Attributes needed to being a winner - Snappit
A while back on PNL they asked us to email what we thought were the 3 key things or attributes needed to being a winning player. I have thought about this for quite a while and thought it may make an interesting thread. Over the couple of years I have been playing I have looked at why I win and lose and have come up with the following 3. You may notice that they do not rely on knowledge or particular skill at the game, the reason is that I don't think however skilled you are if you don't have the following you will not be a long term winner. I believe these set the key foundations you need. 1. Proper Bankroll. In my view absolutely key to everything. No matter how good you are and what your technical ability is,if you don't have, and play within, a proper bankroll you cannot win. You have to be able to take the many swings that come your way. Lets liken it to a casino. They are the most skillful operators, they are guaranteed to win, after all they have fixed the odds in their favour. Yet, they can still lose on any given night or even have several losing nights in a row. Therefore they must have a good bankroll to combat this, as well as only accepting bets ( presetting their min and max stakes) that fall within this. If they have the right bankroll they are certain to win in the long run. 2. Table selection. Even if you are a relatively average player you can still win by carefully selecting your table. If you are the 10th worse player in the world you will still win in the long term by playing the 9 worse players. If you are the 10th best player in the world you will lose long term if you play the 9 best players. Therefore, the 10th worse player could be making more money than the 10th best. You also need to select a table which plays to your strengths. If you play well against passive players look for a passive table, if you don't play well against aggressive players avoid aggressive tables even if technically you feel you are a better player. I am a photographer and I constantly get calls to advertise in this publication or that publication. I never advertise with them because they are targeted at the general public and I know I will get 10 calls a day asking me to do weddings. I don't want to do, and don't have the relevant skills for weddings. I cover events which is a totaly different market and skill set. Recently I was chatting to a member of the Master Photographers Association who specialises in childrens portraits. He targets council estates and the new estates comprising of young people. Why ? because these have the highest concentration of young children and babies. He doesn't look at the more affluent areas ( even though he could obtain a higher rate) because these generally comprise of older people who have built wealth over a period of time and don't tend to have young children. Lets liken it to a casino again. If you were going to open a casino where would you open it, in Chinatown, or a town with an overiding Methodist population ? 3. Have a reason for everything you do. Everytime you check, call or raise you should have a plan and a reason for doing it. Are you trying to build a pot ?, are you trying to narrow the field ? etc. Think what you are trying to achieve and have a plan for each move. E.G. If you want to limp in, what will you do if there is a raise after you. If you think you will fold is it worth staying in the pot particularly if it is an agressive table and a raise is likely. Also make sure you have a get out plan if things don't go to plan. I think I may have mentioned before I used to perform magic. When professional magicians do their tricks they will have looked at that trick in depth, they work out what can go wrong with it and will have get outs in case the the worse happens, the audience must not know it has not worked out. E.G if the punter takes the wrong card they have a plan what to do,they may actually do another trick with that card, if it goes wrong they make it look like part of the act and that was supposed to happen. You will notice that all these factors can be applied to business. Bankroll. All businessess need sufficient funding. Table selection. All businesses must decide what market they want and target their market appropriatly. Reason for doing. Every business man or woman has to make key decisions, these must be pragmatic, not emotional and made for sound reasons. The three things can be rolled into the one , treat your poker as a business and you have the key foundations in becomming a profitable player. It will be great to hear what other people think are key factors and I think we can all learn from it. »

MTT Tips and Strategy by Ramchip
I think many players think that if they are a good sng player then they should be a top mtt player, this is not the case. Firstly you have to train yourself to keep your concentration for much longer rather than the 40 minutes plus a sng takes to play, also in a mtt there is more information you need to take in and be aware of. I have seen many good sng players play well in tourneys for an hour or so and then make 1 loose call and go out. This I believe is down to the structure of sngs as they have been conditioned to play this way in the latter stages. Sngs often come down to a crapshoot where you simply have to take a chance to make the money, whereas its normal for the final 3 or 4 players of a MTT to have in access of 20 BBs but they often push all their chips in like the final stages of a sng. This is because after playing thousands of sngs they have conditioned themselves to play this way. In the early stages of a tourney I simply want to keep out of trouble, if I get to the break with 20 x the bb I’m happy. Don’t forget in the early stages you simply do not know how others on your table play, I’m quiet happy to just note what hands they are playing from what position and very interested to see what hands they are calling with. Every showdown gives voluble information and you should be aware of this. In the early stages of a tourney you can’t win it but you can easily lose it! After the break especially when the field has slimmed down I will then watch 2 or 3 other tables where the big stacks are, again watching the hands they play and call with. Throughout the game I’m doing my best to keep away from 50/50 situations and from players with stacks that can either damage my stack or take me out of the game. If I hit on the flop Id rather take the pot there than give my opponents the chance to draw to a better hand. There’s much more to playing tourneys but you will learn this through experience. Some signs of weakness to look for in opponents are: Players who chase with AK, AQ, AJ etc Players who cant fold top pair Players who always use the continuation bet when they have missed. Players who over bet in late positions when trying to steal the blinds with weak hands. Players who cant fold AQ, AJ, KQ KJ etc Players who over bet medium and low pocket pairs Players who play an ABC ultra tight game in the latter stages Players who always defend their big blind There are many more! Once you reach the final two tables you should have a vast amount of information on your opponents, using this together with their stack size which is very important you should have a very good idea of how they are going to play. As the field slims down further you then have to switch to short handed play. To get used to this why not play short handed sngs. I also suggest you take time out and play heads up sngs; I still play these every day as it keeps me sharp and I find it very profitable as most players have a poor heads up game. Also after a tourney analyse your play. Most tourneys in which I have not made the money I can usually find mistakes I have made in the game. Looking back at all the tourneys I have played I have never played a perfect game but then again has anybody? Hope these tips help you.. »