Daniel Negreanu Quotes

The correct strategy in heads-up poker is based on identifying and acting upon your opponent's strengths and weaknesses.

It's never a good thing when an opponent has a solid read on you pre-flop.

If you see me playing a $1/$2 no-limit on PokerStars, I'm probably experimenting with something, trying something new seeing how it works.

Limping in - entering a pot by calling rather than raising - is more complicated than raise-or-fold poker because you'll end up playing more hands. Also, it's difficult to put players on a hand when they're in the pot without making a pre-flop raise.

The benefit of fast play is that you'll get players to commit their chips with relatively weak hands since it will be hard for them to believe that you have a strong hand every single time. The downside is that your opponents will raise weak when you have nothing at all, forcing you to fold.

Success at poker is ultimately the result of solid fundamentals and the ability to read your opponents' betting patterns. This is especially true when playing online. But playing live poker is a completely different animal. In this venue, the presence of physical tells can not be overlooked.

Picking up a tell - a hint that a player unknowingly gives that reveals the strength of his hand - often means the difference between winning and losing a big pot.

All-star lay downs are all about reading your opponents, trusting your instincts, and then making the right move.

Check-raising with a drawing hand on the turn is simply a kamikaze gamble. It might work once in a while, but if you consistently attempt it, too often you'll find yourself watching the rest of the tournament from behind the rail.

Playing tricky poker doesn't have to mean making bizarre moves or playing way out of character. Rather, it's simply about taking advantage of what you know about your opponents and how they perceive your style of play.

To be a great poker player, you're going to have to learn this fact: Everything that's said at a poker table is worth listening to. It's all information that you can use to make better decisions, whether people are talking about baseball, politics, or, oh yeah, poker.

If you read people great then you can become a great No Limit Hold 'Em player.

Look, for some players, pot odds should guide your decision making.

Beginning players are predictable and rarely bluff. They tend to focus only on their own hand and simply hope to catch the one card they need to improve.

The best advice when playing from the small blind is to mix up your play. The general rules are to fold garbage hands, limp with marginal hands, and raise with hands that are strong enough to play big pots with. Don't allow your opponents, however, to pick up patterns in your play.

Poker is really about reading people. What happens when you bluff? What does it look like when the other guy bluffs? Does he look right, does he look left? Under what circumstances does he fold or call?

I like to peruse the Full Contact Poker online forums to read and comment on posts about interesting poker hands and whether they were played properly. I find that many of the contributors consistently suffer from the same problem: they are far too preoccupied with statistically insignificant aspects of a poker hand.

Obsessing about statistics won't make you a better poker player. In fact, you'll end up wasting too much valuable time on that stuff when you should be concentrating on crucial issues, like getting a read on your opponents and studying the psychological aspects of the game.

Playing people and position post-flop are definitely my strengths. When I get into a hand, I'm aggressive but I'm also paying attention to my opponent's betting patterns.

Hold'em is a game of calculated aggression. If your cards are good enough for you to call a bet, they are good enough to raise with.

If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you.

Ultra-aggressive players have a knack of making otherwise sound players commit huge stacks of chips with relatively weak hands, like A-Q.

I typically don't bet out on the flop because I've been in the business of trapping my ultra-aggressive opponents so much that I've simply forgotten the benefits of a simple flop bet!

In cash games, you're apt to see more players staying in to see the flop. If you have a hand worth playing, your best options are to either limp in or make a slightly larger pre-flop raise to build the pot and narrow the competition. A raise of four times the big blind should do the trick.

Players talk about pot odds all the time, especially when they try to justify a call that they made. Whenever I hear this line of reasoning, though, I can't help but wonder if they properly thought through the consequences of their call.