Basic Strategy...

Oh, I hope you weren't thinking I would give you a formula for how to play in every situation were you? Of course you weren't.

A basic strategy is gained in two ways. One from getting ass-raped while you play when you do something stupid, and the other is from your discussions with players or literature.

Many ideas in your basic strategy will be "general" ideas. For example, in general, you don't want to bluff someone that you know is extremely loose all the way to the river. In general, you should loosen up and steal some blinds when the table is playing tight.

Ah, but there is much more to basic strategy than this, isn't there?

Yes, there is. In fact, there is much more because your basic strategy encompasses all of the poker knowledge you possess. And, the more you gain, the better. Someone might try to tell you otherwise, but you can't read enough books, visit enough forums, or get in enough poker discussions. Of course, you have to sift out the poor information from the excellent information, but you're smart enough to do that.

One place you can start to add to your basic strategy is David Sklansky and Dan Harrinton. Sklansky has numerous books on poker, and you couldn't go wrong with Theory of Poker. Harrington on Hold 'Em 1 and 2 are also two books that you could not go wrong with at all, and in fact, I think these three are the best out there. The no limit section of Super System 2, and Tournament poker for the advanced player from Sklansky are two other books that you should read if you're playing tournament style poker. But, of course, you have to understand them, and that's where the forums, and discussions come in. You will simply have to ask your questions, or search for posts where the question has been asked, and thouroughly answered.

When you take in all of this information, you have aided your static knowledge, kind of like a kid who just memorized his phone number, and address. But, that same kid, having memorized that information, hasn't improved his ability to memorize, nor his ability to recall. He's just added information to his static knowledge base.

Something I should add to this. David Sklansky probably writes the best books on no limit hold 'em. But, he's not some big time tournament or cash game winner. He has more strategy information in his head than you or I put together (and then some) but with that same amount of information, you or I might be able to play better than him. That is because, the bottom line is, there is a part of our intelligence that you're just going to either have, or not have.

Take any two different people in the world and surround them with the most brilliant minds, and best education around. Give them exactly the same input and output. In general, one of them will do better than the other. One of them will be quicker to solve problems than the other although both of them know 'how' to solve problems. That same one will probably recognize patterns better, recall information quicker, and eventually have to be 'taught' less because he will be able to indirectly infer a certain amount of information.

So is the case in poker. You can be the most informed player in the world having worked on your basic strategy for hours on end. But, if you don't have the street smarts that another player has, he will beat you up and down the table.

There is good news though....for the most part, the more informed you are, the more profitable you can become if you control your emotions, nail down your basic strategy, and use proper judgement at the table. It's just, some of you might get to a limit where you plateau, and you just shouldn't go beyond that limit. Kind of like the baketball player who scored 40 a night in high school, went to college and was player of the year, went to the NBA and couldn't keep his job. His skills just couldn't go beyond collegiate level. One is physical, the other mental, but the same concept applies...you still need to work hard, but eventually you could hit a limit where you can't go further.

Basic strategy is built through intense study of the best books, great posts in forums, and great discussion with peers. Through all of this, you should have a good idea of the things that constitute making a mistake, and what doesn't.