Habits of Successful Card Players

We all know that while card games do include elements of luck, they are also heavily informed by player skill. Whether competing on the largest stage or looking for success on a personal level, there are some tactics which are ubiquitous with all who wish to take their cards seriously. With that in mind, we want to cover some of the most popular habits employed by winning players which keep them at the head of the pack.

The applications of these will depend on the exact game you play, so be sure to remember where each of these applies to better your chances. There are nuggets of knowledge, like how doubling up in video poker removes the house edge, for example, which are always going to be applicable for the range of video poker games available online. These won't be so useful in something like blackjack, however, so keep that in mind.

Speaking of blackjack, one of the first things you need to remember is that different casinos have different house rules that can change a game's edge. The payoff for getting a blackjack can change between 3-2 or 6-5, which is definitely something you'll want to check beforehand.

The next habit applicable to successful blackjack players is to create your strategy, and then stick to it. Going each hand by feel can seem more natural, but the cards don't care about your feelings, only their cold, hard odds. Strategies aren't nearly as dependent on luck, and this is something which you need to remember if you intend to take blackjack seriously.

When it comes to poker, your course of action is going to rely on a much more active state of mind. The best players know to play their cards close to their chest, in both a literal and metaphorical sense. Keeping calm internally and externally makes your reasoning better, and it makes you far harder to read.

Many of us have trouble with this on a winning or losing streak, so be mindful or yourself, and consider breathing exercises as utilized by many professional level players.

It's not just yourself you need to watch, as you need to also try to catch your opponents making mistakes. This doesn't just apply to tells in their hands either, as it is important to take into account how they react to the real or fake tells of other players. At the same time, you don't want to make it obvious you are watching them, so keep it as subtle as possible.

Perhaps the most important habit in any card game, just like in life, is to learn from your own mistakes and the mistakes of others, and not to let your own ego get in the way. It's easy to let a bad run of hands make us angry at the gods of cards rather than ourselves, but we need to remember that this is always a possibility and eventual inevitability of card games.

Plan for upsets, know that failures occur, even with the best players, and you'll perform that much better in the long run. Good luck, and happy hunting.