The disparity between professionals and beginners always remain immense, whether it is playing an outdoor sport like cricket in Australia or an indoor sport like playing live poker in India. Though both the games don’t relate, they require thorough understanding of the game and the practical experience player put into each move.

Live poker is the game that requires skills like critical reasoning, mathematics etc., so every move needs to be planned in detail by tossing around the information from thousands of hands played against each opponent. And poker players own these skills whereas are just leanings for poker beginners. Following are the necessary skill-set that separates poker professionals from poker beginners:

Watchful

A novice poker player pays more attention to their own playing moves, hands dealt, etc., and a professional one is watchful about everything. Poker pros are extra careful about everything happening on the live poker table even when they are not playing the hand. They notice how a player reacts to turn raises, how often he/she bets with a big hand, does a player prefers check-raise or fast-play draws, etc. Because all this information help them to maximize their expectation against a given opponent in future play.

Tilt Control

New poker players usually get distressed and crushed by small bad beats and bad run of cards that occur while playing live poker. While professional players don?óÔé¼Ôäót let bad beats affect their play, and very well understand that upswings and downswings are a part of the game. They know there would be winning and losing streaks, so there?óÔé¼Ôäós no reason to sweat the losing days.

Dynamic

A competent poker player keeps on varying his play so that he is not predictable to his opponents. Moreover, experienced players plan their moves according to their opponent’s playing styles. Whereas players new to live poker play ABC poker which makes them predictable and hence are easily noticeable by everyone on the table.

Range-Balancing

Poker professionals are well-trained and already know in advance what moves to go ahead with. In other words, poker pros know how to balance their ranges, for instance, when to check-raise the flop with a strong hand or when to bluff or semi-bluff. In poker terms, range balancing means to leave your opponent guessing whether your are bluffing or are actually holding the nuts. While amateur players are not skilled enough to mislead their opponents and their bluffs get caught easily.

Versatility

Poker is a game of transitional variables, i.e., it depends on factors like your position on the table, skill level of your opponents, past hand history, etc. Experienced poker players usually analyze all the factors like hole cards dealt, flop on the table, table position, opponents skill level, bankroll available etc., to accommodate their live poker play and keep on altering their poker playing tendencies as this helps them to stay one step ahead of others on the table. However, new poker players are very rigid and are rarely able to adjust their play as per the poker rules. It is with training and experience that they get adaptable to the versatile nature of the game.

So, the next time you go to play poker in Bangalore or Goa, do remember the above personality traits that poker pros possess and follow them by heart to play your best live poker game.