Something To Think About In Tournament Poker

If you're serious about NLHE tournament poker, chances are you've picked up more than one poker book over your poker career. The books have probably helped you in some shape or form. Perhaps they fixed a leak you had about playing hands out of position, or showed you situations where you could extract a little more profit. If you think back to reading those books, however, the truth is they probably didn't teach you much other than how to play like the author wants you to play. They might have taught you how to play A-K in early position but were they able to cover every possible situation you might encounter with A-K? No, of course not. That is the inherent problem with poker books – they can't teach you everything about the game because the game is so dynamic.
This is where my book will be different. I'm not going to teach you how to play A-K in early position. Or late position. Or from the blinds. Sure, I might mention the hands as examples, but what I am going to do is teach you to play the way you want to play in the way that best suits your playing style. It's a different style of teaching, for sure... rather than say, “If you have A-K under the gun, raise to three times the big blind,” I am going to force you to try different concepts with A-K under the gun and help you to understand why some plays work and some plays don't work. By applying the concepts rigidly, without deviation, you will start to understand the inner workings of the game.
What will I teach you? I'll teach you to think for yourself. I'll teach you to look at each individual hand as if it was a unique story. You'll find yourself asking questions such as, “Does my opponent's story make sense?” You'll put together the different chapters of the story. What did your opponent do pre-flop? What did they do on the flop? Does it flow together logically? If it doesn't, why not? If it does make sense, I'll give you some concepts that show you what to do about it. If it doesn't make sense, I'll show you how to figure out how to attack it.
What will you teach yourself? You'll learn to make good decisions. You'll still make mistakes... no poker player doesn't, but you'll learn to evaluate those mistakes and learn from them and become a better poker player as a result. You'll learn to sit down at a table and truly understand a poker player's motivations. What makes a loose, aggressive player tick? What do they hate? Why do they act the way they do? You'll teach yourself to switch gears. You'll learn that one playing style isn't the only playing style but rather than guess at when it's time to turn into a maniac, you'll understand the situation that triggers that shift.