When I first started playing poker online for money seriously at various casino online, I can remember badly wanting to extend the wonderful feeling that comes from stealing a pot rather than winning it by cards. From all the online poker on TV, and the aggressive images taking the forefront, it was easy to want to try to bully one’s way to the cash, even when sometimes it didn’t magic strategic sense. One of the most resonant things I can remember in all my early table playing came during a session at the Grand in Tunica. I had been playing a lot of pots, and bluffing a little more often than I needed to, betting street after street even when it became apparent that my opponent had a big hand. When I decided I was going to bluff a hand, I would continue bluffing regardless of what came, which sometimes worked out, but more often got me caught in losing money I could have easily kept in my stack. After one particularly pushy hand, the older gent who I’d just bluffed half my stack into, while raking up my chips looked up and said, “You’re trying too hard, son.” He didn’t have to explain any more than that. Sometimes you need to know how to take your foot of the gas, and realize that you don’t need to win every hand, you just need to win the big ones.
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