The great poker myth Part 1: Why we do it

There is a really big secret perpetuated by professional poker players, and we (As a former professional poker pro I’ll count myself amongst this group since I’ve profited handily from the myth in the past) are thankful that virtually every aspiring poker player falls for it; some for the remainder of their lives.

So what is this big myth? It’s really simple actually: I can make you think you are good at poker!

But what I’m really dong is making you an exploitable poker player. And this is precisely what most poker books and education tools will do as well.

That’s the rub that has made many pro poker players fistfuls of money over the years. With the ‘right’ kind of poker education people actually believe they understand what the game is all about, unfortunately they don’t realize it’s like reading the Cliff’s Notes instead of the actual book.

Now this advice can get you by in the lower stakes games, but once you start encountering “real” poker players, you’re going to be in a world of hurt unless you keep improving, and start thinking about the game in new ways.

How does this happen? It’s quite simple actually; since you go into poker as a fully developed adult (sometimes as a know-it-all teenager) and know absolutely nothing about the game, even the slightest inkling of strategic thinking changes your perception of the game dramatically. Unfortunately (there is that word again, and trust me it won’t be the last time you see it in this article) a slight understanding of the principles and concepts of the game often put you at an even bigger disadvantage when playing against a really good player.

Because you go into your poker education knowing absolutely nothing about the game, it’s incredibly easy to trick you into thinking tight/aggressive, position, and some basic understanding of pot odds, is all you need, or to hand you a starting hand chart of what you should and shouldn’t be playing based on the situation. The reality is that this makes you even more exploitable than the average know-nothing!

Over the years I’ve doled out incredible amounts of advice to all sorts of players,(and most of the time I’ve also been the recipient of unsolicited advice from others), and every time I have one of these conversations I make a mental note of exactly what I have told them (or they have told me), and what their reaction to said advice was. By doing this I know precisely how these players think and what their knowledge base is.

For instance, if I’m sitting next to a typical tight/solid Omaha 8 player I might say something along the lines of how I like 23xx hands more than A3xx hands because so many people play Axxx hands that they get counterfeited but make top pair and let go of their hand (which is a lie) just to gauge their reaction. If they come back with the A3 having far more high potential I know they have a good knowledge of the basics of the game (or they may look at me like I’m crazy), if they agree, or start rambling on about some defunct or debunked strategy I know their knowledge is cursory at best and they are easily influenced.

Conversely, if a player is prone to playing hands like 2456 for raises asks what I think of the play, I might go one of two ways with my advice. One route I may take is to say it’s a good play (which I would do if the player is really sticky after the flop, continuing on 3^rd nut low and little high potential), the other route is to explain why it’s a bad idea (if they play fairly good after the flop) so I know this player will not be showing up in a raised pot with less than A2+a little extra.

Basically, by giving you SOME education (like virtually every mass-market poker book does), I am basically giving you the rope that you will hang by. In Part 2 of this series I’ll explain what it takes to get beyond this exploitable point in poker, and how to build upon what you have learned from those poker books.