|
Chess Strategies Applied to Poker
Many strong chess players, including Howard Lederer and Dan Harrington, have found that their chess skills translate well into poker.
While at first glance the two games may seem very different, there are elements of chess strategy that you can use to be successful in your Texas hold'em games. Whether you are a chess player or not, it maybe helpful to examine some of these Texas holdem tips.
Thinking Ahead
In chess, good players always try to think a few moves ahead of their opponents. They don�t make a move before considering all the reasonable reply candidates, their responses to all those replies and the potential responses to the responses. In Texas hold'em poker, thinking ahead is extremely important as well. When you raise before the flop, you should already know what you will do if you are re-raised, if you are called and an ace flops, if you are called and a pair flops or even if a player bets the flop before the action gets to you. Before you value bet on the river, you should know if you are going to lay down to a raise and what size raise will cause you to lay your hand down. In fact, this should inform the size of your bet. Thinking ahead is undoubtedly a key element of poker strategy.
Component Parts
Chess strategists break the game up into its component parts: The opening, the middlegame and the endgame. Opening strategy often means a lot of memorization. The first ten moves or so are committed to memory; the player knows exactly what they are going to do to set up the game. The middlegame is where all the major strategies and tactics take place. And the endgame requires training and discipline to bring a winning ending to its logical conclusion.
No matter if you play free Texas holdem or cash-games, a Texas holdem hand breaks down in much the same way. The opening phase, pre-flop action, is where most players already know how they will start. They have a range of starting hands that they will play and a long list of hands that they will almost never play. Players may occasionally vary from their opening hand requirements to confuse opponents, but they are usually set from the beginning. The flop and turn are the middle phase, where tactics like bluffing and trapping will come into play. And the river is the endgame, where a value bet or huge bluff which you have spent the whole hand setting up may pay off.
Discipline
Good chess players know not to make a move until they�ve analyzed all the possibilities. Texas hold'em pros are just the same. Each move is deliberate and well considered. It may be tempting to throw in all your chips with top pair top kicker, but a strong player will analyze the entire situation and consider the likelihood that they are beaten before making such a move.
Chess and poker are both great, stimulating, challenging games and using the skills implemented by chess players can go a long way towards increasing your poker prowess.
More advanced strategy articles below.
| Bad Bets | Law of Luck | Differences | FPS | Mistakes | Tells | Heads Up | Chess |
Free poker resource page, providing poker strategies and tips to become a successful poker player!
   |
