Master All Styles

By Tony Guerrera

Aikido; Hapkido; Ju Jitsu; Muay Thai; Pa Kua; Taekwondo; Tai Chi Chuan. This is just a small sampling of the many martial arts styles in existence. Anyone who knows me would tell you that I’m far from being a championship ultimate fighter (or simply a fighter). But if I’ve learned one thing from the countless martial arts movies I’ve watched, it’s that to be a good fighter, you need to have knowledge of as many styles as possible so you can adapt to your opponents.

The classic martial arts movies were very formulaic in many ways. Young student has some tough opponent to overcome. Young student gets training from experienced master. Young student, through hard work and dedication, hones his skills to the point of being able to annihilate everybody in the world spreading evil influence. Young student prevails, putting things in proper order.

But within this formula, certain lessons always came through: the importance of hard work and discipline; the importance of being a righteous individual; the importance of being clear-minded no matter what’s going on around you, and the importance of knowing about as many fighting styles as possible.

All these lessons are applicable towards poker. The work you put into your game, the better your results will be. The nicer you are to everybody when playing, the nicer they’ll be to you, and your experience will be much more enjoyable as a result. The clearer your mind is, the better you’ll be able to handle things after taking a few bad beats or making a bad play or two. The importance of knowing as much about as many fighting styles as possible, well, that’s the topic of the rest of this article.

First Impressions Last

During your first few hands at a table, your opponents will develop an idea of who you are as a player. And once they get this idea in their heads, they’ll try to adjust. If you’re only capable of playing one way, even your most dim-witted opponents will be able to stumble upon a winning strategy against you. You’ll find yourself getting no value from your made hands and being bluffed out of pots when you have marginal hands.

To prevent this from happening, you need to be comfortable implementing many various lines of play. Give an initial impression to your opponents and then shift gears. Oscillate between being loose-aggressive and tight-aggressive. Oscillate between slowplaying your made hands and betting them. Switch from immediately betting out with your made hands to checking behind on the flop to make it look like you’re attempting a delayed continuation bet. Consider making some questionable plays that are only slightly unprofitable. Perhaps call down a seemingly aggressive opponent early in a session with ace-high to dissuade opponents from bluffing against you later in the session. Or perhaps take one hand and commit yourself to firing bullets on the flop, the turn, and the river if the board hasn’t helped you.

If you have your opponents dialed in, and they haven’t done any adjusting based on the first impressions they have of you, then you shouldn’t make any adjustments either. But as soon as the tides shift away from you, change gears to shift them back. Remember…

There’s No Magical Right Way to Play

Because of outdated poker literature that talked mainly about beating loose limit hold’em games, “tight-aggressive” has become a style that all poker book junkies aspire to. These players are usually able to eek out mild profits; however, in many ways, their play is robotic and exploitable. And when they are exploited, they often retort by calling their opponents names like “donkey” and “fish” in an attempt to get their opponents off their games.

Instead of stubbornly sticking to a style of play that’s not working and trying to force their opponents to change via verbal barrages, these players would be much better served by realizing that the only right way to play poker is the most profitable way for the given time and moment. I’m not saying to abandon tight-aggressive play. I am saying is that if tight-aggressive is your only mode, you’ll never breakthrough from being just decent to being excellent.

Adaptation Is Ultimately The Name Of The Game

By learning how to play many different ways, you’ll not only be able to confuse your opponents, but you’ll also get a better idea of what’s going on in their heads. You’ll be less confused when coming across opponents who play vastly different from the norm. You’ll also evolve beyond having to think strictly about your cards. You’ll be able to identify lucrative bluffing opportunities and value betting opportunities that you may have previously overlooked. In short, you’ll be the one with your opponents leaning the wrong way. Observe and adapt, and you’ll position yourself to profit in games of all levels.

Tony Guerrera is the author of Killer Poker By The Numbers and co-author of Killer Poker Shorthanded (with John Vorhaus)

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