11.04.09
Maintaining Vigilance
I am often surprised at the poker table by the extent to which many players seem to be playing in the dark. A hand and session of online poker is an interactive environment in which the qualitative player is being constantly fed information and data about the game, and yet so many limit themselves to the most narrow of feed signals: literally, the two cards in front of them, and the chips in play.
Beyond the fields of logic enabling higher level online poker play, it is important to a major degree to be vigilant to what is going on at the table. When you are not active in a hand, this is the best time to observe how other players act without the veil of your own monetary concern in the matter. Without a hand you are even more open to catching small signals and patterns in other players’ games that can lead you to better informed situations when you do have a hand.
Making a point to remain attentive and gather information during the hand to hand event will also lead you to be more efficient and proactive when in actual hands yourself, keeping the game going at a nice speed to increase the number of hands you can play per hour (and therefore, hopefully, your profit).
