Poker is not a team sport. It's every man for himself. It's perfectly okay to root for your buddies and hope they do well, but when it's time to play the game, you have to give it your all. All by yourself, that is.

If you are in a poker game for money and are taking it easy on one of your buddies, you are cheating yourself, your friend, and every other player in the game.

Playing tricky poker doesn't have to mean making bizarre moves or playing way out of character. Rather, it's simply about taking advantage of what you know about your opponents and how they perceive your style of play.

A common mistake made by amateurs is that they fail to take advantage of players who bluff excessively. Instead of playing possum and letting their aggressive opponents continue to bet, beginners raise too early with monster hands, allowing their opponents to fold.

Blind stealing is not exclusive to late position play. You can steal blinds from any position, and you should!

There's no doubt that position is a very important aspect of the game. But some players take this concept to the extreme and consequently miss opportunities when they refuse to play hands out of position.

No matter what poker book you read or poker show you watch, the topic of position will invariably be discussed and its importance stressed.

You have to play more hands than usual to be successful in tournament poker. While a conservative approach can help you squeak into the money, the only way to win is to mix it up and get involved with a wider range of starting hands.

Many players in the big blind get in trouble by calling pre-flop raises; they try to do too much. They don't want to get bullied, so they attempt a tricky check-raise bluff or overplay their hands in an ill-advised effort to push back.

The ability to perform basic math calculations is certainly an integral part of playing fundamental poker. But in tournament poker, it's equally important to understand that survival often trumps mathematics in coin flip situations.

In tournament play, it's generally advisable to avoid risking large sums of chips in coin flip situations, like pocket sixes versus A-K. After all, the pocket pair is only a very slight heads-up favorite.

It's imperative to save a few chips whenever possible when playing small-ball poker. You never want to risk a high percentage of your chips unless you're dealt a monster hand.

Protect your hand when you're confident you're in the lead. Don't be greedy and try to milk your opponent for a few more chips when the pot is already large.

Any call that jeopardizes a big chunk of your chip stack just because you think your opponent might be on a bluff is flat-out wrong.

Obsessing about statistics won't make you a better poker player. In fact, you'll end up wasting too much valuable time on that stuff when you should be concentrating on crucial issues, like getting a read on your opponents and studying the psychological aspects of the game.

I like to peruse the Full Contact Poker online forums to read and comment on posts about interesting poker hands and whether they were played properly. I find that many of the contributors consistently suffer from the same problem: they are far too preoccupied with statistically insignificant aspects of a poker hand.

It's one of my basic premises for tournament play: Choose to bet the lesser amount when a smaller-sized bet will accomplish the same objective as a bigger one.

In No Limit hold'em tournaments, size your bets based on your opponent's skill level. You can cut corners by betting wisely - save a little here and make a little extra there.

The most important reason why it's dangerous to risk all your chips pre-flop is that you simply can't be certain that you are even in a coin flip situation at that time.

It's never a good thing when an opponent has a solid read on you pre-flop.

Moving all-in with a small pair from early position only makes sense when you are severely short-stacked and desperately need to pick up the blinds.

Deep-stack games like High Stakes Poker are the favorites among both poker pros and avid fans of televised poker. In these games, the most talented players shine and the most exciting action takes place.

Playing deep-stack, no-limit hold'em is a very complex game where the most critical and difficult decisions come after the flop.

I am most challenged by playing cash games against the world's top players. These games force me to think several moves in advance, like in a game of chess. And though I also find tournaments fun to play, they just don't provide the constant brain buzz that cash game players crave.