Frequent
Decisions Are Important
Decisions, decisions,
decisions. Poker is a game of decisions. But not all of
them are equally important, and not all of them are critical.
Things that occur all the time are important. Even when
a loss attributed to a wrong decision is small, it eventually
adds up.
Always defending your small blind in hold'em, for example,
illustrates point. Suppose while playing online in $2-$4
Texas hold'em, with $1 and $2 blinds, you always defend
your small blind – even with abysmally weak hands
like 7?-2?. Based on the random distribution of cards, you're
typically dealt such a throwaway hand about one-third of
the time.
At 60 hands per hour
- a typical pace online if the games is running efficiently
and most players are attentive and have good Internet connections
- you're dealt the small blind six times every 60 minutes.
If you always call, you wind up calling twice each hour
when you really shouldn't.
That's only $2 each hour, but if you play ten hours per
week, at the end of the year it can add up to a large loss.
Sobering thought, isn't it?
