Online Poker » How to Win Playing Conservative Poker

Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? The moral of the story was simple: slow and steady wins the race. It applies to playing winning poker, but only if you have the self-discipline it takes to stick to the strategy.

The concept isn’t fancy or hard to learn. The idea is to fold every hand that doesn’t have a high probability of success right from the opening deal. It works particularly well in games with small and big blinds, but no opening antes that require every player to put chips into the pot before any cards are dealt. Also, the more players at the table the better with this tactic.

Texas Hold’em is a good example. This game typically has two rotating blind bets, which are mandatory bets that must be placed by two players before any cards are dealt (hence the term ‘blind’). Then, every player is dealt two ‘pocket’ cards that cannot be seen by any other player. Community cards are dealt for all players to see and use to build the best possible hand. There are a total of five community cards, which are dealt 3 at once, then a 4th and a 5th individually. Between each, a round of betting takes place.

To play this ultra-conservative style of poker, you simply fold immediately every time your pocket cards aren’t strong. It’s not an exact science, but if you aren’t dealt a good pair (8’s or better) or at least two suited face cards, like a Queen and King of the same suit, you fold every time. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Until you try it, you have no idea the level of discipline it takes to stick to this strategy!

The idea behind this technique is to play the odds and only bet when you have a high probability of winning the pot. There are professional poker players who’ve become millionaires with this slow-and-steady strategy, so don’t for a minute think it can’t be very successful. The reality is that any player dealt a strong pair or suited face cards has a better chance of winning that hand when all the community cards are on the table.

What makes this a difficult plan to stick to is the patience it requires. Expect to lose many small and big blind bets when you fold this often. When you win pots, they may tend to be smaller than those won by aggressive, risk-taking players. But, by playing out only those hands where you hold strong pocket cards, you greatly minimize your losses – especially the big losses that take other players out of games early. You’re basically trading the big scores and losses for more small pots and small losses.

You will still win the occasional big pots (and lose some too). On some hands, one or more of your opponents will also hold strong pocket cards. Then it comes down to the luck of the community cards. Only you can decide how much is too much to raise and call if you get into a battle with an opponent. Avoid the strong temptation to push it when your pocket cards aren’t helped much by the community cards. Fold if your pair is only marginally strong (8’s or 9’s) and the community cards don’t give you 3-of-a-kind or a flush.

If you like to play online, this strategy works well. Look for sites that have a large community of players. Try to get a seat at a full table (typically 8-12 players). Remember, the more players there are, the more hands go by without you having to place a mandatory blind bet. Also, more players mean bigger pots when you do stay in with your strong pair or suited face cards. You’ll get bored when you end up folding a lot of hands, but tough it out and you’ll probably end up with more money at the end of the night than you sat down with at the beginning. Slow and steady wins the race!

Technorati Tags: poker, poker article, conservative poker

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 25th, 2006 at 9:27 am and is filed under Poker Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.