How to Become a Winning Poker Player
How to Become a Winning Poker Player Advice from Marcel Luske
Which is the better way for a player to learn, playing in cash games or in tournaments?
A tournament is better because you are restricted in the number of chips you have. You know you have $10,000 in chips to start, and you have to deal with them accordingly. In tournaments, if you are going to play recklessly, play out of position, play a bad hand selection, not watch your game, not focus on what's going on at the table and who's playing what, you aren't going to do well.
There are a lot of players who don't have enough confidence. They come into the game, and there are so many pros., people they know, and big players around that they get intimidated, and they don't know how to play the hand. They wonder, "A-Q under the gun, do I play it?" If they raise enough, and if they get a call and the ace comes, is the hand even good? The other guy might have A-K. So they never maximize the profits out of hands, and they lose a lot with hands that they might be drawing dead, or drawing slim.
Find confidence in the game, get to know the people you deal with, and don't endanger your stack through actions when you don't know where you stand with them. Definitely the tournaments are better to learn from because you can restrict your losses. In cash games, of course, you feel it straightway when you lose and you are running out of money. You have to think how to win it back.
Do you think it's ok for an amateur to mix it up and play a hand like K-3 offsuit, or should he just try to stick to the top 10 hands?
If you play K-3 offsuit, you must be getting ahead with the game in a way that you feel confident, and you know how to play it when it comes out, to maximize it. Otherwise, it is a waste to play that hand. It can be a good hand when you have something. Let's say you get aces or kings, or hands with which the expectations to win this pot are big, you find them only once out of every 220 or so hands. Now, one round takes eight or nine hands at a full table, maybe 10 hands, so you need 22 rounds to find aces one time, kings one time, queens one time, and even then, they have to hold up for you to maximize your winnings with them. It depends on where you sit, how you deal with the cards, and who your opponents are.
So now, in order to make sure you have these hands coming to you, you have to play enough that you have a fair chance of hitting these hands. Maybe in the beginning of a tournament you don't find these hands. You are not going to invest in other hands just for the sake of being in them, unless you have a fair chance and you know what you are doing. For example, 8-9 suited and in position, you know when you hit it you are going to get paid. To waste money on an average hand is bad because you could use that money later to double up when you really find a hand.