Ariston's New Year poker resolutions

The dos and don'ts for 2006

1. Do - Keep accurate records
If you don't already keep records, then start. A couple of years ago when I first started keeping records it changed my game completely. I very quickly discovered where I was making easy money but more importantly where I was losing money. You can use many tracking programs that are on the market that will give you fancy spreadsheets and the like, but if you simply record all your games you will spot a pattern very quickly. A simple way of doing this is to keep a running total in your mobile phone. A friend of mine has a text message template with every category you can imagine in there. If he places a bet on football and loses £100 he amends the running total, if he plays in a tournament costing £100 and wins £2000 he updates his figures. It may be simple but it is effective. If you aren't going to be honest with your records there is no point in keeping them, you are only cheating yourself if you bend your results.

2. Don't - Chase
When the money is gone it’s gone. If you are having a bad day at the tables and you decide to chase, you can do so much damage. There has to be a time when you say enough is enough and leave it. If you are way behind, just put it down to experience and come back. I have been guilty of this on more than one occasion this year and I will not do it again. Always set yourself a limit which on a bad day you are prepared to lose and have the discipline to stick to it. (Personally if I lose £500 today the computer goes off until tomorrow.)

3. Do - Choose your game carefully
By looking at your records you should be able to find what your most profitable game is. If you are winning more at Omaha than Texas then play more Omaha - simple really. You should also choose the limits you are playing at carefully. If you play too high and have a bad run you can quickly destroy your bankroll. In addition, you should always look at the players on your chosen game. For example, if there are two tables available and one has two players you regularly beat and the other has three players who consistently beat you then it is obvious which table you should be playing at.

4. Don't - Play for the sake of it
We have all done it, you put the computer on and there is no seat available on the table you want to play at so you just stick your name down on the waiting list for any game or sit in a game not suited to you. You then miss the seat that you were wanting because you are sat playing 7 card stud or something stupid. If you are going online to play Texas Hold’em then don’t lose patience and play something else while you wait, observe the table and see if you can spot whose steaming, who’s hitting cards etc. When a seat becomes available you can sit down with extra information about the player and a better chance of winning.

5. Do - Keep your player notes up-to-date
If you have a photographic memory then don't bother with this one but for most players out there it is essential you keep your player notes up-to-date. If someone has run a particular play on you a couple of months ago and you noticed him doing it again last week to someone else then put it in his notes. Next time he attempts this play, you will be able to adapt your game and snap him off. It is very difficult to remember what each player is capable of in different circumstances. Keep notes on betting patterns on flush draws and the like and you will be surprised how easy it is to read people in the future.

6. Don’t - Play so many hands
I sometimes get in the zone of playing way too many hands. If I am on a very soft table where I know I can outplay my opponents, I will try to do this way too often. You should be careful what you wish for because when you catch the dream hand it is always possible somebody has a better one and you can lose all of your stack on the one hand. Be more selective on hands pre-flop and your profits will go up. I am not saying you should play like a rock but certain hands are junk and you should accept this and stay away from them at all costs.

7. Do - Be disciplined
I have been known to lose my bankroll and occasionally a few of you will too. Stay disciplined and keep playing the way you were before. If overall you win, then you should win again. Just because you have a bad day/week/month; it doesn’t mean you are a bad player. Do not under any circumstances change your game or stakes as this will lead to a brick wall and a few head bashing incidents. You know you're good enough so stick to what you know - if you don't know you are good enough and consistently lose, maybe poker is not the game for you.

8. Don’t - Get emotional
By choosing to play poker, you have selected a game where you are mixing ego, money and luck. If you get the mix slightly wrong it can be a recipe for disaster. If you are to be successful at this game you need to realise it will occasionally river you and you will sometimes luck out on me. That’s the game we play and it happens - the key thing is IT IS ONLY A GAME. I know a lot of you play poker for a living and it is your livelihood but don’t take things personally and go down the route of thinking everything’s against you. If you get it in your head that it’s a game and statistically you are going to lose with aces at least one in every 5 times (on average) then you may be more relaxed. If you allow yourself to get stressed and emotional you will not play your optimal game and will not win as much as you could - you may even get wound up so much you will do the lot (been there, done that, bought the t-shirt and then had to sell t-shirt to get back into game)

9. Do - play more satellites
In my opinion, satellites are the way forward. You have a chance at winning a holiday of a lifetime with probably the biggest tournament of your life stuck in the middle of it. If a player like me can win 6 in 12 months (out of 25 played), I am sure plenty of you there can win one or two. These things will change your views of the game completely when you get drawn next to Johhny Chan or The Devilfish and you are sat there playing with the biggest players in the world. Strange thing is you find you can compete and if you knock out one of the big names it really does make you feel like a poker god (for a few seconds anyway).

10. Don’t - Be too predictable
Predictability is the enemy in this game. If I know how you play flush draws and stuff, I will beat you no matter what cards I get. If you vary the way you play hands then it will be more difficult (although I will still probably get you!). If you show the odd bluff/unconventional play it sometimes encourages people to pay you off on your big hands. If you are totally predictable you will lose to better players who read the game.

11. Do - Know when to quit
Leaving the table at the right time is one of the key things in poker. Hands up how many people out there have got to 6 or 7 times your buy-in in a cash game only to give it all back. It now feels like you haven’t just lost your buy in, you have lost all your profit too. You should never feel bad when you have lost some profit - at the end of the day you have still only lost your buy-in. If you are going to play cash I would suggest you set yourself a target before you start. When you get above that target, do not allow yourself to go below it - if you loose a pot and drop back to your target then just leave the table and start again on another table with your original pull-up. You have then taken your profit and banked it in effect.

12. Don’t - pretend to know everything
I have been playing a long time now and earlier in the year thought I knew everything...it’s impossible. Every time I play I learn something new. You should always be trying to improve your game no matter what. Nobody on the planet is the perfect player (although some are a lot closer than others!) and if you accept there is always someone better than you then it will make you a little more humble. If you don’t know your odds then you shouldn’t really think you are anything other than a recreational player - I did an article a couple of months ago on odds and anybody who didn't read it should do. There are a couple of basic tricks in there that will allow the biggest numpty to work his odds out quickly.

13 Do - Learn from your mistakes
Ok, we all make mistakes and some are more costly than others (stay on the strip in future Russ) but my own take on mistakes is this - THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A MISTAKE IF I LEARN FROM IT. If I make the same mistake over and over again then I am just thick and need a thrashing. Each time you have made an enormous blunder you must try to make sure you never let it happen again. There are some basic mistakes 80% of players make every time they sit down which I have noticed and they allow me to make a big profit on these players. If you bet a certain way with a certain hand and the same player keeps picking you off you should learn from this and not run that play/betting pattern on him again. Put it in his notes- do not do this to this player, he will call and cost you money. I am not giving the two biggest mistakes people make on here because it would cost me a fortune. Recognising your own mistakes is a big thing and I feel it is far more important you do that than me just telling you (well my bank manager thinks it is important for you to learn yourself).

It may seem strange that I have given you 13 resolutions but I am not superstitious and 13 has no significance to me (apart from where it is on the wheel of death/roulette). If I stick to what I have written above then I will be having a very profitable 2006. If you stick to them and have an equally good year remember me when you’re rich and famous.

Ariston

Oh and Happy New Year.