The obvious answer to the question of why we play is money. Most of the people who play poker have the hopes of making millions. Making money is fun. However, there are many reasons that people play poker. The reason it’s important to know what the over riding factor in your reason is, is that it dictates your style of play. <READMORE>

Let’s take brsavage. The main reason he plays is to win tourneys. Look at the discussion board thread where he was defending his #1 ranking. Do you know what the most interesting thing about that thread is? He knew all of his wins. You can’t know that unless winning is the biggest reason you play. This dictates his style of play...very, very aggressive. It doesn’t matter to him if he busts out early. He’s looking to build a chip stack and build it fast. That’s the reason he’ll play hands and stay in hands that have big reward potential. When he puts his chips in play he wants to get maximum return.

Ok, how about the guys whose reason for playing is supplemental income?

This is a large category of players. You’re playing the game in the hopes of adding some “play money” or bill money to your checking account. You will tend to be a tight or tight/aggressive player. The more the money you’re putting on the line means to you, the tighter player you’ll be. You’re not usually going to call the all in with J 10 in the first half hour if you’re in a $100 buy in and you have a $500 bankroll. Also as the bubble approaches you are far more likely to fold that AJ when the blind was quadrupled. You hear the word “fearless” associated with the top players. I assure you that you can be far more fearless when it doesn’t matter if you lose the money or not. In truth, pressure is not Phil Mickelson standing over a putt to win the Atlanta classic for $1,000,000. Phil has millions in the bank. Pressure is you deciding whether to call the all in re raise with AKsuited, knowing it will determine if you cash and continue playing poker.

Then there is the largest category of players, the beginner/learner. He typically plays in the freerolls or $5 buy in tourneys. He’ll maybe play in the $5 sng’s as well. The fact of the matter is that this type player hasn’t figured out what his over riding factor is and it’s one of the reasons that he stays in this category.

You have got to decide that you’re going to become a student of the game or simply play for entertainment. If you decide that entertainment is your primary reason for playing then don’t listen to people who call you a fish for playing your 49 all the way to the river. What do you care? You’re having fun! However, if you want to be a player who makes money playing this game, you need to become aggressive in your pursuit of becoming a better player.

One example is brighttail. He’s one of the budget blogers at pocketfives. A couple of months ago he asked if he could “pick my brain” about poker. He would email me about hands and tourneys he was in. If he played well in certain situations or if he could’ve done things differently. He was and still is, very aggressive in his pursuit to become a better player. That lead to his recent top 10 finish in the 120k at Ultimate.

Personally, knowing the reason I play has helped me deal with a long string of bad beats. I play tourneys to win. I’m more likely to finish in the top 3 or 10th at a final table because I’m willing to put my chips in play. This also leads to more opportunities to take bad beats. It doesn’t make it suck any less, lol, but it helps you deal with it a little bit better.

Analyzing why you do things leads to understanding. Understanding is knowledge. Knowledge leads to change.
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