Anybody who knows a little about the game of poker, or has tangencies with it on a certain level, would probably be able to queue up at least a dozen factors that are characteristic of a good poker player, and they'd probably all be right.
Starting with being able to read opponents fast, being able to prevent others from reading him, knowing what strategy to play against different opponents and being able to take max advantage of table-position and so forth and so on, are all traits of the poker player who might be qualified as "good" ( there are many more factors – of course – than the ones presented above, however the point of this present article is not to accurately cover all possible traits but rather to single one of them out and analyze it down to the bone.)
Knowing when and how much to bet is a key-component of the delicate, skill,chance and probability-driven system that an excellent poker player is. The amount of the bet is not only a mathematical measure of how much this or that or the other player believes in the strength of the hand he/she is holding, it is also a powerful psychological weapon, and psychological warfare is right at home around the poker-table.
Whether one plays online poker or the good old regular poker-room variant, betting too little on a small hand can be an open invitation for an opponent to come in and have a bite, betting too much on equally good hands can secure you the pot but leave it skinny enough so you find yourself in a situation that on aggregate you actually win less than you lose. Trust me, that has nothing to do with a good poker player. What you want to be doing is , despite losing more times than you win ( a situation stemmed from the nature of the game) secure much larger pots the few times that you win than the many small pots that you lose.
This being said, the amount one bets is also influenced by the psychological approach one adopts regarding the game.When bluffing the amount naturally increases, and it also increases when one simulates the bluff to draw the opposition into a trap. The combinations are virtually endless but what should give a good poker player a real measure of how much the actual amount worth risking is, are the mathematical odds.
Putting psychology and game strategies aside, one should always know his/her hand's odds and make any further moves keeping that in sight. Special attention should be given to gut-shot hands. Such hands ( 10-9, 8-9 etc) are highly likely to improve. The odds are actually 10,5/1 that a hand like that improve. What you call should always justify what you can win by taking the pot. When you take a closer look at the above advice you'll see it's basically nothing but common sense. This is what people mean when you hear them talking about a "sound poker strategy" Venturing into deep water , that is going beyond what the sound strategy dictates, to chase after your losses is a sure way to cut your own throat.
When experts say "stick to the sound strategy no matter what" you should taske that literally and stick to it indeed. Some poker strategies work in online casinos and real poker rooms as well, others should only be used in real-life poker, the sound poker strategy though, is valid no matter where you take your game.
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