The Big Difference between Poker and Games like Chess and Backgammon
Written by Joris Dekkers
Thu, 29 Nov 2007
Category poker
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If you’re a chess master and you are playing an amateur, you don’t need to care what he is thinking, planning or scheming. The position on the chessboard contains all the information you need to crush him. You just make one technically good move after another, he makes his inevitable errors, and you finally wear him down.
Backgammon is a similar game but one which offers a little more scope for exploiting known weaknesses. If you are a strong player playing someone weaker you can just play your normal game and grind him down in the long run. But you can also improve your results and win a little more if you have observed mistakes in your opponent’s game. You might, for instance, offer a double which would be technically incorrect against a strong player but which works against a weak opponent because you have seen him pass doubles in such positions before. Spotting such an opportunity lets you win money with a play that would be a mistake against a stronger opponent.
Poker, however, is not a like these other games. When you play poker, you are not just trying to make objectively good plays. You are also trying to keep the nature of your plays concealed from your opponents while simultaneously trying to figure out what they are doing so you can counteract. Balancing all these competing goals is a tough business and doing it well requires you thou to have a keen appreciation of what’s been going on at the table. This is called reading the table and it requires watching for physical tells, betting patterns and your own persona.
Joris Dekkers is president of www.DominateOnlinePoker.com and the author of the renown Dominate Online Poker E-Book. He is an authority on online no limit holdem and on online poker tools. On his website you can get a free poker bankroll