Evolution of a poker player Ray Zee

The riddle of the Sphinx was the question, what walks on four feet in themorning, two feet in the afternoon, and three in the evening. The answerwas man. So how does this relate to poker you ask? Well it really doesn't,but with a far stretch of the imagination we might get it there. Maybe apoker player has an evolution to his playing style. That is what you needto be successful when you start out may not be the same to achieve successin higher limit games against other experienced players.As total beginners, all people will play way too loose and insure that theycannot win. They will also raise foolishly but call regularly when raisingis needed. Needless to say they call too often all the way through the handwith little chance of winning the pot. Without reading and studying thereis only a small chance that they can evolve into a winning poker player.It takes some time for them to start to realize that there is more to thegame than trying to get lucky and catch cards. That is even though pokeris an easy game to play, it is not an easy game to play well. Sometime duringthis stage some players begin to understand that playing tight gets themoney in the small games they are playing. It doesn't necessarily allowthem to win a lot, but it does give them positive results which is a welcomechange from their previous status. From here they morph into the next stage.This stage of a player's evolution is the tight stage. Most of those thatare going to go forward to become eventual winning players will enter thisform. The problem is that they frequently play too tight and may have littleimagination in the beginning. The good side is that one now finds he winsa fair amount of the time due only to the tight play, and bad playing ofthe opponents. He may also be aided by the small ante/blind structure ofmany of the games at the smaller limits, and after a long spell of ups anddowns, the newly minted tight player starts to find out about how good playscan increase your earnings. He experiments a little and finds it is funto make speculative raises and bluffs and begins too see his winnings increase.So from here he starts the trek to the next stage of his evolution.This is the advanced stage of a poker player's career. Now the cat is outof the bag. He wins more often and gets what he believes is the right feelfor the game. Great plays come about by pushing marginal hands and makingfantastic calls on the end through his ability to read hands. Poker is funplayed this way. But no longer is the tight player inside the body. Allhands start to look like they have value, and with skillful manipulationwinning the pot is easy. He begins to believe that he can play bad handsfor profit where in reality he can't. The player has taken a big step backwardand a long leap forwards at the same time. The tight style needed is goneand a new imaginative style is born and he becomes loose aggressive. Unfortunatelyfor him, if he gets too loose he loses all his money and may never recover.But for those that are moving up the ladder, this is the last leap beforethe finishing stage.Finally for our player, if he can get through the maze, may find himselfarmed with the tools to round out expert status. This last stage incorporatesthe tight play that's a must in poker, with the imagination to win potswithout the best hand. He has become tight and aggressive. Semi bluffs,bluffs, raises to knock out the best hand (and sometimes the second besthand) and get the pot down to you and the loser, good calls on the end,are some of the things that were missing before or played incorrectly. Theexpert wins lots of money and gains a reputation for being a great player.Whether he keeps the money depends on his ability to find good games atlimits within his bankroll.By the way, don't let the above paragraph fool you. It takes much work toachieve this kind of skill and only a small number of players ever reachthis status.That is my take on how most of the expert players moved up the ladder inability and skill. From this point forward each person has to learn theself-control to know when to quit when playing badly, and at the same timebe able to gauge when the opponents are outplaying you. Those that willmake the most of their time at the tables will be found playing in goodgames when they are at the peak of their facilities and being very successfulin the long run. No playing when tired or upset, limiting the hours so thatconcentration continues, and leaving when you don't have it that day, butmay not know why, are some of the hidden keys to long term success. If andwhen a person puts it all together, he can say he is now an expert.The above applies to virtually all forms of poker. Becoming a great playerdoesn't happen over night. It's true that some people have a great dealof natural ability, but even they have to work on their games. On the otherhand, those of you who don't possess a great deal of natural ability canstill become very good and successful players through experience and muchhard work