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Jonathan Little: Always look in both directions
In life, we constantly try to look ahead, plan and anticipate, but you should transfer this habit to poker as soon as possible. When you go across the street, you also don't just go blind and don't hope that by some miracle you choose exactly the one path, that you need from all possibilites. Even in poker, you should always think before deciding what the outcome of your game will be and what it will bring to you on next streets or in the rest of the tournament.
Let's say someone opens from UTG to 3bb from a 100bb stack and right behind him you find AT . Quite a cheap price to see the flop, right? Slow down, just like before the road, and look both ways. Although the AT combination is an above-average hand, it is easy to fold in this spot because of all the bad that can follow.
Although you can hold the strongest hand at this point, there are a lot of risks and unknown factors in front of you - the original aggressor may have a better hand, someone else may 3-bet you, and more players may join the game. It's not easy even after the flop, where you can hit an ace and run into a higher kicker, you can hit an A-high board and hit an overpair, or you simply miss the flop completely and you have to fold on a c-bet. When we add it all up, we get a lot of spots in which you loose a lot and gain just a little. So on the contrary, fold will be the most clever game.
Let's look at the same situation now, but with a combination JT . Now there is no danger that you will lose a lot if you hit one pair, as you can easily improve on later streets and get a premium combination. You will also get the opportunity to semi-bluff, which will also often help you win the pot when your opponent misses the board. As a result, we get the opposite state - you can win a lot and lose just a little.
Poker, like all games, is mainly about trying to find the optimal solution for each situation. Decisions in poker are not isolated and everything is related like dominoes - one decision will affect the others. If you always have a plan and look ahead, you will rarely find yourself in unenviable situations. However, if you are often confused and get into unnecessary trouble, you are either making the wrong decision or you haven't studied enough. Work on these aspects and never give up!
Source: Card Player Magazine