The Best Fold in the World... and My Worst Mistake (so far...)

I am generally the kind of player who plays mostly solid... i'll limp in with garbage every once in a while and bluff sometimes, but most often i play solid... generally i like to sucker people into giving their chips to me.... and thus i have no problem folding the better hand once in a while... one of my favorite moments of all times is when Hellmuth said his famous line...

For those of you who don't know what i am talking about, here's the summary...

Hellmuth raises from late position with big slick... (a little over 3 times the big blind, his standard raise...)

everyone else folds, big blind re-raises to 10 times the big blind....

Hellmuth gives him the stare for a bit and decides to call...

flop come K-x-x rainbow....
big blind checks...
Hellmuth thinks for a little bit.... and makes a minimal bet, about 25-30% of the pot...
big blind immediately re-raises to almost 100% of pot...

Hellmuth turns over to him, and says something like, "i have a feeling you have me beat... I almost folded before the flop..."

and he mucks top-pair, top-kicker with absolutely nothing else on the board....

lo and behold!, the big blind flips over pocket aces...

Hellmuth gets up, looks at the camera, points towards his wife.... and goes, "I can dodge bullets baby... !" (I was ready to cry...)

so anyway, from that day... my biggest dream has been to be able to make such outlandish lay downs with minimal fuss...

and i have made some good ones....

i am on the 2-5 table at the taj,
this guy just sits down... it's his first hand... he raises from middle position to $17...

everyone folds to me on the button... i look down at pocket queens... (beautiful sight)...
i re-raise to $55...

before i have put my bet in, he moves all in with his $300....

i give him a look... "all-in on your first hand...!?"
he says something like... "you must have had something since you re-raised me...."
right then and there, i knew...

i mucked em... face up...
and he turns over bullets...

i looked around for the camera as well as a wife looking person... didn't find either... so just sat down....

but now, i come to the hand that i actually wanted to discuss here.... (i wanted to give you context first... mostly so that i look less retarded...)

again at the taj, 1-2 table this time
guy sits down and raises from middle position to $15... his first hand...
one other person calls...
i look at my cards in the big blind, and look down at cowboys... raise it to $50

he immediately calls... the other caller folds...

i check in the dark, hoping to see his reaction and then trap him...

flop comes 9-6-4 off suit...

he looks at me, and immediately goes all in with his $300 or so...

i think... and think... and think... and i Fold... announcing to the world that i had kings...

he looks at me... "you had KINGS ?!?!"

and he announces that he had queens...

i refused to believe that (for the next couple of months...)

needless to say, the rest of the night was miserable... i couldn't win a hand to save my life... everyone wanted to play against me... not a good feeling to have...

for the longest time, i couldn't believe it that he did not have aces, but after playing and replaying the hand in my head and the eventual conversations, i realize that he indeed had queens...

lessons for the future...

1- be willing to submit to the poker god's will if you get cowboys against aces... unless it's a tournament and you just don't wanna gamble with the big stack at the moment, always call with cowboys... 9 times out of 10, you'll win... the one time you do lose, the table will know that you are willing to go all the way... so they won't prey on you...

2- even if you are gonna fold a strong hand, never announce it... nothing good can ever come out of it... you might get momentary satisfaction if you are right, but it can only go against you... your opponents know that you have the ability to fold the second best hand, so if you are in... you must have the nuts... (of course you can use that to bluff, but the downside risk of being preyed upon is much more dangerous...)

The Best Call in the World

One of the first things I wrote about in this blog is that it is all about instinct... recently i saw a hand in the 2007 WSOP main event that i just have to mention here...

It's day 5, average chip stack is about 2.2 million... blinds at 30k-60k... i think 1k in antes...

this guy who's name i don't know, with 3+ million in chips , raises to 150k from middle position with A-10 off suit (both black)

everyone else folds but J.C. Tran is in the big blind with 8D -5 (black) and he somehow decides to call... he has about 2 million in chips...

flop comes 8-6-3 all hearts...
Tran checks...
the guy bets 350k...
Tran calls... (OK, top pair... the guy probably has high cards with a flush draw)

turn comes 2 of hearts...
Tran checks...
the guy bets 400k...
Tran gives this guy the look of death... or x-rays or whatever... and decides to call !
he has a pair of 8s with shit for kicker and the board has four hearts and the guy has raised pre-flop and has been betting throughout...

river comes another deuce (clubs i think)
the guy confidently bets 700k...
Tran has 1.4 million in chips left... and he goes into hogwarts or whatever magical place for a bit... muttering something like, "why did i think on the turn that i had you... i don't know..."
he looks at his stack... he would be pretty short stacked if he calls...
he goes... "this is would be the sickest call in the world... " (i totally agree...!)
goes into the magical place for a few seconds again...
and finally he calls! (after all, if he had him on the turn, the river couldn't possibly have helped the other guy... !)

the guy flips over his A-10 and is completely bamboozled when he sees Tran's 8-5 off suit with no heart... (i probably would have knelt to Tran's greatness, kissed his hand before shooting myself...)

Tran goes into hysteria... claiming he is the greatest... (i would be very tempted to agree for a moment, based on that hand...)

now lets think about it... Tran is no beginner... it's not like he didn't see the flush or was not aware of the fact that the other guy could easily have had 10-10... or a set of 6s... based on the way he lead the betting (the other guy bet four times for god's sake!)...

but he felt something on the flop, confirmed it (somehow!) on the turn... and then stuck with his guns on the river... if he was wrong, he would have been crippled... but he's a fighter... the dude worked in MacDonald's for years before turning to poker... he has nothing but his instincts... and if they fail him, so be it!

PS you can watch this hand on the WSOP episode shown on 09/25...

Folding the Better Hand - an Exercise in Mental Toughness

How many times has it happened that you fold the better hand, the guy shows you the bluff and you piss off a good chunk of your remaining chips (if not all of them) over the next couple of hands, because you don't ever wanna get bluffed again...

or worse, the guy actually wasn't even trying to bluff but you just got scared of the straight or the flush and decided to fold anyway to a bet... and the night was just one misery after another, after that moment... i know i have had many of those nights...

But here's the thing... if there is one thing you need in poker (besides the ability to read people and being able to pull the trigger when you sense weakness), it is Mental Toughness...

mental toughness is the ability to move on from a bad beat, a bluff, a bad call, a busted straight flush draw.... and playing the next hand as if nothing happened...
it is perhaps one of the most complex qualities to master... in fact i don't personally know of anyone who doesn't get affected a little bit by all of the things i mentioned above... the best of them though accept it... take a break and lay low for a little... and then bounce back... !

Poker as i mentioned before, is not about one hand or a few isolated hands... it's a process of survival and elimination... if you survive, you live to play another hand...

of course in no limit, you can get busted on any one hand, but that's what you try to avoid... never go all-in unless you have the nuts or close to that, or you are bluffing... there is no point in making marginal calls at the risk of losing all your chips... i absolutely hate going all-in unless i have almost the nuts on the river or i am pretty sure that my opponent can't take the pressure and will fold his middle pair...

but back to mental toughness, the point is that bad beats and getting bluffed is part of the game and you have to be ready for them... most of all, don't let them affect your game for the rest of the session... no one can make a 100% correct calls... so it's OK if you fold the better hand once in a while... and please don't try to get back your money from the same person next time the same situation arises... he won the hand, you lost, move on... wait for a better situation, hopefully you'll get a chance to get back at him/her at some point... but even if you don't, it doesn't matter... as long as you keep playing your game and accumulating chips...

Hellmuth (he's my favorite player by the way) says, and i totally agree with him, if you can't occasionally fold the best hand, you'll never become a good or great poker player... there have been times when legendary pros folded cowboys pre-flop in three-way pots cuz they didn't want to risk jeopardizing their chip lead...

So here's an exercise that I suggest... i have done it many times myself... it's gonna sound insane, but just play along, you'll expand your mind in a whole different dimension...

next time you play, try this...

1- wait for a good hand e.g. pocket pair or AK, AQ etc.
2- raise to three times the big blind pre-flop
3- if the flop comes in your favor i.e. you get top pair or better, check... or FOLD if someone bets
4- on the turn check if no one bets... or FOLD if someone bets
5- on the river, check if no one bets... or FOLD if someone bets

after the hand, take a break and go outside to walk around for about 10-15 minutes or so... you'll feel a whole set of emotions... anger, frustration, self-doubt...

experience them in this controlled environment and bring yourself back to normal...

you'll see that the world does not come to end and you just took an immaterial hit, three big blinds... or even if you consider the opportunity cost, you could have won may be 10-15 big blinds... that's it... the night is still young, and now you have control over your emotions... perfect scenario to make some money....

Advice from the Pros

In the past couple of years, I must have read at least 20 or so books and watched similar number of DVDs from current and former greats that we all see on TV... Poker Brat, Kid Poker, Texas Dolly, TJ... everyone... not to mention the countless articles, columns, blogs on the net...

it seems that all of them are targeted at the absolute beginners... or may be the pros just don't want to tell you the real story... I don't know... but after contemplating and trying over and over again, I can tell you one thing for certain... if you strictly follow their advice, you'll game will definitely improve if you are an absolute beginner...

but pretty soon you'll hit your ceiling... don't get me wrong, they all say good stuff, play tight but aggressive, only play premium hands, use position etc... unfortunately, unless you have till eternity to wait for the premium hands in good position... and are fortunate enough that your opponents pay you off every time, you are not gonna get too far...

first of all, if there is one thing i know about poker, it is this... there are no absolutes in poker... no matter what anyone says, there is no one "right" way to play the game... and that's what makes the game so interesting... just like a tennis match or more like a boxing contest... there are certain basics in poker that you should observe in most situations...

keep your guard up and don't slack off on the table
don't play too many trash hands... a 9-2 off suit can only win so many times....
and so many other common sense things that you wouldn't do in day to day life anyway... (somehow a lot of people just go into some fantasy land when they sit at the poker table...)

but other than that, there are no absolutes... aces get cracked fairly often... big slick, supposedly the third or forth best starting hand in poker after A-A, K-K and Q-Q according to most pros, and you see so many people go all-in pre-flop with it... is merely a drawing hand which is generally slightly behind in any good contest i.e. against any pair... or is only a slight favorite against any two random cards... the point i am trying to make is that the so called "premium" hands are only premium pre-flop... and yes your chances of winning after the flop are higher if you only play premium hands, but you are missing the bigger picture by concentrating on the "premium-ness" of the hand...

what the pros actually do, is slug it out for small pots and wear the opponents down slowly... and then eventually the one big punch...

which is the part you see on tv by the way, I am sure you must have asked yourself something like "HE went (or called) ALL-IN with THAT ?!?!" specially in the WSOP or WPT... and you wonder, is this guy stupid or what... a 12 yr old knows you should fold 9-7 when all you have is middle pair...

what you don't get to see is how the poor guy was mentally demolished by the constant pressure and bluffs in the past 11 hands... every poker book tells you, the winning hand in poker is generally played way before the last hand... i am sure you must have experienced that yourself, i know i have... you get bluffed, then you make a stupid call and its all downhill from their... eventually you get busted for moving all in with A-3 when the board is K, 3, 2...

so what i am trying to say here is that the main idea of poker is to defeat the person... more like defeat them one person at a time and demolish the entire table... premium hands and pot odds are for people who don't know how to really play the game... (don't get upset, I used to be one of those people...) and that's what the pros want everyone to be... people who play the cards part of it... while they get to play the real game... you don't have to believe me, and it might not even be intentional on the part of the pros...

but i have to say, get over the Beginner section of poker as soon as possible... anything that the books tell you, is only gonna help you break even at best... get into the nuts and bolts of the game... it is as complex, unpredictable and beyond definition as human nature itself... after all you are not wrestling the guy's arm or competing with the strength in his shoulders... you are competing with his mind and spirit and that is something we have not been able to fully understand as yet... and as a consequence, we can not fully define the rule book for poker either...

Playing your hand blind

This is one of my most favorite things in poker... and it's not just me, Doyle Brunson recommends doing it once in a while as well... the main idea is to completely play your opponent and not your cards, and what better way to do that than play a complete hand without looking at your hole cards... I have done this many times and trust me, it's an experience you will never forget... not to mention the confidence you'll get if you actually win the pot...

Here's the deal... the first time you try this, wait for the following situation...

1) You are in the cut-off position (i.e. one before the dealer button)
2) Observe people as they look at their hole-cards and try to gauge the strength of their cards
3) If you feel that no one has anything too strong, and no one has raised the pot, raise slightly more than 3 times the big blind and watch everyone's reaction; specially those that call your bet
4) You will probably be the last to act, and so watch everyone's reaction after the flop and bet about 60-70% of the pot if everyone checks, or raise to three times the bet if someone makes a small bet.
Of course, if someone bets big or re-raises you, look at your cards and decide accordingly.
5) If no one raised you on the flop and there is only one or two people left in the hand, he/they will probably check to you on the turn, so bet about 30-40% of the pot, making it look like you want a call.
Once again, if someone has bet big on the turn or raises your bet, look at your hole cards and act accordingly.
6) If all goes well, you will just have one opponent (if any) left on the river, and if they check to you, bet 30-40% of the pot again. If they bet or raise you, it's again time to look at your hole cards and act accordingly.

In all likelihood, if your read was half-way correct, there won't be any showdown and you'll win the hand on the flop or on the turn...

If all else fails and you were wrong in reading your opponents, use this hand to throw them off, by turning over your cards and say something like... "you might have me..." or "can you beat 9 high ?" (this way they'll pay you off next time you do have a hand)

Try it again in a couple of hours...

As odd as it seems, playing a hand without looking at your hole cards does have a couple of advantages...

1) You don't know your cards, so there is no chance you are displaying any tells about the strength of your hand... so your opponents have no clue what you have... heck! YOU have no clue what you have, so how can they... and thus you have the fear of the unknown in your favor...

2) Since the board is almost meaningless to you, you are forced to focus on your opponents so you have a better chance of reading them...

and as a backup,

3) If your read was off, and you end up losing the hand, you can use this to show your opponents that you are capable of bluffing, so they have a tendency to pay you off more often...


And now the real test... try this from early position !
but only if you have done it successfully from late position a couple of times, and have won enough money already that losing 10-15 big blinds is not gonna kill you... think of it as tuition... cuz regardless of whether you win or lose, trust me, you'll learn a lot about poker from this little experiment...

Bluffing - Why, When, How...

No matter what anyone says about it, bluffing is an integral part of the game... I will go as far as saying that bluffing is just as important as knowing how to play strong hands... no good player in the world ever got anywhere without knowing how and when to effectively bluff... cards are dealt randomly, you might have good days and bad days (or weeks or months) but in the long run, you can not win on the basis of good cards alone (of course you can lose on the basis of cards alone cuz people fold when you have a strong hand)... randomness dictates that some days you'll be the windscreen and some days you'll be the bug i.e. people will walk into your monsters and you will walk into people's monsters, but neither will happen consistently forever...

statistically speaking, everything in this world is normally distributed i.e. most stuff in the middle, some really good stuff at one end and some really bad shit on the other end... but very importantly, most stuff is in the middle... you have middle pair good kicker, some guy has top pair shitty kicker, some dude has the straight draw... and even that's only half of the time... about one third of the time, no one really has anything at all...

so the key to making money at poker is to make the most out of your good hands, "steal" some or most of the middle stuff and try not to lose too much money when shit hits the fan i.e. situations when you find yourself repeating the same question in your head, "what are the chances that he has a flush when I made my set... ?" (answer: no one cares... if you think he has made the flush... fold the damn set and wait for a better spot... or would you rather lose the rest of your $400 in chips for the $140 in the pot?) of course if you can bluff someone out of a decent hand like pocket pairs e.g. 9-9, 10-10 or (top pair-weak kicker), all the better...

In order to pull off a successful bluff, you have to tell your opponents a story that they can believe... like a good magic trick, you take your audience's mind (in this case your opponent's) on a path and then just leave em there... hanging, confused and scared... here's an example...

so you have been playing tight for the past hour or so...
1) raise pre-flop to 3.5 times the big blind... (he has something!)
2) check (or check and then smoothly call) on the flop... (did he miss it and is not sure ? or did he hit in a big way and is trying to trap ?)
3) bet about 25%-30% of the pot on the turn (or again smoothly call if you are second to act or your opponent bets)... (he has a monster !? or is he just trying to steal the pot now ?)
4) and then bet about 50-70% of the pot on the river, preferably just about 40-60% of your opponents stack... (OK, I think he had the monster all along... or may be he didn't, I don't know but this is a little too much money to be catching bluffs and I have a feeling something fishy is going on and I might be getting trapped by this "please call me" kind of bet on the river...)

important: don't say a word during the hand, and take a sip of your drink or act like you are adjusting your chair... the idea is to appear completely comfortable during the hand...

also, the biggest difference most often between a genius bluff and the idiot throwing money away, is the third bullet... can you fire the appropriate third bullet on the river... ?

a lot of people raise pre-flop, then bet the flop and get called, try meekly on the turn and when they get called, they just shut down on the river... try firing on the river, and you'll be surprised how many times you succeed... but more importantly, bet on the river because it is the "right" thing to do... it is the right thing to do for three main reasons,

1- If you don't, there is no way in hell you are gonna win that pot... the other guy has something which is most likely better than your 5-6 suited that completely missed... (you now have a six high)

2- Even if you are not gonna make a big bet (i.e. 50-7 0% of the pot), fire at least 25-30% of the pot... there is always a 50% chance that your opponent will fold... and if you win half and lose half of these pots for 25-30% of the pot, that's a bargain... and

3- Even if you lose this additional 30% of the pot, it will work in your favor when you actually do have a hand... they might even raise you next time when you do have a hand, and you'll get paid off well...

Pick your Opponents and Pick your Spots

Whether it's a cash game or a tournament, always remember that there is no need to wage war on everyone over everything at the same time... the primary objective of the game is to gather those precious chips... and in order to do that, you need to get involved in the right hands... a "right hand" is when you have some kind of advantage over your opponent(s)... there are only four advantages you can have in any particular hand,

1- you are the "better" player...
2- you have better position
3- you have better cards
4- you have much more chips

I put them in that order for a reason... of all the things in the world, I would take skill over anything... if you have the better read on your opponent and have the heart to pull the trigger at the right moment, sooner or later you will prevail...

with equal or slightly lesser cards, position will be key... it's easier to raise or bluff in late position...

good (or better than your opponent) cards are always nice to have... but you gotta play em right...

and it can never hurt to have a big chip stack... you can afford to make mistakes, your opponent can not...

In any given hand, you wanna have as many advantages as possible... there is absolutely no need to get involved with a big stack who has been making plays at everyone, when you have a K-J off suit or a pair of 6s... wait for a better hand... why take the risk unless it's absolutely necessary...

what you ought to be doing instead, is trying to get involved in as many hands as possible, with the weak player or the short stack.... specially when you have a decent hand...
pick off on the smaller enemies first and destroy them completely... not only will you get chips, you will also build an image of ruthlessness, which will come in handy when you go against the big boys...
and how do you spot the weaker player... ? as the saying goes, if you don't know who the sucker is, YOU are the sucker... (had to throw that in...)
on a more serious tone, look for the guys who are obviously out of place... the old dude avoiding eye contact, the drunk kid who's been up for 35 hours, the guy who's hands shake when he has A-Q, the lady trying to fit in with the boys, the tourist who's just trying it out and buys in for the absolute minimum (or close to that) every 45 minutes...

Don't take this to mean that I am asking you to avoid confrontation... just that you should know what your strength is in each particular situation... why do you need to bluff the bluffer, after all that's his strength... let him bluff you and wait for the hand and nail him in one punch i.e. slow play a monster; play it the same way you hesitantly played top pair the last three times and he bluffed you two out of those three times...

Table Image

The main idea behind poker is to force/tempt/trick your opponents into making mistakes....

the ideal day in poker is not the day when you hit straight flushes and quads every other hand....

the ideal day in poker is the day, when they fold (middle-pair, decent-kicker) or (top-pair, shitty-kicker) when you have 6-high.... and they call with ace-high or middle-pair when you have the nuts or something very close to the nuts...

Why? because they have no clue as to what you have and they are absolutely clueless as to what your bets meant...

How ? table image baby... of the ten players on the table, the one you know the most, is YOU... and the one player that you can control the most, is YOU...
(if you don't know yourself or how you play poker and have no control over your playing style... stop wasting your money... come back to the table when you do know yourself better and can control your play somewhat... if you need help, ask some of your fellow players what they think about your game and request them to be honest... of course it helps if they are good friends with you, so they will actually give you honest feedback... and whatever they say, consider it thoroughly...)

Table image is playing tight initially and folding marginal hands even though you think you were ahead... (and basically trying to assess how good your read is on that day, on that table, without losing too much money)

and then once they think you are a tight but somewhat weak player... use that information and stick it to them... raise from late position (and occasionally from early position) with suited connectors... and the pot is yours either way... if high cards hit, they all think you have em cuz you play nothing but high cards... and if low cards hit... even better... you will get highly rewarded for your two-pair or straight... just be watchful and keep an eye out for the real tight player who might actually have flopped a monster... even if you lose, don't muck your cards... show them and say i was just messing with you...

go back to playing tight for a bit, cuz wether you lost and showed or won and had to show... they will call you down next time you raise no matter what they have or what they think you have... so don't bluff for a little while... and re-build that image you had before... now you have created doubt in everyone's mind... you are capable of making a move... play tight for about 30 minutes or so, and then raise or re-raise on a draw...

it's a dangerous game, yes, you can lose a lot of money if things go wrong... but if you can't push yourself and others to the wire and don't like risks and pressure but still want to play poker... that's like being a doctor who can not stand the sight of blood... it is impossible to make money by just playing the "cards-part" of poker.... after all everyone has the same chance of getting good cards... why should you be luckier than the next guy ?

always remember though, cliche' as it may be, "fortune favors the bold"...

Chasing vs. Betting Draws

In a no-limit game, never chase draws... probability means nothing in a one-off hand (because any good opponent will always make you pay dearly for drawing the next card)... the key assumption in probability calculations is that you can repeate the same hand over and over again... i.e. you are a computer who will play the same hand the same way infinitely... are you ?

so who cares, about the long run... if someone is willing to give you a free card or it's gonna cost way less than the price... (e.g. $5-10 into a $200 pot when you have a 10% chance of making the nuts... or $20-25 into $150 pot when you have a 40% chance of winning the pot), take that as a sign of weakness...

why not raise and give yourself two chances to win the pot... (one chance if the opponent folds, and second chance if you hit your draw)

think of it this way.... in a one-off hand, the probability of hitting your cards is actually %50 of what the long run probability is... (you have no way of knowing whether this particular hand will conform to long run averages or not)

put another way, are you gonna intentionally drive your mercedes into a wall at 30 mph because test results show that you'll probably survive the crash...

you are either ahead or you are behind in that hand, and that's all that matters... there is no prize in poker for being statistically correct in one hand... unless you have an infinite bank roll and are willing to play infinite hands exactly the same way... i.e. you are a casino... us players don't have the luxury to risk our minuscule bank rolls on long-term averages...

and remember... no good poker player will pay you off too much when you do hit your draw... may be a small value bet on the river... may be... it is so obvious when people are chasing draws... it might work in limit games (or when you play with complete idiots) but not in no limit baby... so in no limit games, you will lose money if you chase...

if you are gonna play draws... always use the draw as the backup plan while you are bluffing your opponent... don't be the chaser throughout the hand... always try to check raise if in early position, and if you are in late position and your opponent checks, bet small and re-raise if you get raised... if nothing else, it will make it look like you have a monster and you are simply value betting...

if you get called and lose money on that hand... DO NOT worry at all... your opponents will pay you off handsomely next time you do have a hand... which will be the case about once an hour or so....

Betting after the flop

Always find out where you stand... specially if you have something like a pocket pair or you hit middle pair... don't bet, check-raise... check-raising is a much better way to find out how strong the other person's hand really is...
when you bet, you give information about your own hand, and someone can raise you to put pressure on you... when you check raise, you already have information about your opponents hand, and now the pressure is on them...
only bet in early position if you are willing to re-raise if someone raises you... it feels good to call someone down and win the hand in a showdown... but why would you want to
1- be the one who always has to make the right decision.
2- give the person a chance to out draw you.

as TJ says... " the players come over the top baby!"

Value of the hand

Always remind yourself of the "value" of your hand... don't get married to it... a pair of tens is a pair of tens and a pair of kings is a pair of kings... bet and raise accordingly... so what if you have an over-pair to the board... tens are still tens... someone could be slow playing jacks... occasionally, think of a pocket-pair as holding top-pair, top-kicker...

Instinct

Trust your instincts... ALWAYS trust your instincts... you have nothing but your instincts... no amount of pot-odds or luck will save you if you don't go with your instincts...
occasionally you will be wrong and you will lose... but so what... learn from your mistake and move-on... no one in this world is always right... the difference between the winners and the quitters is that the winners pick themselves up and do the same thing all over again with the same amount of confidence and conviction...
and yes, some people are born with better instincts and some have to work on it... but that's like everything else in life... at the end of the day, the winners are always from the group who continue to improve and challenge themselves... so do not let short-term emotions and setbacks dictate your attitude and confidence... live by the sword and die by the sword...

New Table

Always take it slow when you first sit down... specially in a cash game... there is no hurry... doesn't matter if you fold a couple of hands early-on when you were actually ahead... wait till you get a read on the other players before you take a stand with top-pair...

poker is a war... losing a few early battles is immaterial as long as you don't let it affect your confidence...

it actually helps to have a semi-weak table image at first, cuz people will give you action in hopes of getting you off a hand...