The ATS Principle

» COLUMN

The ATS Principle

by Miiwiin

If you were expecting a column about how to play in the late positions, then I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place. Today we are not going to talk about the relevance of attempt to steal, but about basic principles you should incorporate into your game. Most of life is a question of mentality, and that goes for poker too, or indeed especially. That's why you should not only keep your playing skills in mind but also a number of other factors, and the ATS principle can be quite helpful here.

What does ATS actually mean?

How does one become a winning player? What do many people manage to do that you are perhaps desperately struggling with? Are they better players? Perhaps. Are they luckier? Of course. A big winning player is usually on an upswing and (still) has Lady Luck on their side.

There are, however, three principles that bring you a lot closer to the winning player:

• A-Game
• Table selection
• Sample size

Each and every one of these points is immensely important. These factors, or rather the precise and strict adherence to them, are what makes a winning player. Of course you must also have mastered your game, question it at all times and study poker theory in depth, but the complete ATS package is at least just as important.

You can see it as a symbiosis, the mixture of which brings success. One factor will rarely function without the other, or will plunge you into serious trouble.

The tip "Play your A-Game, practice table selection and get a significant sample size" does not suffice on its own of course. The following therefore explains what other ideas lie behind this.

A-Game

So what is an A-Game exactly? Most people would define it as not going on tilt. As long as you're not on tilt, you're playing your A-Game. But of course this is not quite accurate.

On a side note here are some thoughts on how to directly prevent going on tilt:

No tilt part 1
No tilt part 2

Tilt is generally defined as totally unconcentrated behaviour at the tables. You have a few bad beats and then start to push every suited connector all-in. If you've lost a few more stacks than usual during a session you can blame it on tilt.

In essence, however, this playing behaviour or indeed the complete overplaying of marginal hands has little to do with tilt. It is rather a mix of stupidity and a complete loss of self-control. Hero is on fire, and is in fact burning himself to the ground.

That must not happen to you - you've got to react calmly and take these beats in your stride. If, however, you let these beats influence your game in whatever way, then you are no longer able to play your A-Game.

• You raise too much
• You raise too little
• You call too much
• You start bluffing too much
• You stop bluffing altogether
• You start chatting
• …

You no longer play the way you should have in your retrospective analysis. Now that is tilt - your concentrated game has been influenced. And it will have an immediate effect on your win rate.

Even though it might seem tough sometimes, you've got to continue to play your game with concentration. Not only must you continue to look for the positive EV spots from then on, you should ideally try to even use your image. In some spots you can then loosen up and go broke, and in some others you can fold a weak hand. But not because you have allowed yourself to be influenced, but because the positive EV spots have been passed on due to your image.

Poker is a game that is made up of mathematics that is put into practice with concentration and is well-thought out. If you lose an all-in preflop three times in a row but you know that you played these hands in the right way, then what exactly is your problem?

It goes without saying that you will not be particularly happy at first, but then four things should spring to mind immediately:

• You can't do anything about bad beats
• Did you really play correctly?
• Continue delivering an A-Game
• Do the opponents have a different impression of you now and can you use this to your advantage in any way?

If you're able to do this, you've made significant progress.

Table selection

Table selection is essential in poker. In the long run you will get nothing out of playing a good game when you only play against players over which you have no or hardly any edge. Remember: the rake also wants to get paid. So if you would break even all your life you'd only fractionally be a winning player if there weren't a rake. And you shouldn't be aiming for that.

So you've got to find the right opponents. Here are some thoughts on table selection:

Table selection - finding profitable tables 

You would like to maximise your positive EV spots. So you need opponents over which you have an edge. Ideally over quite a few of them, and even more ideally in position too.

You've got to develop a sense for how a table behaves. A table with 4 TAGs and one fish out of position can be profitable, if you clearly define what you're aiming for at this table. Without a doubt you must also prove yourself against the regulars in the game and the aim should be to have an edge over these players too. You need to work on your poker skills all your life. This will allow you to improve step by step.

But the whole thing becomes profitable through the players from which you are able to get the maximum EV. That's why you can't get around making a good table selection.

You can learn how to do this in the above-mentioned article. The Forum is also a helpful resource.

It all ranges from looking for a few tables and only continuing to play at the most profitable ones to using programmes that can predetermine the tables that are most playable for you.

If you're more interested in battling with the regulars, then although it will be a good learning experience, it will not necessarily have a positive influence on your win rate. It will do the variance good though. And don't forget: you can't avoid battles with the regulars at good tables either.

However, one thing is certain:

Sample size

Sample size is just as important. Especially maths lovers will find topics such as variance and standard deviation interesting here. Almost everything can happen in a small number of played hands, so you need a sensible amount of played hands to be able to analyse your win rate and/or your playing skills.

It's no good playing one or two sessions a week with 400 hands and then come to the conclusion that you're on a downswing. A few thousand hands reveal very little to nothing at all.

Work out a plan and set yourself a goal. Play 30,000, 50,000 or even 70,000 on one limit. After the end of this stage you can analyse. Slowly but surely you will have slightly more significant values to look at and will be able to estimate your win rate a little better.

You need to understand, however, that even with this number of played hands the variance can still be huge.

To give you a little more clarity with regards to this, we recommend you look at the following thread by Handbewerter Kriegskeks:

Variance, tilt and striving to move up 

You shouldn't aspire to having to or wanting to play too much because of this. But always aim to set yourself goals and keep to them. No player has ever managed to do this overnight and you won't either. So take it step by step, and the smaller the step, the more effective it will be.