Seven Deadly Sins of Poker

Author: Poker Penguin

Summary: The seven deadly sins will condemn your bankroll to hell! Read all about it here.

The seven deadly sins are familiar to those of us who had religious education classes at school. But did you also know that they are bad for your poker game?

Let’s get right into it:

Pride is the excessive belief in one’s own abilities and it has been called the sin from which all others arise. There are few poker mistakes that can’t be traced back to pride. Playing above your bankroll – Pride. Trying to buy a pot against fish because you’re a tight player – Pride. Fancy Play Syndrome – Pride. Playing hands out of position because you think you can make them work – Pride. Calling down with a beaten hand so people won’t think you’re weak – Pride. If I could get rid of one fault from my game, it would be pride.

Envy – Envy the desire for others’ traits, status, abilities, or situation. I am not Daniel Negreanu, nor am I Phil Hellmuth. No matter how much I envy them their successes, trying to blindly copy them is not the right thing to do. I’m not saying don’t try to play like Daniel (or even Phil). Instead, understand *how* Daniel uses his traits to gain his successes. If Joe WSOP comes over the top with J7o, don’t you do the same out of envy, in fact you don’t do it until you know how and why it worked for him and that it will work for you.

Gluttony – While poker food is pretty sinful in terms of its health effects, that’s not the only bad thing about it. Gluttony is a desire to consume more than one needs. In other words, hanging on at the trough too long. Even if it’s the fishiest game ever, if you’re too drunk or tired to realise that there are three hearts on the board, then you are comitting the sin of gluttony, and your eternal bankroll will suffer.

Lust – There’s an obvious joke about not surfing for porn while playing online. I guess the closest I can come to an actual piece of poker advice is that even if she bats her eyelashes at you, you should still check-raise a woman, and especially a “woman” whenever you can get her to semi-bluff into your strong hands. If you’re playing poker for money, then everyone is fair game, and should be played hard. Otherwise, you get sloppy.

Anger – The sin of anger is obvious in poker, so too are its negative effects. Anger is the father of tilt. We all know what tilt looks like, even if we can’t recognise it in ourselves. When the poker player allows his anger to rule his head, he throws his money away. Thoughts like “I’ll teach this jerk a lesson” or “how could he call with 92 off?” are angry thoughts and remove the player from the path of righteousness and profit.

Greed – Ahh sweet greed. Perhaps the second most deadly of the Poker sins. Greed is what makes us play too many hands – blinded by the potential payoff. Greed is what makes us ignore signs we are beaten, and call one more bet. Greed is what makes us check our top set in late position with a two flush on the flop because we want to try for a check-raise. That said, a tempered amount of greed can be a good thing – we wants the precious after all, don’t we Gollum?

Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work – If you’re pretending to be a (semi)-pro, you’ve got to work. The serious poker player must work both physically – putting the hours in at the tables, even when Survivor is on TV and spiritually – reading and thinking about their play, working out what their sins are and trying to solve them.

So there, I guess Religious Education class wasn’t just a chance to play cards in the back row.