How to Best Learn Poker
- Filed under: Poker
- Date: May 16,2010
Who would eventually become a better poker player in the long run? A beginner who carefully follows the styles of amateur poker player or someone who made himself familiar with established techniques but simply studies and plays on his own? Does the former play more carefully, learn more, enjoy more and eventually win more poker games than the latter?
Not necessarily, especially if you consider that most professionals (not even necessarily great players) routinely pray on unimaginative poker regulars. Trying to actually learn the various imaginative possibilities of the game and develop a more or less personal style does not necessarily involve taking unnecessary risks. It does mean trying new things, despite the commandments of the Poker Beginner’s Bible, and it means constantly improving despite occasional flops a more banal player might never have allowed.
The bottom line is that it is not so much safer to player by rote as it is simpler, and the only reason to stick to the clichs is that you do not wish to engage yourself creatively with a demanding game.
Many countries consider poker as a sport. Poker is very much like chess that is more akin to being an art form rather than a physical sport. Poker games are shown often on major television channels. The internet also contains a limitless hoard of materials about poker. Marketing efforts seem to receive more positive response from poker players who sometimes depart from the real essence of the game.
In the end, most newcomers do not realize that they follow a more or less identical path, like a school of fish upon which loner sharks conveniently feed every time they pass. They do not dare to deviate from a specific list of dos and don’ts and in the end, 99% percent of players never accomplish anything and ascribe their failure to mystical capitalized causes such as Fate and absence of Talent.
How one learns an established pattern and sticks with it his entire life is worth noting. It is interesting because the people who made those models never really considered other persons’ unique talents, styles and needs. By strictly following an established practice, you will get little or no pleasure from a game where you may lose a lot of money in a very short time. Many of the beginners never learn when to drop out and their actions become automatic and they stay in the game far too long, which will ultimately cause their demise.
The real secret to becoming great in poker is this: great players are constantly developing their game. Many don’t figure this out because mainstream media is telling you to develop a blind attitude towards playing poker. They are telling you to develop an attitude of apathy. The general rules don’t encourage people to become creative and to deviate from mainstream thinking. To truely be great, you may need to take the path less traveled.
The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives PKR Poker Rakeback as well as Rakeback at Fortune Poker.
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