Playing the cards

Learning to play the cards is the foundation of good poker play.

Understanding which hands are strong, which weak, learning to recognize how a hand changes after the flop, and learning the value of draws are all critical skills learned through just playing the cards.

Playing the cards simply means that your decisions and betting patterns are dictated by the strength of your hand. The other players betting patterns take less of a role in your decision making.

At beginning poker tournament levels, playing the cards can get you to the money a good deal of the time.

Playing the cards is also a good "1st gear". Its less weight on reading other players and lack of overaggressive betting mean you can avoid aggressive action early in a tournament when a lot of players are going all in.

In larger online tournaments at the $3 level, just playing the cards can occasionally get you past the bubble on a good run of cards.

I definitely had the tendancy to be a more aggressive player when I started, I was in till the end with top pair, and I lost a lot to kickers or underestimating conservative players bets.

At the $1 sit and go level on poker stars, I could get to the money and place maybe 1 in 5 tournaments just playing the cards.

The trouble with playing the cards is that the style becomes to predictable. Even though the first few hands are profitable as people haven't yet established your range, pretty soon, a table with more experienced players is going to know your bets represent your hand accurately. They will exploit this by:

1. Bluffing you out of a hand when the hand you hold does not have the required strength for a big reraise.

2. Trapping you with a stronger hand by making bets that someone with a hand your strength would call.

Any predicatability over time can lead to someone taking advantage of you, but in the initial stages of a tournament, or as the lowest of your "gears", playing the cards is a good option.