Secret of Poker Playing

Swinging with a Poker Hand

They call them "rocks" and they come in all shapes and sizes. A rock is a player who waits and waits and finally comes out swinging with a poker hand so powerful that it's a big favorite against almost all comers. A lot of good poker players started out as rocks. They abandoned that style of play when it became obvious that there was more money to be made with a selective but aggressive strategy. Aggressive poker puts fear in your opponents, it wins the chips, and it feeds your competitive instincts like nothing else.
Now, Quincy, he was one heck of a rock. You should have seen him the day he set foot in Vegas with $15,000 in his pockets. Well, he got into the biggest game going at the Dunes and the boys just ate him up. Of course, he was playing on a short bankroll, so you could probably forgive him for being a little less than reckless with his capital.
There's nothing wrong with being a rock, especially while you're building a bankroll. Trouble is, rocks get broke in the big poker games about as fast as high-stakes keno players. That's because there's something about a rock that tends to irritate accomplished players. Guys like Bobby Baldwin and Johnny Moss will really study a rock; they'll gauge his temperament, weigh his weaknesses and then, just when the man makes a move, they'll destroy him with an all-in bet that's bigger than his determination to call.
Sure, rocks start deal with good hands, but they seldom have the courage to follow through, and world-class players take advantage of this fact all the time.

Sitting in No-Limit Hold'em

So, anyway, here is young Quincy, a studious-looking lad with thin-rimmed glasses, sitting in our no-limit hold 'em for the first time. About twenty minutes after he sits down, he finally decides to play poker a hand. The blinds are 525-$25-$50 and he brings it in for $1OO. Everyone passes to me and I'm sitting on the 550 blind with ace-ten of diamonds. The flop comes J 4 2. Now I've got the nut flush, and I bet 5400. Quincy calls and raises a thousand. I toy with the idea of just calling and moving him all-in on the next card, but I figure (wrongly) that I better make my move now. I push $12,000 more into the pot-just about enough to tap him off should he make the call.

Diamonds Including The Ace

Well, this kid turns purple! My lord, I swear he's stopped breathing! Then he gulps down short breaths and just keeps staring at the pot. Now he starts to reason aloud. "Okay, I made it a hundred before the flop and you called. Flop three diamonds. You bet 5400, I made it 5400 and ... How much is your raise, Doyle?"
The dealer counts my chips and answers for me. "Twelve thousand, three hundred."
"Yeah, well, I pass," says Quincy. And at this point he turned his hole card upon the table. It's the K Q there was only one way he could have been beat. I had to have two diamonds including the ace. Well, that's what he figured I had, and it was a really good lay down.
But Quincy had made a terrible mistake, especially against opponents at that level of play. He had shown the hand. First of all, he really was playing a rocky game. He was short on money and inwardly afraid. Now there's nothing wrong with putting yourself under pressure or being inwardly afraid, but one thing's for sure: you do not want your opponents to know it! When you must play like a rock, try to keep it secret.