The strange thing about poker is if you always make smart decisions, you’ll become very predictable for your opponents. That’s why you should sometimes make a misleading play. You should bluff or check a big hand to your opponent. The goal is to make your opponent make a bad decision against your hand. If you do this randomly, you’ll become far less predictable, but the real art of misleading the other players is to always have a plan. You have to know why you’re making an unorthodox play.

For example: you’re holding AK suited and raised pre-flop, 1 player called out of position. The flop comes A47 rainbow, your opponent checks to you. Normally you would bet here, but this time you check behind. Why? You don’t want to give your hand away and plan to bet any turn. The turn is a J, your opponent checks to you, you bet 2/3 of pot. He calls. The river is a K, your opponent bets 2/3 of pot, you go all-in, he calls with AK. Your plan worked. No way he could have put you on AK or AJ after you checked the flop.

Don’t make plays just because you can, make them because you think it’s the best option at that time. Always have a plan when you’re mixing up your play, don’t do it just because you can.

This site is all about poker strategies and tips, but all of this will do you no good if you aren’t tilt-proof. Going on tilt is by far the most devastating leak in anyone’s game. All your fancy plays and well thought out strategies won’t do you any good when tilt kicks in.

Here are some tips that may prevent you from going on tilt:

- Start understanding poker as game of decision making: the donk might have sucked out on you this time, hitting his gutshot, but you know he made a mistake by paying far too much for that draw. In the long run your good decision making will result in a profit.

- Choose a more low-variance line of play. Instead of going for the check-raise with top pair in a multiway pot, hoping to build a big one, just bet it out and show strength. More likely then not (this also depends on the texture of the board of course) everyone will fold and there will be no suck outs on later streets, hence less stress.

- And if you do feel like you’re on tilt, just leave the game. A classic example of this is found while playing the deal or no deal game, knowing when to quit while you are ahead and pulling out when you get that not so lucky feeling is the difference between success and failure. There’s no shame in quitting when you’re not in your element. Live to fight another day, don’t bust your bankroll just because the donkey sucked out on the river. No river, no fish.