By: Howard Lederer
I know that this article is written for an online poker site, but I hope that several d between you still find time to play party lives. Even if j really like online poker, I n would never stop to join parts lives here where I can see my opponents. The lesson of this week will be to explain to you why I believe that to wear headphones or sunglasses smoked during your parties is a mistake.Poker is a game of information. You give information to your opponents and they give you information. Most of this information comes from the way you have to bet and c is why online poker is a really interesting form of poker. All information on the way have to bet your opponents is found under your eyes so you can use them to your advantage. But when you play live, there is some information in addition that you can collect as physical and verbal tells. I am a very visual player and I have a very good view. I wear glasses and contact with them, my vision is 20/15. J use this excellent vision to capture the slightest nuances in my opponents. If I wore glasses, my vision would be affected. I am convinced that the information j get more by not wearing glasses is more important than the additional information that my opponents will get on me.
If you're currently playing with smoked glasses, I strongly encourage you to try to play without them. Obviously, you have the cool air with them. Perhaps. But if you try to play without them, you will probably realize that you get much more information in this way, but in addition, that c is much more enjoyable and comfortable to play without glasses.
I have a certain contempt for abusive use of headphones in poker tournaments. They slow down the action and believe that c is harmful for people who wear them. When a player throws chips in a pot, it usually Announces "raise" or "call". But the players at the table with headphones cannot l hear. C is annoying having to clarify the action for players who have not heard of n. Inevitably, they must remove their headphones and ask the dealer how much is implementing. Moreover, poker is a social game. I would be sad if one day poker qu to be summarized for nine people seated around d a table listening to music and that person would speak to anyone.
In addition, there is some valuable information that you can collect simply by being attentive to what is happening at your table. You can tell when a player is really confident l listening to talking. In a recent tournament, j won a huge pot just in having brought attention to what a player had said a few minutes earlier.
C was at Bellagio, in the $ 15 K WPT poker tournament. The blinds were $4 K-$8K and j was on the big blind. A player who until here was really tight raises in first position at $25 K. The small blind calla and I find myself with 9-9. I often raise with this hand, but I felt that it was time for only caller. The flop fell 8 s 5 s 3 c. The small blind decided to checker and with approximately $275 K in front of me and something like $100 K in the pot, I continued to play cautious and checked. The raiseur initial checked also. The turn gave a 6 c and the small blind checked. I felt that j had the best hand, and I decided to bet $ 50 K in the pot. I was really surprised when the initial raiseur raisa me all-in for a total of $ 175 K. The small blind folda and j now had a decision of $125 K to take. If I call and I win, I have $550 K and I'm in great shape. If I call and I lose, I'm really in trouble.
I didn't as he had a good hand here, but I did not think that c was a good place to bluff. The board was really dangerous. In addition, I n had not really seen this player make madness until now. And then, I remembered a comment which he had made a few minutes earlier to one of his opponents. He said that his cards were so bad as he could stay in his room in the last hours and it n would have made no difference. I thought qu it was perhaps frustrated by this situation and I took the decision of caller. He returned Kd - Qd and with a 2 on the River, I won a pot that put me in a great position in the tournament. If j had listened to the music, I do not believe that j could have made this call.
Poker is a game of information. Sunglasses can prevent your opponents to collect certain information about you, but they also prevent certain other information d arrive till your attention. And the headphones deprive them you of some information which I am not ready to pass me.
