Playing Poker with Confidence, Playing Within Your Skill Level and Having Fun

Pokers, like many similar card games, are as much chance as they are skill. Knowing when to bet and continue and knowing when to walk away. Like the Kenny Rodgers song goes, “You got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them.” A game a skill, chance and bluff, it can have both its good hands and its bad hands and knowing how to play those hands is only part of the poker playing experience.

Poker is fun

Playing poker can be fun and a great way to spend an evening with friends, but if you brag about wins and whine about hands lost, the fun can quickly leave the evening and even cause your game to be shortened. Playing with friends, especially those who are bad players in the sense that they lose more than they win, should be an enjoyable experience for all, not just those who walk out of the game with more they came with. If a player who does not win often also has it rubbed into their face, and then may not be as willing to come back and play again. If you’re not having fun, or your friends are not having fun, while playing, then what’s the point?

Remember your objective

You want to keep the objective in mind, which is to play, have fun and hopefully win some money in the process. You want to stay within your skill level when playing online or at a casino. If you are a beginner player, I would not suggest going to a $5, no limit, table. You will lose a lot of money and not have much fun, which can result in not wanting to play much in the future. If, however, you stay within your skill level, playing at tables that you are more confident playing at, then you are more likely to enjoy yourself. If you are not having fun while playing, then why play? Poker is not meant to be a source of income, at least for most people; it is just supposed to be a fun way to spend some time.

Players who have gone to tournaments and have taken a bad beating for a hand or three can lose their confidence and with their confidence goes their chips as well. Remember to take your wins and losses in stride. Don’t try to make a big deal of a good night or a bad one. Everyone, even those who compete in the biggest tournaments have had their bad days, but it is with the confidence in their skills that they go on to the next one and win that makes a good poker player. Play with confidence that each hand could be the next winner. By playing close to the pocket, always worrying about losing each hand, you are not going to neither have fun while playing, nor become a better player, which is what everyone who plays poker strives for.