It depends

That's the answer to every poker question:

It depends.

Should I raise, fold or call with pocket 3's?

It depends.

Who's in front of you? Who's behind you? What are the blinds? How many chips does everyone have? How is everyone playing? Is the table tight or loose?

At the most basic level you need to determine the poker IQ of your opponents. Are they aware of situational plays or are they only playing the 2 cards in front of them? At the core this is everything.

My opponents seem to think I'm playing loose lately. One guy even told me that's his nickname for me....Loosey. But the truth is deep down I still feel pretty tight. What he's picking up on though is my finding other loose aggressive players and picking them out.

Once you determine "who is who" the table suddenly becomes so clear.

You got the people playing their own cards.

And people playing cards, players and situations.

I will play much worse cards against the latter.

So the game gets real interesting when people playing situations find themselves in hands against each other. Cause once you're thinking on this other level you gotta start wondering "did that old man just raise the pot cause no one else has entered it yet and he's on the cutoff seat? Or might he actually have a hand this time?" And then the next hand when 3 players limp and some guy repops it from the big blind you have to wonder "is he making that standard "no limpers raise" that so many players love to do over and over again or might he too actually have a hand?"

This might be followed by a guy limping under the gun but then pushing in a huge reraise when it gets raised back to him because now he's representing aces.

And this is the fun of poker. Does he or doesn't he have it? It's the way you make (or lose) alot of money.

I haven't just been waiting for great cards to make moves. I've been waiting for situations. Position. Opportunity.