Looking for something to read? These are the most important poker books ever written.
Poker has a long history of being intertwined with literature. Gambling in general has been written about by some of the world's greatest authors, from Fyodor Dostoyevsky to Ernest Hemingway to F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Poker itself has produced a number of great writers over the years as well - Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Ozzy Sahaoian ... the list goes on.
Here now, in no particular order, is a rundown of what we consider to be the must-read poker books ever published.
If you've got a few of these gems on your shelf (or e-reader) then consider yourself light years ahead of the fish who still think is the be-all, end-all of poker literature.
Best Poker Books Ever Published
Elements of Poker by Tommy Angelo
Author and coach Tommy Angelo was an early innovator in distilling into easy-to-digest morsels that players could actually use.
Published in 2006 the book lays out Angelo's "Elements" - 44 little nuggets of poker wisdom that range from the broad ("Every hand of poker is standalone") to the specific ("If you're ahead, don't exaggerate your bets").
Each Element is followed by several pages of explanation and examples designed to help the reader understand not only what Angelo is getting at but also why it matters.
Angelo's style is conversational and approachable and he makes some very good points along the way. Here's one sample Element and its accompanying explanation:
#38: The Three Secrets of Poker
Most players have blind spots in their games. Some are stubborn about raising with KQ. Some can’t seem to stop making unorthodox plays when they’re tilted.
Some just can’t seem to stop making unorthodox plays, period.
It’s human nature to be defensive about our faults, whether we’re aware of them or not. The trick is to find those problems on our own, before someone else does.
The Play: Find your three biggest weaknesses.
When: Anytime. This exercise takes about four hours.
My three secrets are based on my performance in a recent session of . I played six hours of LHE and recorded all the hands I played.
This was painful to do, but extremely useful. If you’ve never done this, trust me, it works.
I picked out 30 hands. I reviewed each hand, asking myself two questions:
- What did I do wrong in this hand?
- What did I do right in this hand?
From those 60 notes I built my three big weaknesses and my three big strengths.
By the way, I strongly recommend that you not choose your best sessions for this exercise. You want to pick a session that most closely represents your average level of play.
After you build your list of strengths and weaknesses rank them in order of severity. The top three weaknesses make up your first three secrets. Mine are:
Secret No. 1: Tommy gets caught betting when he shouldn’t too often after the flop.
Example: [$2/$5$] (150/300, 25/50 BB) . I raise the button to 12 BB and the big blind calls.
On a flop of Q♥ 9♠ 2♣ I bet nearly half the pot. The big blind calls. The turn is the 3♠. I bet $22 and the big blind raises to $44. I cap it off at $120.
He calls and shows Q♦ Q♣ (I hold Q♥ 9♠). The river is the 5♦. He checks and I bet $175 and he calls with 6♠ 6clubsuited. I show down my hand and am chide by those at my table.
Analysis: This kind of thing has happened to me a few times in the last month or so. It wasn’t that my final bet was too large; it was that I got caught making bets that didn’t achieve anything.
I was just trying to grow the pot and that caused me to lose this one. On this hand $120 was too much money. I should have bet and raised with the intention of building pots when I’m representing strength, but reducing pots when I’m weak.
On this hand I needed to check through or perhaps go for thin value on the turn. Secret No. 2: When I three-bet preflop, I often don’t have a strong hand.
Example: [$1/$2$] (100/200, 10/20 BB). KJ off suit on the button. I three-bet the cut-off to $12.
The cut-off is the only caller. The flip comes out J♣ 5♦ Hero bets $28. The villain calls. The turn is the 8♥.
I check. The villain checks behind. The river is the 2♣. I check. The villain bets $28. I fold.
Analysis: I thought about calling the river. Even though I would have been making a poor-quality call, I wouldn’t have felt bad about it because I was well aware of this problem.
That awareness helped me make an informed decision. I decided that I couldn’t fold often enough in this situation, which means I need to tighten up preflop when I’re in a three-bet pot.
Related Reading:
Secret No. 3: When I three-bet jam I sometimes get caught holding less than monsters.
Example: [$2/$5$] (150/300, 25/50 BB). I have Q♠ Tspade suited on the button.
I four-bet jam over a raise. The original raiser calls and I show down. Analysis: This is a move I have been working on – relying more on big hands and less on big rolls of the dice.
On this hand I was a little behind and got stuck. That’s Secret No. 3. As for how to fix this, I think I need to start slow with this move and only do it with hands like QQ, AK and AQ.
Perhaps AA and KK as well. But beyond that I think I need to stop. I think what really motivated me to include this situation in my list of weaknesses was the fact that I made the same play on three consecutive hands.
Don’t do it three times without success and expect the fourth time to be different! That’s insanity, right there. JohnnyBechard Says:
“Whenever you make a mistake, analyze it immediately.
"This will help solidify the correct play in your mind and prevent you from making the same mistake twice.”
More Elements from "Elements of Poker":
#1: Every Hand of Poker Is a Stand-Alone Event
There are no memories in poker. The fact that something was true last street is absolutely irrelevant in deciding how to play the current street.
We tend to get trapped into thinking about how things have played out recently in a hand, or even within a hand. We say to ourselves, 'Well, he was checking, so I figured he had the nuts, so I checked the final bet.'
Or: 'I raised, he called, I flopped the nuts, he called the flop bet and the pot is now large, so I am afraid to bet again because he is likely to call another large bet with anything.'
These sorts of rationalizations are simply that: Rationalizations for our mistakes and bad decisions. There is no logic here. The only relevant factor regarding any decision in Hold ’em is the collection of cards in the other player’s hand and on the board, plus the particulars of the current action (bet, check, raise, etc.).
Nothing that has gone before has any relevance. To use an extreme example, if I bet every street, showing my cards face up, the river is a completely new opportunity for you to bet, call, raise or fold -- regardless of the fact that there was absolutely no doubt in your mind that I had the nuts from the flop.
#7: Do Not Play Against Your Tag: In virtually every situation it is a mistake to allow your play to be dictated by what type of hand you believe your opponent holds.
This happens constantly when we allow ourselves to be blinded by our kicker. For example, suppose you are heads-up and your opponent pushes out a minimum opening raise from middle position with K Q .
Casino Review US - Bonuses, Cashout & Games 2023You believe that this indicates a medium-strength hand and you find ace-deuce and reraise all-in. Your kicker is now a live issue and you can lose a lot of money to an opponent who hits his king or queen.
A better choice would have been to make a simple calling choice with your poor kicker. By making our decisions based upon what we perceive our opponent holds rather than the merits of our own hand, we are playing a difficult and hazardous game indeed.
#12: The Power of Simplification: Think of your game as a house with many rooms. Each room contains one concept, one idea, one aspect of the game. When you encounter a situation that requires a decision, simply determine in which room of your house your situation most closely resembles, then make your choice based on the single concept, idea or aspect of the game found in that room.
By limiting your choices to the single aspect found in that room, you take much of the guesswork out of your decision-making and you greatly reduce the possibility of overplay or improper play of a marginal hand.
Simplification also helps to clarify your goals for the play of any particular hand. If your goal in a particular situation is to gain 15 big blinds, your choices may be clouded by indecision and second-guessing.
However, if your goal is simply to bet (room one of your house), the decision becomes far simpler, almost automatic. Once you have determined the purpose, the goal, of your action in a particular situation, fill in the blank of your chosen strategy (the single concept or aspect of play found in the room you have identified as relevant).
For instance, if your goal is to bluff your opponent, and the relevant room of your house contains the concept of 'Percentage Play', then all you need to know is the overall percentage of the time you estimate your opponent will be called by worse in this situation.
If the answer is 42 percent and you judge that your pot-odds do not justify a 42-percent chance of success, then you should not make the bluff. However, if your goal was to attempt to win the pot outright, without consideration given to the percentage aspects of the situation, then you may very well flounder in uncertainty and ultimately make the wrong decision.
#19: Be Aware of “Irrational” Actions: Much has been written about the deception possible through deliberate misrepresentation of actual hand strength by various 'lines' or 'tells' of 'action speaking louder than words'.
A minimum raise from a loose player may indicate both a very strong hand and very little confidence in the strength of that hand. Equally, it may indicate exactly the opposite. Which is which? How can we know?
Unfortunately, the only real answer is experience. However, once we become aware of the concept of actions not always accurately reflecting hand strength, we have gained an advantage.
We have realized that anyone's action, including our own, must be considered 'irrational' in that it gives just one small piece of nonverbal information, entirely subject to interpretation.
To base a critical decision on such information is to invite disaster. An awareness of this aspect of the game allows us the option of choosing to ignore actions and to focus instead on the one infallible indicator available to us: the cards on the table and in our hands.
#28: Betting is Much More Powerful than Raising
Many of us have been conditioned by decades of watching high-powered TV poker tournaments to believe that raising is king, that raising our mediocre hands highly outpaces simple bets made with the same total bet.
Such is absolutely not the case in the real world of contemporary cash-game poker rooms. Why? Because professional poker players (of whom the vast majority of opponents in the mid-to-high stakes games are various degrees of this breeding) observe almost no emotional reaction to a raise unless it is at least five credits (where credit is a big bet).
Furthermore, a substantial raise actually informs us that our opponent holds a very strong hand, for otherwise they would simply check-call and play 'poker' in an effort to win a pot with the minimum investment and risk.
A bet, on the other hand, while revealing nothing about the strength of our hand, provides our opponent with a choice. By betting we are taking control of the hand and forcing our opponent into making a decision, into 'running risks', something professional players love to do.
Remember, we are not attempting to mislead our opponents; rather, we are trying to force them into making snap decisions and paying attention to the play, rather than engaging in endless speculation about their reads on our opponent's hand.
Finally, remember that if your opponent makes a mistake and makes a incorrect call, you have just won a large pot; whereas if your opponent perceives your raise as proprietary of a strong hand and folds, you have lost a small pot.
#34: Make Your Biggest Mistakes on Purpose
This 'Element' is probably the hardest idea presented in this book for most players to grasp, let alone incorporate into their play.
The concept is quite simple: All of us make mistakes. Regardless of how well we learn 'pure' poker, we will continue to make mistakes, particularly in the heat of battle.
As sentient beings, we bring a great deal of emotion and personal involvement into the game. Our families, our jobs, our health, our finances, our hopes and fears are all intimately involved in how we feel about any given day, any particular hand ... any bet.
We cannot erase these emotional elements from our lives or our play. However, we can deliberately use them to our advantage. By allowing ourselves to get angriest, sadest, happiest, silliest, most concentrated or most carefree exactly when our opposition expects us to be predictably sensible and restrained, we can knock our opponents off kilter and create opportunities for huge wins where none appeared to exist.
It is easy to make a large mistake when you are angry or elated. And it is relatively simple to set the conditions that require us to make that mistake in exactly the spot your opponent expects you to make a sensible bet or a sensible fold ... and where he has the goods to put you away.
Obviously, creating the proper emotional state at precisely the right moment is far more art than science, and I will make no pretense of providing easy answers or simple solutions.
However, by becoming aware of this 'Element', we begin to open the door to utilizing one of the rarest and yet most powerful weapons in the entire range of poker tactics.
More Tommy Angelo:
On Making Big Bluffs
One of the toughest situations in poker is pulling the trigger on a big bluff. There's lots of little details that go into making a big bluff work.
If everything isn't perfect, you're gonna lose a bunch of money. So you have to be picky about when and where you get involved in a big bluff.
Where: Be selective about where you try to bluff. Avoid dull, thoughtful players. If a guy thinks about every decision he makes, it doesn't matter what you do, he's not gonna fall for it.
Instead, look for players that play very aggressively and quickly, but make obvious mistakes, such as overplaying pocket aces or getting upset and rolling off big bets when they miss.
Big, aggressive, impulsive players are prime targets. Also, don't limit your big-bluff attempts to heads-up pots. If you notice a table full of players who like to call each other's bets, get in there and make some bets!
When: Big-bluff opportunities happen in bunches. One steal-in tries nobody resets him. Two attempt some resets, and maybe one or two players get STEALED OUT. Three and four keep trying resets, and soon everyone's stealing from everyone.
Try a couple of times. If neither works, don't force it. Go back to being picky. Be patient. Wait until you get a truly good opportunity.
🏆 Best Slots App 2023 🥇🎰⚖️ Poker, SG, Roulette - Android & iPhoneWhat: Know why you're bluffing. If your only reason is, ''Hey, this guy seems like the type who would fold'' - you're setting yourself up for failure.
Lack of accountability makes poker a difficult game to master. Have a specific hand your opponent has to have, a specific hand he can't have the courage to play into yours with, or both.
Can you fold AAK every time KK shows? Can your opponent call every time? Know why you're bluffing!
How:** Believe in yourself** and your read. Don't get jacked around by tired, frustrated, degenerative players, just because you let yourself get unsure of what you're trying to accomplish.
How much: Make 'em pay! If you're going to try a big bluff, be willing to put in your stack if the situation warrants it. Otherwise, don't waste everybody's time.
Know roughly how much your opponent will fold under duress. If a 3/4 pot bet usually folds, then bet 3/4 pots. Don't give away information. If your opponent might fold to polka music, turn on "Saturday Night Fever," but if he needs to see a bet, for the love of Mike Sexton, bet!
On Stealing
Stealing is one of the easiest ways to make money in poker. People tend to call too much when you raise under the gun and, even if they do fold, you only have one player with whom to tangle.
Plus, it messes with people's heads. I was dealing the other day and Angelo raised UTG. The guy to my left, who had been limping along fine, sighed and folded.
""Why'd he do that?"" he asked me. I just smiled. I mean, how much does it cost me to make somebody this upset?
No Deposit Casino Bonuses (United Kingdom) | Online Casinos (UK)But aside from the fold equity, and the reduced number of players you have to worry about, you need to decide what hands to steal with. Most stealing-related advice boils down to "Whatever hands you're comfortable getting into a raising war with."
Well, that's great, but what if you aren't planning on getting into a raising war? It changes things considerably. First, I prefer to steal in games where there is a good amount of limping.
If everyone is folding or re-raising, it's a lot tougher to swipe a pot. Secondly, I like to steal when there are players left to act behind me. If I steal and some schmo comes along and raises, I can always claim I was just trying to get him to act.
Even if that isn't true, most players will give you crap for not raising yourself. You know how lazy and shiftless players are. Take advantage!
So I like to steal when first in with a club-suit flop and at least one caller. I raised with 8♥ 7♥ here. I like suited connectors for stealing because they make great semi-bluffs.
When the turn brings a second club, I have a flush draw with a gutshot to the nut straight (not to mention a ton of reverse implied odds). Hero: ""Nice steal, Tommy.""
Dealer: ""You wanted me to call, didn't you?""
Hero: ""Shut up and deal."""
What hands should you steal with? Whatever ones you want. Just be prepared to relinquish a claim on the pot if someone coming in behind you changes the parameters of the raise.
And don't forget to mixed up your steals. If you always come in with the same suite, players will stop limping and you'll lose all that precious fold equity.
More From "Elements of Poker":
#40: Accept Personal Responsibility
We always have complete control over one aspect of our play: our intentions. Only we know the merit of our reads, the strength of our hand and our intent to play (or not play) that hand in a particular manner.
This level of self-analysis and personal responsibility is entirely within our control. To fail to explore and evaluate these aspects of our game is to squander our one true advantage in an already difficult game.
Once we post our initial pre-flop action, however, we rapidly lose control over the events in the hand and ultimately, over our losses or our winnings.
To obsess over the events that transpired once we checked, bet, called or (worse yet) got raised is to fail to recognize our place in the larger structure of the game. To engage in extended analyses and discussions over pots in which we were involved, during which we had complete control over only one element (our intention), is to invite frustration, depression and ultimately, defeatist thoughts of ineptitude.
While thoughtful analysis of our play is essential to improvement, obsession with results over which we have little or no control is counterproductive and destructive.
Understand and evaluate your intentions and the merits of your reads and intentions; reserve your analysis of the eventual outcome for use in developing 'history plays,' designed to amuse your opponents and conceal your true intentions from those around the table.
**More Great Books for Beginners:
By John Von Neumann & Oskar Morgenstern
This is one of the most influential books ever written, not just in the realm of gaming and probability theory, but in the history of ideas.
Written in 1944, it laid out the foundation for game theory and was a seminal work in the development of the atomic bomb. SV is available online for free.
It’s incredibly dry and technical. You really have to be in the mood for some serious brain strain to enjoy it. But if you want to understand the inner workings of the game in a deeply intellectual way, this is a must-read.
Excerpt:
The fundamental uncertainty of poker consists in the fact that the other players may act contrary to our expectations; thus they force upon us certain decisions which, from the point of view of our original plans, must be labeled as mistakes.
Yet these "mistakes" may be essential factors in our profitable participation in the game.
Here we touch upon the fundamental paradox of poker, which is characteristic for all games of chance involving a certain degree of skill: the successful player must deliberately introduce systematic errors into his play.
Best Real Money Casino Games for Big Wins (2023)His strategy must contain "bluffs" as "lifesaver" plays. This principle is inherent in all games of skill, and hence decides their essential difference from games of pure chance.
By Ed Thorp
Thorp's revolutionary card-counting system, outlined in this book, changed blackjack forever. His detailed explanations of variance, expectation and how to count cards made it possible for anyone to learn the technique and head to the casino with a newfound edge.
Not surprisingly the casinos weren't thrilled with their profits plummeting and allegedly kicked Thorp and his crew out of several Vegas establishments. Beat the Dealer is a groundbreaking poker book and an important business text on the benefits of keeping your customers guessing.
Excerpt: There are many fallacies about counting. One is that it requires a calculating genius to keep the running count and the concept count in memory.
Another is that considerable concentration is necessary to maintain the counts. Yet a college student can learn to count with only a few hours of instruction, and once the skill is learned, it requires no more concentration than is necessary to recite the alphabet.
poker deuces wild rulesBy David Sklansky
First published in 1986 this was the first book specifically tailored towards low-stakes Hold'em players. It covered every facet of the game in an accessible, easy-to-understand manner that made it a hit with poker novices.
Small Stakes popularized the idea of playing only premium Starting Hands in Cash Games and it introduced the concept of Pot Commitment. The book remains in print today, 25 years later, a testament to its timeless value for beginners and intermediate players.
Excerpt: Good players make fewer mistakes than bad players. Therefore, whenever a bad player makes a bid or raise, you can be reasonably sure that he is making a mistake, and that whatever hand he has can't be very strong.
Since you must match his bet to stay in the hand, it would seem logical that you should have to contribute an amount of money roughly equal to his bid.
But sometimes it isn't necessary to match his entire bid. Sometimes you can matching the bid with less than your entire stake. This is called being pot-committed. Being pot-committed means that you have less committed than your opponent.
By Mason Malmuth
Road to Recovery is a recovery program for poker players who have behavior patterns they'd like to change. It''based on the 12-step program developed by Alcoholics Anonymous.
Malmuth argues that all problem behaviors stem from just a handful of basic issues. By using the 12 steps as a blueprint, players can identify the root cause of their difficulties and replace detrimental habits with constructive techniques.
Topics discussed include tilting, time management, money management, building discipline and developing a pre-game routine. The book includes numerous exercises and worksheets designed to help players sort through their problems and develop strategies for overcoming them.
By Ed Miller
Building Greatness at No Limits holds the distinction of being the largest, heaviest poker book ever published. It tips the scales at 1.5 kg (that's 3 lbs for us metric types) and measures 9 x 12 inches.
It's pretty much the size of an End Tableroad atlAS. Expect hernias. Expect back problems. Expect anguish every time you have to reach up onto that high bookshelf. But expect to learn a lot about Hand Definition, Hand Reading and Range Riding - three crucial concepts for anyone looking to improve their game.
By Barry Greenstein
Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time is the only major strategic text to focus exclusively on tournament play. Long before the Tsunami of Greenstein hit the Internet and flooded our inboxes with tales of his epic deep runs, Barry was known as one of the top tournament coaches and consultants in the game.
His book offers a plethora of tips on how to survive and thrive in the high variance world of tournament poker. Topics include: Bubble Play, Variance, How to Adjust for Chipping Count, Table Selection, Tricks of the Mindset, How to Balance Your Range and much more.
Barry Greenstein: Why This Book Is Free
Quite a few people have emailed me and asked me why I chose to write a 400 page book and give it away for free.
Actually, the book wasn't my idea. It was the brainchild of Paddy Power, one of the bigger poker sites on the net. Paddy Power wanted to celebrate their third anniversary by giving back to the poker community.
They hired me to write the book and are printing it themselves. They are mailing out thousands of free copies of the book to poker rooms and media outlets around the world. If you want free copies of the book for your poker room or website, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to see this email address)
Of course Paddy Power hopes that people who like the book will give it a read, but that wasn't a condition of my accepting the project. I liked the idea of being able to write whatever I wanted with no word or page limits and have it distributed free of charge.
bonus video pokerIn some circles, offering anything for free seems counterintuitive. People are used to having to pay for information and they often question the quality of something that's given away. In this case though, Paddy Power can afford to give the book away. They are a large profitable company.
Hopefully the book will help a lot of people play tournaments better. If it helps you make an extra $10 an hour, you'll both benefit from it. They come out ahead since you'll probably deposit one day with the extra $10/hour in your pocket and I benefit from your improved game. Plus there's the good karma from giving back to the poker community.
Will other poker sites give away products in future? We'll have to wait and see but I hope so. There's a lot of good information in this book and I had a great time writing it. I'm happy that people will be able to benefit from it.
Barry Greenstein: On Adjusting for Stack Sizes
Adjusting for stack sizes is probably the hardest thing for a cash-game player to do at a tournament. In a cash game everyone starts out with the same stack and the maximum variation in stack sizes is probably 10-1.
In a tournament, stack sizes vary wildly and they are changing all the time. It is this variability that makes tournaments so interesting, but also so difficult.
Cash-game players are accustomed to playing a certain hand, such as JJ, nine big bets, and they know what they are going to do with that hand. If they decide to move all-in, it is against a similar stack. Both players have approximately the same pot odds and the same pot commitment.
When a cash-game player moves all-in with JJ for nine big bets, he expects to get called only by hands that are dominated. Occasionally, he will run into a set, but overall the move all-in is profitable.
In a tournament, a hand like JJ loses value as the blinds go up and stack sizes change. Furthermore, as your own stack changes in relation to the blinds, the value of JJ changes.
Early on when your stack is deep, you may open shove JJ in late position. Doing so, you are often creating a situation in which you are race favorite, that is, your hand is better than all the hands that are likely to call you.
Later, when the blinds are large and your stack is smaller, you may choose to move in with the same hand on a flop of Tק 9§ 4§ , where you are hoping for a cooler with a bigger stack. Again, this move is profitable because you are a slight dog versus any player that calls you with a shorter stack and a heart.
However, if you are in a steady decline--that is, your stack is roughly half the current blind level--then moving in with JJ on a flop of Tק 9§ 4§ is rarely profitable. Now you are racing against sets of tens, nines, and fours as well as being heavily committed to the pot.
The solution to this dilemma is to be more conservative with your chips when you are short. If you move in when you are badly under the gun, you are liable to lose your stack to a slightly stronger hand.
Even if you manage to double up, you are right back where you started. Soon you will be right in the thick of things and in danger of going broke. To avoid this trap you should be more selective with your chips.
best wild casino slotsWait for a hand and hope to steal the blinds and antes or pick up a big pot that will allow you to get back in the hunt. While it is tempting to go for quick doubles when you are badly in the hole, chances are you will only succeed in staying somewhere between dead even and badly off.
Barry Greenstein: On Hand Definition
Defining your hand is a process that begins before you act on your first hand at a table. The objective is to figure out which starting hands you will play in what positions.
Once you have decided which hands you will play in early position, you need to narrow down the range of hands you will play from middle and late position.
I suggest that you play a fairly tight game in late position and even tighter in the small blind and big blind. To simplify, I will refer to the hands you always or almost always play from a certain position as your starting hand definition in that seat.
After you have decided on your starting hand definition, the next step is to play in accordance with your definition. This seems obvious, but it is amazing how easily a player's definition can be violated, especially as tilt sets in.
Playing outside of your defined range can lead an opponent directly to a correct reading of your hand. This can occur either because you are playing too aggressively or passively with a weak hand or because you are not playing aggressively enough with a strong hand.
In both cases, you are giving your opponents information that can be used against you. Part of hand definition involves playing your defined hands in accord with a policy of ranges.
If your opponents know what your ranges are, they can play more efficiently against you. Later, when we discuss range riding, you will see how your opponents will build a range of hands for you and how you can do the same for them.
Barry Greenstein: On Balancing Your Range
Once you have decided on your starting hand definition, you need to decide how to play your range of hands in various situations. This involves balancing your range.
If you always raise with one type of hand and barely raise at all with another seemingly comparable hand, an observant opponent will be able to quickly and correctly read your hand strength.
Even if you never betray vector on your bets and draws, your opponent needs only to put you on two hands to instantly cut your equity in half. If you're steaming AK all the time, your opponent only has to ask himself, 'Does this guy have AK or does he have AK?"
Assuming that
