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Every poker player may be an individual –with their own set of strengths, weaknesses, and quirks-but for the most part poker players fall under a certain category. Obviously there are winners and losers, but inside each of those categories are more subsets, and without getting too specific I’ve narrowed these sub-categories down to three for both winners and losers in poker.

In this article I’ll look at the three sub-categories for losing poker players; in Part 2 I’ll look at the three categories of winning poker players.

Fish

Fish are basically players that do not understand the basics of the game. These players have no concept of basic strategies like position, calculating pot odds, or bet-sizing. Because of these huge holes in their game, Fish are universally welcomed at poker tables since their chances of winning are slim to none -basically the deck would have to hit them in the face for them to hold onto their chips for any length of time.

When you find yourself in a game with a Fish your #1 goal is to keep them in the game, and since they are typically passing through the casino (not regulars) it’s not a bad idea to offer a pointer or two from time to time. Doing this gives the Fish a small reward while they are losing buy-in after buy-in.

Casual Poker Players

Unlike a straight Fish, a casual poker player has some understanding of the strategies involved in poker, unfortunately, their knowledge is only cursory. They don’t lose fast like a Fish, but by the end of the night they are usually ground down to the felt from their many smaller mistakes.

Casual poker players also have an uncanny ability to become better or worse depending on the game conditions. If players are friendly and having fun casual poker players tend to go with the flow; if casual poker players find themselves in tough, no-nonsense, game or have been called-out in some way they suddenly seem to focus more and play tougher.

The maxim, don’t tap the glass is in direct reference to this type of player.

Hustlers

Hustler, cheater, angle-shooter, scammer; all of these terms apply to people falling in this category. Basically these are knowledgeable poker players who have some type of personality flaw (be it Tilt, poor bankroll management, poor game selection or some other major leak) that keeps them from booking a profit.

Because they can’t win, and can’t justify why they can’t win, they tend to be willing to do whatever it takes to gain an extra edge in the game. So with these players you have to be prepared for anything from a miss-called hand and shorting the pot, to outright scams and theft.

Hustlers are universally loathed in a poker game; the players HATE these angle-shooters/cheaters, as do the dealers and the floor who simply don’t want to have to deal with the many arguments and rulings that are needed when a Hustler in the game.

The winners of the 2011 European Poker Awards were announced on Wednesday night at a ceremony in Paris, France hosted by 2010 European Poker Award Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Nic Szeremeta, and over the course of the awards’ ceremony the winners were announced in 10 separate categories ranging from Poker Player of the year to Europe’s Leading Lady.

Here is a look at the winners and a brief description of why they were chosen:

• Player of the Year: Sam Trickett

Trickett’s tournament run in 2011 would have been enough to win this award by itself, but when you factor in the Brit’s cash-game success (including another seven-figure score in the high-stakes games in Macau) he was a shoe-in for the award.

• Best Tournament Performance: Pius Heinz

This was another sure-thing, as the 22 year-old German won the biggest tournament of the year, the World Series of poker Main Event in dramatic fashion.

• Rookie of the Year: Andrey Pateychuk

Pateychuk had a breakout year in 2011, winning both a WPT and an EPT Main Event.  Oh, and did I mention that the Russian also finished 15^th in the WSOP Main Event! Overall, Pateychuk earned just over $2 million in his first full year on the tournament trail.

• Europe’s Leading Lady: Natalya Nikitina

Nikitina won a WPT Regional Event in Paris, making her one of the three women who has triumphed on the WPT (although no woman has won an “open” WPT Championship tournament thus far). In an off-year for women the win was enough to earn her the EPA.

• Internet Player of the Year: Ilari Sahamies

Sahamies was the biggest winner in online poker cash-games during 2011, utterly dominating from September on.

• Poker Personality of the Year: Bertrand Grospellier

With his wild personality, and perhaps helped by his much-hyped kickboxing match against Lex Veldhuis, ElkY managed to keep this award out of Tony G’s hands yet again!

• Staff of the Year: Warren Lush (bwin.Party)

Handling the many Party Poker sponsored tournaments, Lush not only runs a tight ship but also does a terrific job marketing and blogging about these events.

• Event of the Year: WSOPE Cannes

The huge attendance increases after moving from its longtime home in London saw the WSOPE, now in Cannes, be one of the few bright spots in the poker world after Black Friday.

• Lifetime Achievement: Jesse May

May’s contributions to poker, and over the past 5-10 years European Poker, were honored as the longtime commentator, personality, and author took home the Lifetime Achievement Award.

There is a lot that goes into becoming a winning poker player, and perhaps just as important as studying and learning the game is a set of natural talents that few players possess, and still fewer can teach themselves to do. Unfortunately these traits are hard to teach, but if you browse this list and find you have an aptitude for most of them than maybe poker is right for you!

Here is a look at five traits that you will find most winning poker players possess:

1. The Ability to Think on your Feet
2. Focus and Awareness of your Surroundings
3. An Innate Intellectual Curiosity
4. Mental Toughness
5. Ability to Avoid Temptations

Over the course of this five-part series I’ll explain why each is important to poker success; next-up will be: Ability to Avoid Temptations.

Ability to Avoid Temptations

As any poker player can tell you, temptations are everywhere in the poker world. Not only are you typically playing in a casino with its bright lights and many lures like craps, blackjack, and slot machines, but as a poker player you are also in these places late at night, when the denizens of the world are out -not that every person in a casino after 1AM is up to no good!

The very best poker players can avoid these temptations; while lesser players often give back some, if not all, of their profits to these many temptations. Whether it’s a leak like the craps pits, or strip clubs and bars, or even unsavory characters or drugs, poker players are often faced with choices that the rest of the population simply doesn’t need to deal with.

For instance, there are very few professions where 24+ hour sessions are normal, but for poker players this is a reality, and the temptation to use illicit drugs, or overdo caffeine or ephedrine, is always there.

It’s also hard to get a home cooked meal at 10PM, 3AM,or some other odd hour, which leads poker players to eat out quite often, an expense that can really add-up very quickly -especially if drinks are involved. From there it’s just a short walk through the casino to get back to the poker tables; which may involve a quick stop at a blackjack table. Basically, the temptations are always there for poker players.

There is also the temptation to fall into the habits of the people around you, which is very dangerous if you are in different financial situations. Things like prop bets and credit card roulette may be fine for some of the game’s greats, but trying to emulate these habits has ruined many a mid-stakes player.

There is a lot that goes into becoming a winning poker player, and perhaps just as important as studying and learning the game is a set of natural talents that few players possess, and still fewer can teach themselves to do. Unfortunately these traits are hard to teach, but if you browse this list and find you have an aptitude for most of them than maybe poker is right for you!

Here is a look at five traits that you will find most winning poker players possess:

1. The Ability to Think on your Feet
2. Focus and Awareness of your Surroundings
3. An Innate Intellectual Curiosity
4. Mental Toughness
5. Ability to Avoid Temptations

Over the course of this five-part series I’ll explain why each is important to poker success; next-up will be: Mental Toughness.

Mental Toughness

When it comes to the talents of a poker player the words mental toughness will often be thrown around, but what does mental toughness really mean in poker? A poker player with mental toughness is able to do a number of things that fall under the umbrella of “Mental Toughness” including discipline at the tables, the ability to overcome bad beats and bad runs of cards, and even the ability to stay unflappable when another player is chewing your ear off.

Players who lack mental toughness at the poker tables are not only easy to put on tilt, but they tend to remain on tilt (or go on full-blown life-tilt) far longer. These players usually lack patience as well, making it far less likely that they will exercise good game and seat selection, use proper bankroll management, and stay focused on the game.

Mental toughness allows you to do things you normally would rather avoid; players with mental toughness can sit by while another player rants; they can deal with the bad beats that will inevitably happen; and they can do it all with a smile.

A good example of a player who lacks mental toughness at the poker tables is Phil Hellmuth. Hellmuth is known for his bouts of tilt, and that once he is on tilt he goes from a very good player to one of the fish in the game. The same can be said to a degree about Mike Matusow. Matusow may avoid tilt better than Hellmuth, but once he is tilted you can soon expect one of his patented “Blowups”.

Mental toughness may very well be the genesis of every other trait I have listed in this series, since without mental toughness it’s extremely hard to do things like think on your feet (or think at all for that matter) focus on the game and your surroundings.

After three starting flights we have the final attendance numbers for the 2012 Aussie Millions, and even though attendance is down from last year, the Aussie Millions fared much better than the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in the first running since Black Friday. The PCA saw a dramatic drop in attendance, down some 30% from last year, while the Aussie Millions field size shrank only a fraction of that amount -721 players last year compared with the 650 players registered this year.

It didn’t look good going into Day 1c on Tuesday, considering Day 1a attendance was down 238 to 153 year-over-year, and Day 1b was down 209 to 187 year-over-year. That said, on Day 1c the 2012 Aussie Millions drew a remarkable 310 entrants, an INCREASE of 36 players from last year.

All of poker’s heavy-hitters were in attendance, with Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen, Sam Trickett, Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Erik Seidel and others were in the field, and one of poker’s superstars, Phil Ivey, not only survived his opening day flight, but managed to bag-up an impressive 184,000 chips, good enough for 6^th place on the leader-board heading into Day 2 on Wednesday. Recent WPT winner and one of the top British poker players James Dempsey heads into Day 2 in 4^th place with 189,000 chips.

Here is a look at the chip-leaders heading into Day 2 of the 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event:

1.       Brett Watson — 257,400

2.       Robert Lam — 198,400

3.       Robin Ylitalo — 192,600

4.       James Dempsey — 189,000

5.       David Sonelin — 186,200

6.       Phil Ivey — 184,000

7.       Ilir Beluli — 182,700

8.       Paul Sing — 177,100

9.       Chad Awerbuch — 161,000

10.   Jason Koon — 156,300

As one of the premiere tournaments in the world, the Aussie Million has historically generated one of the largest prize-pools in tournament poker, and this year looks to be no different. Although the payout structure for the tournament has yet to be released, based on former Aussie Millions tournaments the first place prize-money should be in the $2 million range (in 2009 the Aussie Millions had 681 entrants and awarded a $2 million first-place prize).

Australia has held serve at the Aussie Million over the past three years, with Stewart Scott, Tyron Krost (who recently won the Tournament of Champions),and David Gorr (a member of the Australian Poker Hall of Fame) winning the past three Aussie Millions Main Events. Amazingly, no American has ever won the Aussie Millions Main Event, an almost unheard of record considering the tournament has been taking place since 1998!

The $100k and up buy-in poker tournaments that have become all the rage over the past two years had, up until the recently concluded $100k Challenge tournament at the 2012 Aussie Millions, been dominated by poker’s biggest names as the elitist of the elites in the world of poker battled their peers for seven-figure paydays.

However, after the improbable heads-up match between the relatively Dan Smith and the even more unknown Mikhail Smirnov to end the 2012 Aussie Millions $100k Challenge, maybe some of the lesser-known, and smaller-bankrolled, poker players may reconsider their equity in these tournaments.

A total of 22 players registered for the tournament on Sunday, and by the time play concluded Sunday night only eight players were left in the field -and four of those eight would go home empty-handed on Monday, as the tournament was only paying the Top four finishers. Here is a look at the seating assignments and chip counts for Monday’s final table participants:

• Seat 1: Tony G — 102,000
• Seat 2: Gus Hansen — 567,000
• Seat 3: Nam Le — 79,500
• Seat 4: Sam Trickett — 73,000
• Seat 5: Mikhail Smirnov — 265,000
• Seat 6: Joe Hachem — 538,500
• Seat 7: Sorel Mizzi — 228,500
• Seat 8: Dan Smith — 346,500

With Hachem and Hansen, two of poker’s biggest names, leading the way, it looked like one of the two would be seeing their name in the poker headlines at the end of the tournament. But in the end, Gus Hansen fizzled out, getting eliminated before the money, as did last year’s $100k Challenge winner Sam Trickett, Nam Le, and Sorel Mizzi.

This left a final four of Hachem and his fellow Australian Poker Hall of Fame member Tony G, as well as the two lesser known players in Smirnov and Smith. Smith would handle most of the dirty work, eliminating both Hachem and Tony G to set up the final showdown with Smirnov.

In the end, Smith was playing well, getting cards, and seeing his hands hold-up, whether in coin-flip situations or as a 4-to-1 favorite, and quickly took care of the Russian poker pro Smirnov. For both players the prize-money was by far the biggest cashes of their careers, with Smith nearly besting his previous best cash by 10x, while Smirnov did the same (Smith won just over $100k in 2008 when he won a HPT Main Event, while Smirnov pocketed over $65k in the $25k Heads-Up NLHE tournament at the 2011 WSOP).

Here is a look at the final table placings and payouts from the 2012 Aussie Millions $100k Challenge:

• 1^st place: Dan Smith — $1,012,000
• 2^nd place: Mikhail Smirnov — $616,000
• 3^rd place: Joe Hachem — $330,000
• 4^th place: Tony G — $242,000
• 5^th place: Gus Hansen
• 6^th place: Sorel Mizzi
• 7^th place: Sam Trickett
• 8^th place: Nam Le

There is a lot that goes into becoming a winning poker player, and perhaps just as important as studying and learning the game is a set of natural talents that few players possess, and still fewer can teach themselves to do. Unfortunately these traits are hard to teach, but if you browse this list and find you have an aptitude for most of them than maybe poker is right for you!

Here is a look at five traits that you will find most winning poker players possess:

1. The Ability to Think on your Feet
2. Focus and Awareness of your Surroundings
3. An Innate Intellectual Curiosity
4. Mental Toughness
5. Ability to Avoid Temptations

Over the course of this five-part series I’ll explain why each is important to poker success; next-up will be: Focus and Awareness of your Surroundings.

Focus and Awareness of your Surroundings

Pretty much everything at a poker table involves a certain amount balance, such as the ability to balance between mathematically correct plays and mixing-up your play enough to not be predictable. But there is also another area where balance is key in poker: The ability to focus on the game, as well as pay attention to your surroundings.

When you are playing poker you have to focus on every little detail that is taking place during the hand, from your opponents’ actions to the way the cards are falling. But you must also be aware of the little things that are taking place in the game in order to not only give yourself an edge, but to avoid being taken advantage of.

For instance, here are just a few of the things you’ll want to look out for, while at the same time focusing on the game and the action:

• Are there friends playing in the same game?
• Do any of the players have a piece of another player?
• Who has drinks in front of them and who doesn’t?
• Who is running bad and who is running good?
• What do your opponents think of your play?
• Is there a better game going at another table?
• Is there a better seat available?
• Is the game going to break soon, or is there a long waiting list?

There are so many things taking place during every single hand of poker that you have to focus intensely on the game, but there are also things happening on the periphery of the game that need to be observed as well, and this is one of the most difficult balancing acts to master in poker. Winning poker players have an uncanny ability to keep one eye on the game, and the other eye on everything going on in the card-room.

While all eyes in the poker world are squarely focused on Australia, with the Aussie Millions in full swing and the Australia Poker Hall of Fame inductees announced earlier this week, yet another reason to turn to Australia was announced on Saturday, as 2005 World Series of Poker Champion Joe Hachem revealed he will be taking a new role with AsianLogic most notably as an ambassador the Asian Poker Tour.

In a press release Hachem explained the reasons behind his decision to take on the new role, as well as what can be expected of him:

“After many years working extensively around the world, I made the decision that my next venture would keep me closer to home, would allow me to spend more time with my family and was something that presented me with a wider range of opportunities.

“I am delighted to announce that I have decided to partner with a consortium comprising the AsianLogic Group and some of their contemporaries. I will be working with the group in several areas, initially as a new ambassador for the Asian Poker Tour to further the growth of poker and to assist them with several strategic opportunities in Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

“The group are already very successful gaming operators and have a carefully thought out strategy for poker and my role within this will be announced publicly later this quarter. There are separate elements here in light of potential regulatory change in Australia, which requires a different focus from that adopted for the general international poker market.

“I considered offers from several other brands, but this partnership was the best fit for me as it gave me an active role and the ability to participate as the businesses evolve. The Asia Pacific poker market is still in its infancy and has in my opinion, huge potential for growth relatively to the European more mature markets. The United States are also going through an important phase and it will take a little time before things come into place and operators emerge. Working with a partner in the same time zone makes life a lot easier and whilst I am still going to be traveling to the major poker tournaments, being able to spend more time at home is fantastic.”

Hachem, who recently parted ways with his longtime sponsor PokerStars, is one of the winningest players in tournament poker history, currently sitting in 9^th place on the all-time money list. He is also the face of Australian Poker, a role he has taken on since his 2005 WSOP victory, and a role he has excelled in over the years.

AsianLogic is basically THE Company when it comes to poker in Asia, with a strong presence both online and in live poker tournaments, including the booming Macau market. One of the leaders of AsianLogic, Tom Hall (who keeps the poker world updated on the Ultra-High-Stakes cash-games that take place in Macau), had this to say in the press release:

“We are delighted to be working with Joe who is without a doubt one of the most recognizable and respected poker players in the world. I can’t think of a better venue, the Aussie Millions, in Joe’s hometown of Melbourne, at this fantastic venue, the Crown Casino to announce our partnership with Joe. Joe brings much more to the table than just his poker playing skills. His knowledge and understanding of the gaming industry both domestically and internationally will be invaluable to us going forwards. The Asian Poker Tour is already widely recognized as Asia’s only independent tour and we feel Joe will be able to help us expand this business. AsianLogic and its partners are also involved in a number of poker and gaming projects and Joe is helping us with some of these, particularly those in Australia and New Zealand.”

There is a lot that goes into becoming a winning poker player, and perhaps just as important as studying and learning the game is a set of natural talents that few players possess, and still fewer can teach themselves to do. Unfortunately these traits are hard to teach, but if you browse this list and find you have an aptitude for most of them than maybe poker is right for you!

Here is a look at five traits that you will find most winning poker players possess:

1. The Ability to Think on your Feet
2. Focus and Awareness of your Surroundings
3. An Innate Intellectual Curiosity
4. Mental Toughness
5. Ability to Avoid Temptations

Over the course of this five-part series I’ll explain why each is important to poker success; next-up will be: An Innate Intellectual Curiosity.

An Innate Intellectual Curiosity

Poker is a very complex game, with varying strategies, and often times no clear-cut answer. Because of this poker players need to be naturally curious in order to succeed.

By having an innate intellectual curiosity a poker player will seek out different theories and strategies, and will be very skeptical of what they find. Intellectual curiosity demands that you think for yourself and come to your own conclusions; players who have it will often be on the cutting edge of poker theory and strategy and rarely grow complacent.

Poker players who lack this natural curiosity will often time fall into ruts, where they simply believe what they read, or are told, because it “sounds” good. Without a discerning and skeptical eye, a poker player often falls into the trap of blaming other variables for their losses (luck foremost among the accused) and not their lack of continued study.

If there was ever a profession that required you to question everything people tell you -not only to discern fact from fiction, but also to get a full grasp of the concept being discussed-it’s poker. Players with this intellectual curiosity often do well at the poker tables.

Of all the talents I’ve listed, I believe that its intellectual curiosity that is the most important, because without it players simply have a hard time learning theories, strategies, and concepts beyond a certain point. This natural curiosity tells players that they HAVEN’T learned everything they need to know about poker and allows them to continue to grow no matter how good other people say they are or how good their results have been.

There is a lot that goes into becoming a winning poker player, and perhaps just as important as studying and learning the game is a set of natural talents that few players possess, and still fewer can teach themselves to do. Unfortunately these traits are hard to teach, but if you browse this list and find you have an aptitude for most of them than maybe poker is right for you!

Here is a look at five traits that you will find most winning poker players possess:

1. The Ability to Think on your Feet
2. Focus and Awareness of your Surroundings
3. An Innate Intellectual Curiosity
4. Mental Toughness
5. Ability to Avoid Temptations

Over the course of this five-part series I’ll explain why each is important to poker success beginning with: The Ability to think on your Feet.

The Ability to Think on Your Feet

You won’t find too many winning poker players who are incapable of making clear, crisp decisions, and able to do so by weighing a number of different things at the same time. Winning poker players do not rely on rote memorization; instead they use what they have learned and tailor it to fit into each particular situation that arises.

It almost seems like they are playing the game intuitively, when the truth is they are using their knowledge base, their playing experience, and their reads on their opponents to form their decisions.

Begininng with using proper poker strategies and theories, along with what they have seen in their time at the felt is just the beginning. Variables like the specific player, the specific player’s current state of mind, how they themselves are viewed by the table, the overall game dynamics, and virtually any other aspect that may help them formulate the correct answer is weighed.

Having a quick mind allows poker players to form their decisions in split-seconds, which is a necessary trait for people confronted with countless decisions over the course of poker session, not to mention the numerous challenge matches, prop bet, and other critical thinking tests they are accosted with while playing poker.

Hindsight is great for studying, but in the heat of the moment, poker players must be able to quickly weigh their options and form logical conclusions -then it’s simply a matter of trusting these decisions!

Players who lack the ability to think on their feet, and need to weigh the pros and cons of different decisions at great length tend to waffle in critical decisions, causing them to guess more than to formulate an answer. These players depend on their knowledge base to win the day; which is perfectly fine for low-limit games. However, once you arrive at the middle-limits of poker you better be able to think fast, and be confident in your decisions once you arrive at them.