Reduce Your Variance And Win More
Many poker players kind of hate variance, without even thinking that it is one of the most important reasons while games are still running. If a better player takes an upper hand every single time, no one would show up to play against them. Therefore, the variance is surely the thing that keeps weak players in our games end encourage them to come back.
These days we can encounter big swings in our results because our win rates are much smaller than it used to be. The main reason is that everyone got better at poker. There are many resources available to poker players and you can improve very quickly getting good poker coaching or reading one of many strategy articles, which you can find online.
The game has changed and we need to change with it as well. It is still possible to have a decent win rate and many players have it. However, you need to work on your game to increase it and reduce the variance at the same time. These tips will help you do exactly that.
Select your games
Probably one of the most important areas, which is overlooked by many. People used to make fun of anyone actively selecting tables and choosing weaker games. While it is true, a lot of the time those players end up having two times bigger win rate and winning twice as much money compared to ones that play random tables. Which result would you prefer yourself? I will take more money every time!
Of course, I am not saying that you should be bum hunting (going after weak players and playing only against them), but playing in the games where you can barely win is quite stupid. Do yourself a favor and select a game with weaker players – it is the only way to win in the long run!
Keep your “A” game and concentration
Before going further, answer to yourself – are you always playing your “A” game? Probably you’re not because no one is. Nevertheless, you have to do everything you can to play is as often as possible. The difference in your results while playing “A” and “D” games are tremendous and believe me, you want the first one.
Most of the time it requires some off table work. If you want to reduce the variance and win more you just have to do it. You should be preparing for your games, learning to keep your concentration longer, recognizing when you start tilting and much more. This is a very wide topic and if you really want to master your game in this area, I highly recommend getting free poker book on self-management and concentration. It will help to answer many questions and take your game to the next level.
Quitting on time
How many times did you win money just to lose it back later? It happened to everyone, but it is not something wrong on its own. However, if you start losing money because you feeling bad, angry or even tired – that is a big problem.
You should recognize those signs and quit playing on time. Same goes for your concentration - if you start thinking about anything else you should quit, cause most likely you will not end up doing well in your session.
You will save a lot of valuable buy-ins if you manage to quit on time. So as soon as you spot any sign of negative emotions just quit playing and you will do yourself a big favor.
Keep it up
All of these tips can drastically increase you win rate and naturally reduce your variance in the game. The bigger win rate you have the fewer chances there are for a huge swing. So next time when you find yourself in a very tough game, think about changing the table. If you feel bad, for whatever reason, do not start playing. Moreover, if you start feeling effects of negative emotions while in the game, just quit.
Do that, continue to learn and improve your game, read some great poker tips and your win rate will skyrocket helping to reduce the variance and reach your goals in poker!
