Poker rooms both online and terrestrial have been flooded with players just aching to make their mark – and fortunes – courtesy of the now globally popular game, Texas Hold’em.  And if you’re among the millions of players to join these ranks recently, you may even be harbouring your own secret dream of making it big on the poker circuit. But how well do you really stack-up against seasoned poker players? Are you truly a force to be reckoned with, or just a fish waiting to be hooked?

Let’s find out! You’re a fish if…

…you’re unable or unwilling to ‘work’ your opponents.
Unlike other forms of gambling, poker is not a simple, straightforward game about who has the better cards. Instead, it relies heavily on the skill of reading opponents’ subtle and not-so subtle cues (tells), and acting on them accordingly. Do those trembling hands mean that they’ve got the nuts, or are they simply nervous about making the bet? Was that slow call due to indecision or just a bad Internet connection? How should I proceed with these little snippets of insight? Strong players have learned not only to read between the lines of what people are saying and doing but also how to take advantage of that information to yield the best results.

…you let emotions overwhelm your ability.
The stereotypical poker player is a stone-cold, unrelenting and rigid fixture, seemingly devoid of anything that even remotely resembles emotions. While for many aspiring champions that may be the ideal style on paper, in reality, even the best players are not above expressing themselves when it suits them. Indeed, some world-class players have even made boisterous eruptions a part of their table image (think of serial whiner Mike Matusow, or over the top Poker Brat Phil Helmuth – but sponsors love players that stand out from the crowd early in big tournaments!).

But what separates the pros form the soon-to-be-fish-paste is the ability to explode in one instant and rein in those emotions the next. So it’s OK to recoil at the sting of a bad beat at a critical stage of a tournament. That’s natural and even justifiable. But it becomes a real problem if you let that little sting fester and infect the rest of your play to the point of causing some real damage that you can’t recover from.

In reality gambling would not be anywhere near as thrilling without the built-in chance of losing. Poker’s added reliance on skill, strategy and psychology make it even more challenging and difficult to master – but arguably in the long run, even more rewarding. So don’t be dismayed if you’re currently swimming upstream with the multitudes of other fish. Inexperience isn’t permanent and poor play eventually fades with some practice, hard work and determination on your part.

Two sites we all rate and recommend however are UK’s bet365 Poker (top site on the iPoker network – Europe’s busiest and best) and Bookmaker Poker, a savvy Costa Rica based poker room on the WPN Network.