Chess players are probably the best example of those that need to think ahead to become the best at their game. The very best in the world can envisage 20 moves ahead to set up the knock out blow. Poker will never be as hard as that but the ability to work out how you will play a hand in advance is vital.

This is particularly true in tournament poker so let’s have a look at an example. Let’s assume that we are in the big blind of a tournament and we hold pocket 7’s. We are getting very close to the money. Our position is not desperate but we are getting short on chips. A good player on the ‘cut off’ (one before the button) raises it up to three times the big blind. He has a big stack and has been pretty proactive in late position but has consistently turned over good starting hands not rubbish.

Now you are faced with a big decision. You can move all in but you are quite certain that you can’t push the bigger stack out of the hand. The only hand that he could have that would be perfect for you would be a smaller pair but in reality you figure yourself to be a coin flip at best.

You do the math and figure that you can call the bet, fold on the turn and still have enough to make an all in shove in the next round (and still have fold equity). You decide that you are going to call the bet and shove all in on the flop as long as you don’t see an A or a K hit on the flop.

The advantage of making this decision and looking at the various outcomes is that if your opponent has an Ace then he probably folds after the flop and you win a nice hand. Another thing you could do in this position is call the bet and shove all in on the flop regardless of what comes. This would make it hard to get a call unless your opponent hits something (which is obviously bad for you).

Just remember though that good players can read your body language like a book. If you decide what you are going to do before the card hits the poker table then you must try to act coolly, calmly and immediately. This will make it harder for your opponent to get a read about the strength or weakness of your hand.