Poker is a game of skill, a game of aggression, a game of strategy but most of all it’s a game of patience. To be a solid winning poker player, you have to be patient. Of course there are times when the big bluff can be pulled off to perfection, and certain formats like short handed games and turbo SNGs favour fast aggressive play, but in general “tight is right” and it’s the player who is patient and disciplined who will win in the long run.
The problem is, being patient goes against most of our instincts. Unlike most games, where attacking is normally the way to win, in poker the best play is very often to fold. But of course, this doesn’t come naturally to most players. It takes patience, discipline and practice to be able to fold rag hand after rag hand, after all how many players think to themselves “I’ll just log in an see how many hands I can fold”?
For most poker players, the thrill of the game is in the action, and when we fold we are out of the action. The problem however is that it’s only through being out of the action we can keep ourselves afloat while waiting for the right time to attack.
Many new players could easily be forgiven for not understanding this. After all, turn on the TV and watch a player like Gus Hansen and you’ll see him play virtually any 2 cards. But while Gus has a fearsome reputation for being a super aggressive player who will play any hand, the truth is that even the Great Dane folds! Pick up his book Every Hand Revealed (which is awesome by the way!) and you’ll find that out of 850 hands dealt during the Aussie Millions in 2025, he played 329. That means he folded almost two thirds of the hands dealt to him, and that includes the heads up play! If a player as good, and as aggressive as Gus Hansen has to fold two thirds of his hands, where does that leave us mere mortals!
I have to say, I was guilty of playing way too loose for a long time. Sometimes I would decide to play tight, and after folding 10 or 15 total rag hands in a row I would lose my patience, and start playing anything I was dealt – and of course I lost money!
The turning point for me was reading a book called Zen and the Art of Poker by Larry W. Phillips. The book takes traditional Zen teachings and applies them to the poker table, and it really helped me to get my head around this aspect of the game. It taught me to understand that patience really is key, that “the long run” was way longer than I thought it was, and since reading it I no longer get frustrated during long periods of bad hands when I’m forced to fold. My game and win rate has improved, and I’m actually enjoying the game more.
If you struggle with patience, then I highly recommend the book. Whether you read it or not though, understand that patience is as much a part of poker ad counting outs, or looking for tells. Understand it, embrace it, and you’ll become a better player.
