The World Series of Poker is a competitive series of poker held every year. It is considered by many poker fanatics to be the best-known poker competition in the world.
Participants are usually the best poker players in the world. They compete to win millions of dollars in different categories. Watching the world series of poker can be viewed as a coin. It can either improve your poker skills or throw you off your game.
These are opinions that will vary depending on the poker player themselves. The basic poker skills are obvious and don’t require watching experts to learn.
However, there are some skills that professionals possess that other poker players don’t. These are maybe the things that you can learn from watching WSOP satellites.
WSOP may be on television, but it can be a good teacher of poker. Here are some of the skills you can improve in your game by watching the competition.
Table of Contents
Bluffing skills
Bluffing is without a doubt one of the most important poker skills to have. You have seen people reference it outside of poker, but the skill is very important at the round table.
Some may argue that bluffing is a natural skill and cannot be taught. Especially through watching a television show. Such opinions tend to be vague since bluffing can be learned over time.
Watching a player raise the stakes even when they have a poor hand boosts your skills. The confidence to do it and other factors may take time to come around though. Bluffing requires more than just confidence. You cannot bluff and look suspicious, especially not in poker.
Your opponents will take advantage of that and prey on it. Watching WSOP allows you to analyze what the bluffing player does in each step, from the moment they realize they have a poor hand, to when they go all in or ridiculously raise the stakes with that poor hand.
Practicing the bluffing skills you watch will take time, like anything else. You might have to start by testing on beginner-level players who are poor at calling out bluffs. If you can successfully convince them, then you can slowly progress to tougher poker players.
Do it until you feel you can bluff when playing in the WSOP yourself. The competition on Tv however exaggerates sometimes and can mislead you a bit.
Body Language
You have already seen how important bluffing skills are. It cannot be possible without proper body language. Body language is one of the factors that have to be involved alongside confidence.
WSOP is the perfect competition to learn how to control what your body reveals to your opponents. The top poker players who bluff a lot have specific ways of ensuring their bodies don’t betray them.
It could be how you look at the cards or your sitting posture. The little tells like these could give you away on your poker face or bluff. Players in the WSOP especially have more challenges to face that could lead to their body language betraying them.
There is extra pressure as the stakes are always high in the world series of poker. The cameras are also always glaring at you for the dramatic purpose of the show. All these could excite a player and lead to them not controlling their body language when playing.
Body language has to be deceiving to your opponents from the start to the end. If they cannot figure out what you are thinking of, then you will have an advantage. Previous winners of the competition have proven that this theory is right.
Reading other players
In poker, your body language is important, but so is your opponents’. If you can figure out what a certain way of body change means in a specific opponent, it’ll benefit you. This is almost impossible, especially in elite competitions like the world series of poker.
Watching the players analyze each other as well as focusing on their game at the same time gives different perspectives. Since everyone is always trying to read the opponent, a strong mindset is required. Watching how the pros handle it on WSOP could help show you what to do.
Also, watching the losing players is important too. You can deduce what they didn’t do right. How they did not read the signs other players were giving them.
Playing along while watching the game can help your mind-reading skills. Telling what move a certain player is about to make and knowing how to counter it. Even predicting a player’s next move before they make it.
Details like this will make you a better poker player, as long as you practice regularly. While reading other players and their movements, it is important to learn how to protect yours. There is no better way of learning than watching the pros doing it at the WSOP.
When and how to raise
Making up your mind in poker is very important, as is self-control. Knowing when to go all in, or when to raise, and how to do so. All these play an important part in the game. It may affect your opponents psychologically, which gives you an edge over them.
All the other skills lead up to this one. The body language, reading your opponents and bluffing. After considering the first two factors, you can decide whether you want to bluff or not.
If your hand is poor and you still want to raise it, then the bluffing comes into play. Watching the pros in a competitive match will improve your decision-making in that sense.
You will know when to bluff and raise, even when there is no chance of you winning in that round. You’ll also have a lot of fun trying to figure out why a player took certain action.
Conclusion
Learning about poker via observation is without a doubt one of the most efficient ways to improve on the game. You will obtain a fresh knowledge of the game’s principles by studying players while they play. You will also have a higher regard for individuals who participate in major WSOP events
