAKE, AND READY TO PLAY YOUR A GAME?
Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.
"Be good at what you do. Don't worry about being different. Being good is different enough." — TARO GOLD
"I think work on yourself starts with your attitude." — KENNA JAMES
YA GOTTA WANT IT!
When you sit down at any poker table, you have to be the one who wants to win the most. Try thinking of your chips as rare and precious magical coins, with magnetic properties to attract more chips. Never let go of your resolve to make each session a winning session. It won't always happen, but if you're determined, and have the tools of a good poker player, it will happen more often than not — and make you a long-term winner. Keep good records and be honest with yourself. Are you winning overall or losing? Did you win $200 last night or $183? Don't lie! If it's yourself you are deceiving, who is the winner?
EATING AND SLEEPING WELL MAGICALLY MAKES YOUR CARDS BETTER
Broccoli makes the brain function better than donuts.
Drinking water is better than drinking wine.
Poker requires a heightened state of alertness. When involved in a hand, you have to be alert to your cards and to your opponents' actions.
You also need to develop an awareness of what others at the table think you might be holding. Occasionally, one of your opponents will take an action or make a gesture that just doesn't square with your sense of what's going on in the game. When that happens, when you know something's going on but just can't figure it out, don't make the mistake of ignoring it just because you can't pinpoint where it belongs in the puzzle. Stay on the lookout and try to determine what that message might mean to any further betting, calling, raising, or folding. What does it mean in the light of the hands that are shown down at hand's end?
You may not always be able to piece every part of the puzzle together. But the more you work at it, the more likely you are to expand your knowledge of an opponent. You will also improve your broader ability to synthesize seemingly unrelated pieces of data — and that's one of the marks of an expert poker player.
If awareness is the hallmark of a champion, sensitivities that are switched off will downgrade your game significantly. Anything that dulls the senses can and probably will hurt you at the poker table. That includes alcohol, too much food, or the wrong food, as well as external factors like too little sleep, concerns about personal issues unrelated to poker, battling the flu, or fighting with your spouse. If you aren't prepared to play at your best level, it's a good time to go to the movies, do some chores, or anything else you can accomplish on autopilot. The game's not going anywhere. Regardless of whether you play in a casino or in cyberspace, the game will always be there when you're ready for it.
There are lots of winning poker styles — one can be the aggressor, or the trapper who allows aggressive opponents to do his betting for him, or the counterpuncher. But if you're not playing your best, and are not in touch with your normally fine-tuned senses, your chances of winning are greatly reduced.
GENERAL GAME IMPROVEMENT
TIP: Start the day on the treadmill; take breaks; create a circuit in the casino.
TIP: Step away from the cookies. Drink lots of water. Make healthy food and beverage choices.
TIP: Harry Truman said the best habit you can cultivate is walking fast! It will get you there faster, thus saving time, and you will benefit from improved health. This is an especially important habit for a poker player to cultivate since we spend so much time sitting at the table. There are great watches and devices available to monitor the steps you take each day.
TIP: Follow the best strategy after an unacceptable loss:
• Organize your house.
• Do paid work.
• Run in the park!
"If you want to have what you have not, you must do what you do not."
— taro gold
ONE THING YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW TO RAISE THE LEVEL OF YOUR GAME
Sometimes the truth is so self-evident, so obvious, and so clear that all we need to do is hold fast with all our might. Every poker player should know this, even raw beginners. But frequently disconnects are found between information and know-how.
If you can truthfully answer "yes" to the following question, there's no need for you to read any further. But if your answer is less than an unequivocal "yes," keep reading.
DO YOU PLAY YOUR BEST GAME ALL THE TIME?
If you don't play your best game all the time, ask yourself why. If you were somehow able to measure the difference between your best game and some lesser level you play at from time to time, you could calculate the money you are giving away by playing below your ability.
If you want to raise your game, you have to play your best game, and not slip from that lofty pedestal you're perched on when you're playing well. This ought to be easy. No new skills are needed. You don't have to learn any new ploys to spring on your unsuspecting opponents and you needn't train your mind to perform a single dreaded statistical calculation in the midst of a poker hand. All you have to do to upgrade your game is to play as well as you can. And why wouldn't you want to? Aside from whatever social gratification poker provides, if you're playing to win money, shouldn't you want to play your best?
WHY PLAYING YOUR BEST GAME ALL THE TIME IS SO VITALLY IMPORTANT
Professional poker players, in limit poker terms, can expect to win one big bet per hour in a mid-limit game. But suppose you always played your best — never faltering — while your opponents played the way they do right now. Some play well; some never play as well as they can. A few otherwise skillful players even believe in hunches and will cold-call a raise with 9-7 suited because ... well, they just had a hunch. Never mind that most of the time the flop is not going to hit their 9-7 strongly — as it probably needs to — and when they gaze up at a board that just kicked them to the curb, they'll eventually realize they cold-called a raise with nine-high. Ugh!
THE THINNEST OF EDGES CAN SEPARATE WINNERS FROM LOSERS
Now if you're playing for very high limits, that one big bet per hour guideline goes right out the window. Let's assume you're playing $2,000/ $4,000 Texas hold'em against a group of opponents who know everything you do about poker and possibly more. But if you never play less than your best, while they slip every so often, say once a week, you might be able to beat that game for one big bet a week, or maybe even two. If you could maintain that razor-thin edge, you'd win somewhere between $200,000 and $400,000 annually. One of the interesting things about poker is how razor-thin edges can turn into large sums of money at the end of the day.
In a game like that, you aren't allowed the latitude to play a hunch hand. If you do, you're toast. You can get away with it in low- and mid-limit games. Many of your opponents are also playing less than perfectly and their mistakes frequently offset whatever suboptimal plays you make in your own game. In essence, they're giving back the money you gave to them.
Players who stick with their best game have an almost invisible edge. It's one you'll never even see, no matter how closely you watch the game. You won't be able to assess that Joe plays perfectly all week while Tony made one error early Tuesday morning and that's the reason Joe makes $400K a year while Tony is frantically dog-paddling to keep his head above water. One bet a week won't make or break you in a mid- or lower-limit game. The edge there is not that close, and most of your opponents play below their skill level a good portion of the time, too. But that's the very reason you can significantly increase the amount of money you're earning without adding any additional arrows to your quiver. Just play well all the time.
The choice is ours. And when it's completely our choice — when we have no one to blame but ourselves, when we can't deflect the results we achieve because at the end of the day we either played up to our potential or we didn't — there's nowhere to run and hide in the corners of our minds where we contemplate why we failed.
But we never have to go into that dark side. Never. All that is required to keep the light shining is to use our desire and force of will to turn knowledge into know-how and apply it. That's not too much to ask, is it?
"You all laugh at me because I am different. I laugh at you because you're all the same." — VICK IMBORNONI
CHAPTER 2DID YOU THINK POSITIVE THOUGHTS?
Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.
"Act out a play of victory, decide you are going to win. Visualize the result and engrave it in your mind. When you manifest the doubtless conviction that you can do it, then you can do it." — TARO GOLD
"The victorious win first and then go to battle, while the defeated go to battle first and then seek to win." — SUN TZU
"An unhappy person and a happy one will have different perceptions of the same circumstances. The difference is found not in the circumstances, but in the two states of life." — TARO GOLD
"Manifestation begins with expectation." — TARO GOLD
"I'LL TAKE THE TOURNAMENT WIN FOR A MILLION, ALEX"
The world seems to be divided between those who love games and those who don't. Those who do love games, like me, can't get enough of them. I frequently turn non-game situations into games and look for every opportunity to create games within games. When I watch the TV show Jeopardy, for example, or Wheel of Fortune, on which I was a contestant, I begin each show by guessing who is going to win. I have a great record of predicting the winner. It's almost always the one who is alert and relaxed at the beginning of the show, the one who is the most comfortable talking about him or herself during the interview with Alex Trebek or Pat Sajak. I do this at the poker table as well, and I recommend that you do the same. When you're playing poker, guess who is going to win. Guess who is going to "give back" their chips or steadily lose them. The better you get at this guessing game, the better you'll be at poker, and the more chips you'll take home at the end of the night.
TIP: Don't tell bad beat stories. Don't complain that you always miss the flop.
TIP: Just as it is important to enjoy your work, it is important to enjoy your poker sessions. Life is short and every minute counts. If you aren't enjoying it, go do something else. Plus, thinking positive thoughts and having fun will make you play better, and when you play better, you will do better.
CHAPTER 3WERE YOU DISTRACTED BY YOUR CELL PHONE, ALCOHOL, WORK, THOUGHTS, OR ANYTHING ELSE?
Playing well means you were not distracted. You were focused on the game. Needing improvement means you were distracted by your cell phone and other things.
"Question habit. Eliminate negativity. Purify your life."
— taro gold "If we wish to eliminate the negative, unhealthy aspects of our lives, we would do well to increase the positive, healthy ones. Once strengthened, they will naturally help us transform the negative."
— taro gold
PAYING ATTENTION IS CONCEPT NUMERO UNO
From the moment you sit down until you cash out your winnings, you have to think of yourself at work. If you were a surgeon or a bus driver, would you be drinking beer or taking calls at work? If you were an air traffic controller, would you be reading a book?
CHAPTER 4DID YOU PLAY A LIMIT THAT WAS WITHIN YOUR COMFORT ZONE?
Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.
Play your best game no matter what the limit.
"In an archery contest, when the prize is earthenware, a contestant shoots with skill. When the prize is a belt buckle, he becomes hesitant, and when the prize is pure gold he becomes nervous and confused. There is no difference as to his skill, but, because there is something he desires, he allows outward considerations to weigh on his mind. Those who consider external things of great importance become weak within." — CHUANG-TZU
FIND BETTING LIMITS THAT ARE RIGHT FOR YOU
Somewhere you'll find betting limits that are perfect for you, and you need to figure that out so you're comfortable with your game.
Bill Gates has been seen at the Bellagio in Las Vegas playing poker in a game with betting limits of three and six dollars. People walking by were astounded that the world's richest man was essentially playing for matchsticks. But if stakes have to have some meaning, Bill Gates is in a league populated by very few others. What are appropriate stakes for someone of his wealth? Should he play poker for betting limits of $250,000/$500,000? Or maybe a little more? Even though he might be able to afford these stakes, such a game may be nonexistent. Gates, secure in the knowledge that for all practical purposes none of the stakes he could find on a typical day in Las Vegas would really be meaningful to a man of his wealth, is as comfortable playing $3/$6 as he would be playing $2,000/$4,000.
If you're in Bill Gates's financial league, it won't matter what stakes you select, either. But if you're like most of us, somewhere there are betting limits that work for your own financial and psychological circumstances. Here's the litmus test that works for most poker players: A loss should hurt but should not cripple us; while a win should be exhilarating. And don't bet the rent money, whatever you do.
THE RULES ARE THE SAME, BUT THE GAME IS DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT AT DIFFERENT LIMITS
Tournaments and cash game poker are like two different games, and so are different cash game levels. The higher up you go in betting limits, the better your opponents tend to be. While you'll occasionally run into some appallingly bad players who can afford to play high-stakes poker and enjoy it whether they win or lose, most of the time, bigger games are tougher games. You'll find fewer players in each pot, because players at this level have learned to be selective. You'll also see more raises, because they've learned to be aggressive, too.
In a passive, low-limit game, where most of the players who enter a pot come in calling, position is not as important as it is in a game where raising is the order of the day. After all, if you can see the flop for one bet, you're in almost as good a shape from early position as you are if you're the last to act. But not in an aggressive, higher-limit game. Many players have difficulty making the transition from lower betting limits to higher-limit games.
Obviously, as the games get higher, the bets get higher. Bets and raises are usually calculated in terms of how many times they exceed the big blind, prior bet, or pot size, as well as the potential caller's strength or weakness and stack size. There is math involved, but there is psychology too. It is more art than science to figure the correct bet size for each individual level and each individual table.
CHAPTER 5DID YOU CHOOSE A GAME THAT SUITED YOU?
Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change." — CHARLES DARWIN
ASSESSING NEW GAMES
If you are the new player at an established game and you see that everyone folds when one player bets, be careful when calling him. He probably only raises with premium hands. Similarly, if one player raises and everyone else calls, it's probable that this player raises with less-than-premium hands. It's important to spend some time checking over the game you're playing in when you first sit down. In fact, if you have a good vantage point, you should be clocking the game even before you are seated at the table. Fifteen to 20 minutes should be time enough to get a good handle on your opponents. Here's what to look for:
• Happy games, lots of chips, a jovial table atmosphere. This typifies a game full of players who are having fun. Players enjoying themselves tend to be a lot looser than those who are scrutinizing everything that goes on. If you see lots of friendly flirting going on, that's good, too. And if your opponents are drinking anything stronger than bottled water, that's also a good sign.
• Who's loose, who's tight? Within a few minutes you should have a handle on which players are callers, which are aggressive, and who won't gamble unless they have unbeatable hands. There are all sorts of clues to loose play in addition to the obvious ones, such as seeing the kinds of hands they show down. This is a clue to the kinds of starting hands they're prone to play in early, middle, or late position.
• Who's passive, who's aggressive? You can be loose and passive as well as loose and aggressive. You can be tight and passive as well as tight and aggressive. Obviously, aggressive players are more dangerous because they are less likely to get out of your way when you bet, might not throw away a hand if you bluff, and may even play back at you by re-raising with or without a strong hand.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Kaizen of Poker"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Sheree Bykofsky.
Excerpted by permission of ECW PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Kaizen and Poker and Life
Part One: The Morning After Checklist
Part Two: -Continuously Improving – The Basics
I: Minimal Math
II: Tournament Play
III: Online Play
IV: Ask the Experts
Afterword: Keep it Going