Cross
Training for Poker
BY:
Ashley Adams
Contact at: (Asha34@aol.com)
Author of Winning 7-Card Stud
I
needed a pair of walking shoes. Normally
I'd buy a pair of Rockports. But I was
asking around among my athletic friends
and they all recommended that I stop in
at the nearby New Balance outlet. They
assured me that among the dozens if not
hundreds of styles of sneakers, that there
would be a shoe to fit my walking needs.
And all at 50% to 60% off retail. Such
a deal! I couldn't resist.
So
I went to my nearby New Balance outlet.
I looked around. It had been a while since
I had purchased decent sneakers. For me,
sneakers were for basketball and track
and field - activities I gave up over
30 years ago. I bought them if I was on
a business trip, only had oxfords or other
serious business type shoes, and wanted
to go for a walk. And then I'd just buy
the cheapest pair I could find - the type
you see in pharmacies and supermarkets
in the large circular metal bins in the
middle of the store. That's what I usually
wore. No wonder my feet were killing me
much of the time.
Anyway,
here I was in this huge sneaker universe,
feeling very disoriented and confused.
I asked one of the clerks where I might
find some sneakers that would suit my
walking needs. He suggested I look at
their nice collection of cross-trainers.
"Cross-trainers?" I asked. "Yeah, " he
said. "You know. Athletic shoes that you
can use for many different sports. Athletes
in one sport often do another sport just
to get them better at the first sport.
These are just the right sneakers for
guys who do that. And they're perfect
for aggressive morning walks."
Well,
he didn't convince me to spend the $80
for discounted fancy sneakers. But he
did get me to thinking about poker. Allow
me to elaborate.
I
often recommend that hold 'em players
take up stud so that they'll be able to
sit down at the juicy stud games that
pop up from time to time on line and in
casinos. I counsel that it's good to have
a second and even a third game to increase
your poker options. Choice is good because
you don't want to miss the bad players
at any table.
But
there's another very good reason for hold
em' players to learn stud and vice versa.
It's a good exercise in cross-training.
Hold 'em players can pick up excellent
skills at the stud table that will help
them when they return to hold 'em. And
stud players will pick up skills while
playing hold 'em that they can use later
at the stud tables. That's the reason
that athletes cross train - and it works
in poker as well.
The cross-training stud player playing
hold em will not be able to use his finely
honed card memory skills at the hold em
table. But this will free up energy to
focus on the other aspects of the game
of poker that are important to winning
play. He'll be forced to more carefully
consider the betting action of his opponents.
In stud, sometimes, it's tough enough
just to keep track of the folded cards
- using that information to put people
on hands while evaluating your chances
and the chances of your opponents to improve
based on the cards you estimate are remaining
in the deck. With none of that information
available, there is less to consider -
meaning that you can consider more deeply
the information that is available to you.
Absent exposed and folded cards all you
have to go on is what the opponent's action
is and what his image and your image have
been. Hold 'em is, for the stud player,
like a boxer training with one hand literally
tied to his side to help develop his other
arm. By immobilizing his dominant arm
the boxer is forced to use and develop
his underdeveloped one until both arms
are appropriately toned.
The
stud player often needs to hone those
reading skills necessary to figure out
an opposing player's likely hand based
on his behavior - not his cards. By depriving
a stud player of the exposed cards, hold
'em forces him to work on this skill that
is too often neglected by the stud player.
Similarly,
a hold em player at the stud table must
develop skills that he doesn't use at
the hold em table. He is faced with exposed
cards that give him additional insight
into his opponents' likely hands. He must
learn to use this information to his advantage.
This means broadening his thinking. The
Hold Em player also must learn how to
incorporate all of this knowledge into
how he views his prospects for improving
his hand and the prospects of his opponents
improving their hand. Hold Em requires
little or none of this skill.
This
broadened skill set can only help but
improve the Hold 'Em players Hold 'em
skills as well. By learning to remember
folded cards, and consider them when contemplating
the likely hands of his opponents, he'll
train his brain to better remember all
details.
The stud experience aids the hold em player
much as a leaded bat in baseball aides
the batter. The ball player practices
his swings with the leaded back. His body
becomes accustomed to the extra weight
of it. When he then switches back to the
wooden bat it feels very light - swinging
it seems nearly effortless. So too with
the hold em player. Having gotten used
to the additional concentration and memory
skills required at the stud table, the
hold em player returns to the hold em
table with a strengthened ability to concentrate
and focus on the fewer matters at hand
- improving his game in the process.
There
are risks to this exercise - just as there
are in athletic cross-training. Hold em
players playing stud sometimes fail to
adjust their starting hand requirements
properly when they are considering their
stud hands. They play too many hands like
(AdKd)3s - seeing the Ace King suited
and thinking it more valuable than it
is in a stud game. Similarly, Stud players
may be tempted to call with their mini
flush draws like 9c4c of Jd3d - generally
trash hands in hold em. Cross-training
hold em and stud players must make sure
to acclimate themselves to the game their
in, not the one they were last in.
Like
athletic endeavors the cross-training
poker player will improve his overall
poker skills by applying what he knows
from one game to the other. He will cease
to be a specialist as he becomes a better
overall and well rounded player. And in
so doing he will improve his ability to
win at any other poker game, like Omaha
or Stud8, that he decides to tackle.
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