The only way to make money at poker is through your opponents’ mistakes. Consequently if you make fewer mistakes than your opponents then you will make money, in the long term at least. In fact, poker is a game based entirely on mistakes. You must make as few as possible and exploit those of your opponents (not exploiting an opponents mistake is, in itself, a mistake). Theoretically, there is no such thing as a ‘good’ play as such. There is the correct play and then there are various degrees of mistakes.

You are dealt Ac Kc in early position and you raise your premium holding. Three players cold-call your raise, as do both the blinds.

The flop is a nice looking Kh 6s 4s. You bet and all five opponents call.

The turn is 9c. You bet and three of your five opponents call.

The river is Qd. You bet and get raised. You make a crying call and are shown Jd Ts for the straight.

I think this story will resonate with most poker players, especially those who play (or have played) in the lower limits. Most winning poker players realise that they need to play against inferior players to win. However, sometimes it seems like your opponents are so bad that they actually become more difficult to beat. So many players are staying around with so many random hands, that one of them are bound to hit a hand better than yours.

At time of writing, England have just beaten Ecuador 1-0 in the soccer World Cup to progress to the quarterfinals. It was a scrappy game, in which England were the better side but were unable to really put the game away. The headlines in the English sports pages this morning were mostly negative. “A lacklustre team performance against an unconvincing Ecuador”, claimed one major website, with others carrying similar slants. (For those of you who aren’t soccer fans, bear with me, I am going somewhere with this).

Thinking back to the game makes me realise what a thin line there is between success and failure or, in this instance, a ‘good’ performance and a ‘bad’ performance. If England had taken more of their chances and walked away 2-0 or 3-0 winners, then no doubt the press would have been full of praise for the side, claiming that we were finally fulfilling our potential after a disappointing start to the tournament. They talk about a lacklustre performance, but what they really mean is a lacklustre result.

“If you can’t spot the sucker within 30 minutes of being at the table then you’re the sucker.”

I’m sure we’ve all heard this cliché before. It’s true that if you are a competent player, you will usually spot several mistakes made by your opponents at the table quite quickly. If you don’t spot any you should probably find a better game. Providing you are observant (or cheat by using Poker Tracker and a heads-up display) within half an hour you should have a good idea who the weak players at the table are.

This is all well and good, but in reality you can do far better than this. It is possible to spot weak players on the internet not only because they play badly, but also because they tend to share certain habits and mannerisms. This article will take a look at some of these other ways to spot the sucker. Things that you can spot long before you have had a good chance to study their play, maybe before they’ve even played a hand!

Improving your game
People write to me all the time, telling me their poker history, which inevitably ends up with the same question: “What can I do to improve my game?” Many people use the new year as a time to assess where they are and where they want to go — whether it’s in life or as a poker player. Each person is different and learns in different ways, but here is a list of things that I like to recommend to players to help them improve their game.

Keys to success in today’s poker world
Today’s poker environment is much tougher than it used to be. A few years ago, anyone with half a brain and a little dedication could make money playing poker. All you had to do was play smart and you could make good money. But that has all changed. To be a successful poker player in today’s world requires that you not only play smart, but be smart in every single aspect of the game.

Many of the players who came into the game a few years ago have lost their money and gone on to other pursuits or hobbies. There has been a tremendous influx of educational material that has pushed the level of play higher and higher.

When and when not to do so
Editor's note: This column is an excerpt from the, expanded edition of Internet Texas Hold'em: Winning Strategies for Full-Ring and Short-Handed Games. It includes a new chapter on playing multiway pots, as well as two new chapters for shorthanded games.

Beginning players, and even some players with a decent amount of experience, have misconceptions concerning when they should raise and when they should call with a draw.

Most players understand that they should raise with the best hand; what they don't understand is how to define the best hand. The best hand is simply the hand that has the highest chance of winning by the river; this can be either a very strong made hand on the flop or a very strong draw.

Make drawing decisions one street at a time
The most common mistake of beginning players is playing too loosely. They play too many starting hands, continue too often with weak pairs on the flop, and chase unprofitable draws.

As players gain experience, they make these types of mistakes with less frequency. Some of these players will learn about odds and pot odds. They learn that their hand has a certain probability of improving, and they compare this probability to the cost of the bet and the size of the pot. They might even add some implied pot odds by looking at what they will win, should they hit their hand.

 Kathy Watterson, who is my coauthor “Internet Poker: How to Play and Beat Online Poker Games,” coauthored this article with me. Some of this material appears in that book, though in a somewhat different form. This piece is aimed at beginning poker players, particularly newcomers to “brick and mortar” and online casino poker, or those who might have been playing for a while, but never stopped to think about what it takes to become a winning poker player.

 
When I ran Cross-Country in High School, our coach would video tape us as we ran so that we could then view the tape and critique our form. Despite posting decent times, I’ve always been an awkward runner. My legs kick out to the side in such an extreme manner that you’d swear Lawrence Taylor had gotten to them just as he did for Joe Theisman that memorable Monday night. I’ve always hated watching myself run, but my form really does improve when I pay deliberate attention to my physical mechanics.