When I speak of Poker Rules, I am referring to the numerous rules you have undoubtedly read in books, and seen on various websites. Some will list a bunch of rules, such as:
- Never Limp into a pot.
- Always raise three times the big blind.
- Which hands to play and from what position?
- Starting hand charts.
- Bluffing Frequency must be this or that.
And the list goes on and on. The deeper you read into those types of articles, the more rules that you see. We here at Pokerrailbird are not fans of poker rules, rather, we believe in poker tools. But, we will get to the tools later in this article. Let’s see why rules are not the best way to play poker.
Poker Is Situational
Poker is situational! Every bet, check, fold, and every other action taken in poker is based on that unique situation. Nothing is automatic, or at least it shouldn’t be, in poker. Every action is a conscious decision. In my pre-poker life, I was a retail executive. I have had to make thousands of decisions over my career and I don’t recall looking at a set of rules to make even one of them by. What I do recall is making decisions based on the information I had at the moment.
Poker is no different. It’s a game of making decisions with incomplete information. It’s about piecing together the most recent data you have and using your empirical poker knowledge and inductive reasoning to arrive at the best decision possible.
I have yet to see a rule, in business or poker, that would help me make the best decision. Pokerrailbird is all about making the best decision, in a given situation, as can possibly be made. We can’t control the outcome of that decision, but we can control the process by which we arrive at those decisions, and rules play no part in it.
The Absurdity Of Rules
Playing poker according to some set of rules will make the player a repetitious player. They will play the same hand, the same way, in any given situation, because it’s the rule. That is a very simple way to play a complex, complicated, and highly variable game like poker. It’s difficult to phantom how anyone can provide a rule regarding how to play a hand, when the situation in which you play that hand will be different every single time.
Every session is different, every hand is different and even though it may be the same players, the players are different. Maybe Peggy Sue just had an argument with her better half moments before the game! Billy Bob may have had a terrible day at work! Jimbo just took a bad beat two hands back and is on tilt.
My point is the game is ever-changing, and to have some form of allegiance to a set of rigid rules will rarely work. What we need is a strong conceptual understanding of all elements of the game of poker, the math, strategy, reading the board, identifying tells, etc. In short, if you are playing by some set of rules, you are on a path to disaster.
No Rules
At Pokerrailbird you won’t find any rules. Ever! What you will find is detailed articles discussing various elements of our poker strategy. Our emphasis is on “thinking” and arriving at the best decision possible with the information we have. We have four main areas of focus:
- Poker Math – you will often hear me refer to math as the underlying form of poker. Why? Because it is a game of mathematical probabilities. Sure, there are lots of other elements, but math plays a key role.
- Poker Psychology – Why do players behave as they do? Why do we? Poker bullies, obnoxious players, and table talk, all play a part in our ability to focus and remain emotionless in the game. We place considerable emphasis on these and other elements of the psychological game. I believe some of the information we will be presenting will surprise you.
- Poker Tells – Like everything else in Poker, Poker Tells are situational. Although two tells may physically appear identical, they can well have opposite meanings. You guessed it; it depends upon the situation in which the tell is exhibited.
- Poker Strategy – Combining all the elements listed above, assuming we study and have a good understanding of each, will assist us in the development of a sound, winning poker strategy.
One More Look At Rules
Let’s pick a rule, from the top of this page, and analyze it.
Never Limp Into A Pot: So let’s say you are in middle position with 7c,8c. (By the way, if you think that’s a great hand, read this). There are three limpers in front of you, and four to act behind you. Do you think it’s a good idea to raise here? Maybe, but without knowing the players behind me, how they have played to this point, etc. I can’t make that decision. My point is, there is no rule that says you must raise, you can limp, and see what happens.
If you raise, and the flop comes Ad, 10h 3s, and the first two players check to you, what are you going to do, with four more players behind? You have put yourself in a situation of having to make a difficult decision, with no knowledge of the hand strength of all those limpers. I’m not sure about you, but I avoid difficult decisions. My goal is to put my opponents in the “difficult decision” category, and I work to keep mine simple.
I’m not saying that limping is the best decision here. Often it may be the second best decision, or even third. But it is an option and sometimes it is indeed the best option. How many times do you see the pre-flop raiser check/fold to any bet after the flop? Just asking!
The Toolbox
Before we open up our toolbox, I want to stress the importance of pre-game preparation. In other words, we must do our due diligence, which is to study the game. Our understanding of all elements must be to where we can verbalize why we took the action we did, why we bet a specific amount, etc. Very few players can do this. If our decisions are only marginally better than those of our opponents, we will be winners. If we can attain substantially better decision-making abilities, we will be huge winners.
So what’s in the toolbox. We have flat calling, raising, check-raising, folding, bluffing, and a host of other tools at our disposal. The key here is knowing when to use any given tool, and how to derive maximum advantage over our opponents. You should be asking yourself which tool is right for this situation and be able to explain why. No tool is better or worse than any other tool. We just have to use the right tool for the job!
All said, let’s forget about the rules. We will instead focus on improving our poker knowledge and understanding our goals for each hand we play.
