The one who achieves greatness is the one who does not play.
The good player is patient. He is observant, controlling his patience and organizing his composure. When he sees an opportunity, he explodes.
Don't get irritated or angered by long sessions of folding. Come to the game expecting this, accept it.
If you've been folding a lot and you are starting to think that maybe it's time you got in and played a few hands? that's not a good enough reason. Keep folding.
After two hours of folding, some players might think they have paid their dues? proven they are a disciplined player. So now they have earned the right to stay, right? Nope! Keep folding?
Develop a readiness to participate, that is, to explode into action which is separate from the relaxed state you are in at other times.
As you keep folding, you must feel neutral about it.
Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?
To win at poker you must embrace the idea of breaking even. A distaste for breaking even and not realizing the big dreams can lead to overplaying.
Teach yourself how to sit quietly and patiently at the even mark.
Regard patience as a central pillar of your game and strategy. Don't assign it a secondary or lesser role. Don't be put off by it if it doesn't seem to be working. Beneath the surface it's working.
Expect nothing.
Don't fall into the "now trap", must win right now! There is a great attraction in all aspects of the modern age to immediacy. It is very seductive in it's lure.
When we inject emotion into folding it gradually builds up like the steam in the steam engine. If we fold fifty hands in a row because we are getting bad cards, we should feel the same at the end of the fiftieth hand as we do after the first. We should feel neutral.
In poker, patience means not so much a strong commitment to patience, as an indifference to the passage of time.
Occupy yourself while you're not playing.
