Poker Secret: Make Friends at the Poker Table?

I have often been proud of the fact that I get along well with people. If you put me in a room with groups of folks I don't know, I can find new friends. It is a gift. I have always enjoyed finding the best in people. It also happens to be something that serves me well at a poker table.

It did take a little time. When I first started playing poker, I wasn't sure how to interact at the table. After all, when you sit down, you are telling everyone there that you would like to make some money and it has to come from somewhere. The fact that you are sitting down to take other people's money sometimes makes it difficult for them to see you as a friend.

There are of course, many people who will not want to have anything to do with you at a poker table. They get into their game and they are not there to make friends. That's fine. You don't need them. You really don't need any of them. But if you can get to know a couple of them it can help.

In particular, you may want to consider getting to know the person immediately to your left. This can come in handy especially when you are in late position. For example, if the person to your left happens to be an aggressive player, you will probably not want to be raising at all of the typical moments that you normally would. The reason for this is that you might choose to allow the aggressive player to raise for you. This would then allow you to re raise when the bet came back around to you, which in turn builds a nice pot and represents a very strong hand.

If you were to find out that the player to your immediate left is a very tight player, than by raising you can always gauge the strength of his/her hand. This will be extremely valuable especially when you are in late position and it is left to you to open the betting.

More importantly of course, if you can make friends with the player to your right, you may be able to get what I call the "unimaginable." That is information you would never receive unless you were friends. For example, you are in middle position with an OK hand and you want to limp in and see if you can flop a monster. You do not however want to have to call a subsequent raise from any player behind you. If you were a friend with the player on your left you could actually ask before you put your chips in if they were going to raise or not and they will probably tell you. Now, they could always raise regardless, but you will be able to get some kind of read that otherwise would be unavailable. A lot of the time they will tell you they were going to fold anyway.

By making friends with the players around you, you can get a lot of information about how they will play subsequent hands and why they make the decisions that they do. Very often, friendly players can't help but share their wisdom and their opinions. It is only the very best that are able to sit and chat with you continuously without talking about the game at hand. When they do start talking about the game, that is when you start gaining information.

Don't get me wrong. There will be times when you sit down and you won't want to have anything to do with the people around you. They may be drunks, they may be abusive or just down right ridiculous. Whatever the reason, don't always feel like you have to make friends. I have just found that most of the time, it is more beneficial than it is hurtful. You should also keep in mind that if you are probing for information, try not to be too obvious or loud. You don't want to share that information with everyone else at the table.

So get out there and work on your people skills.