Become a Good Poker Player

Your chip stack is dwindling - you just can't catch any cards or you've been mauled. The blinds are rising and eating your stack even further. You're dropping behind. You can't keep folding or if you do the blinds will take you out. What do you do?

Point number one is that being "short stacked" is going to happen to you a lot.You play poker, you do get short stacked. Period. And old cliché but a very valid one "you can't win 'em all."

But - with poker, the saying goes that you always have a chance as long as you have "a chip and a chair." One famous story to reinforce that goes back to the World Series of Poker in 1982. Jack Straus went all-in and lost the pot. He thought he was on his way home. But a dealer spotted a $500 chip under Straus' napkin. Remarkably, Straus came back to win the title from just that $500 chip.

So - never give up. You've always got a chance of making the money as long as you're in the game. But when you find yourself becoming short stacked and your chances getting slimmer, the best form of defense is attack! You must make a move - and do so while you still have enough chips to make a difference. It's no good waiting until you have a couple of hundred chips and everyone else has a couple of thousand. They can easily call you with anything and you will find yourself with multiple callers and little chance. The big stacks will take you out.