Playing scared at the poker table is not the way to make money. A tight style is fine in the early stages of a tournament, but in just about every other playing situation, scared poker is disaster for sure. Scared players are usually playing at a table they shouldn’t be, in an attempt to earn back money they have previously lost. The stakes are big and they’re scared to commit money to hands without a monster.

These players can be bullied around all day long. They will only hit big hands on a small percentage, like all of us, and aggression will force them off all the others. When they do show aggression you can just get off the hand. These players will slowly lose their chips because they’re not aggressive enough to combat the other players’ aggression at the table. Scared money is dead money, there for the taking.

Well it’s that time of year again when I have to start to get creative if I want to make it to the WSOP. Coming up with an extra $12,000 or so isn’t exactly an easy feat to pull off. I would sell my car, but I’m leasing it, so that wouldn’t work for very long. I would need to go deep into the event and win enough money to cover my legal cost once the bank finds out what I did.

I need to find a way to hack into the WSOP pre-registration website and get in free. There’s always the chance that I could get a big-name pro to fund me for 70% of the take. It’s not fair, but it’s better than nothing. If I can come up with a good enough sob story, maybe a pro with a big heart will give me a chance.

You can still win a seat to the WSOP. Here’s how.

I think the best poker coach a person could hope to have would be Barry Greenstein. Barry is at the top of poker heap, and has had success at just about every variation of poker. Only a couple of legends like Doyle Brunson and T.J. Cloutier have been on the poker scene longer than Barry. He knows the game on a level that very few can reach.

Among all the legends of poker I think Barry would be the best coach because of his calm demeanour. He is patience personified, which is one of the most important traits a coach could have. Greenstein is well spoken and would be able to get his point across to any eager player looking to get better.

Unfortunately Barry is very guarded about his poker knowledge and doesn’t share it with the general public, so a Barry Greenstein poker school is unlikely to happen.

There are three types of poker betting action offered in casinos. There is fixed limit, pot limit and no limit. Each variation has its own theory of play, and you should know how to adjust to the betting structure you’re playing at the time.

Fixed limit poker has structured betting where a maximum of four equal-sized bets can be made by each player in each betting round. These games tend to be a bit looser and players will call bets to chase draws. Draw odds are better because the size of the bet is small compared to the pot.

Pot limit action limits players to betting the size of the pot as a maximum. Betting is still limited, but pots can grow quickly if two players are playing aggressively.

And of course there’s no limit holdem, which allows you to bet all your chips any time it’s your turn to act.

After a bad beat a lot of people change the way they play. They may be back in there slinging chips or coming in with a lot more focus and discipline. Some things to consider are, if they are on a tilt or are they betting a really strong hand? Some players will simply try to force the hand though or will give up marginal spots when they’ve just taken the beat. Anyway you look at it each moment of the game changes so always keep in mind the after effects of what’s happening to your opponents.