Five Unconventional Tips To Poker Success

By Charles Mousseau

There's a reason that conventional advice is called "conventional," and it's related to the same reason that obvious plans are considered "obvious" - they are ultimately effective.

I, ever the contrarian, always have looked off the beaten path to find ways to improve my poker success. Not just those that are different for their own sake, but those that I feel are effective, ones I can integrate into my own play, and they just haven't been talked about by big-name authors.

I'll leave the mainstream advice to the mainstream authors, but if you are curious, here are the best five things I do to help my tournament success that no one, to the best of my knowledge, has discussed.

No. 1: Watch a few hands unfold at your table from a different physical location.

You hear athletes and poker players alike talk about a situation known as "being in the groove." You're almost seeing things before they happen, letting intuition take over the micromanaging so you can start absorbing things in the big picture.

It can be very effective, but the danger is this: It isn't a big step from being "in the groove" to being "in a rut."

To combat this, I have developed a little trick which I first used back in my chess-playing days, where for a few of my opponent's turns, I would stand behind him and observe the game "from a distance," in an effort to force myself to see the game not just as my game, but simply, a game.

The next time you are at the poker table, and you're going to get up and go for a stretch, or to get a soda, stand back from the table and watch the action. Pretend you aren't even involved. When they're about to deal, sit down and get your cards, play the hand if it is worthy. When you're out of the hand, stand back up. Walk around and watch.