The Top 5 Poker Myths of All Time

1.      Good players win a lot

The facts: Your edge in poker is extremely small, even for the best players, and this will show itself in your results. Most winning players win around 60% of the sessions they take part in, which means 40% of the time they are leaving a poker game with less money than they started with.

The reason players can prosper is because winning players not only win more than they lose -even though it’s a pretty small difference-but they are able to maximize their wins and minimize their losses. A winning style of play makes it easier to win big and harder to lose big.

2.      Live poker is boring

The facts: Anyone who makes this statement is likely not cut out for poker. Live poker is far from boring if you play it correctly. Every hand whether you’re involved or not contains a ton of information for you to digest; players who come from the online poker world often look at what is pertinent online, and ignore the added information that can be gained playing live -which I guess could make the game boring.

3.      Online/Live poker is easier to beat

The facts: Whichever side you are on in this debate you’re on the wrong side! Both online and live poker are beatable, it simply depends on which form of poker your skill-set is more applicable to. Players who are good at reading people and can recall hands from memory will likely thrive in live poker: Players who take a more mathematical approach to the game and are good at finding trends in data will do better online.

4.      I can’t win because there are too many bad players

The facts: This one always makes me laugh; seriously if you can’t beat bad players how are you going to beat good players? The only thing a slew of bad players will do to your game is add a bunch of variance to your results. But with that variance will come a ton of profit, and that’s the most important thing. Just remember, there are never enough bad players sitting at your table.

5.      You need to mix-up your play

The facts: Mixing up your play should only be done for a reason. Suddenly “changing gears” every few hours makes very little sense; if you are playing a perfect poker game, and your opponents haven’t adjusted, why would you switch? You should switch your play only when your table image starts to resemble your actual playing style; if your table image is a loose/aggressive player, but you are really tight/aggressive then just keep doing whatever you’re doing.

If, and when, your table image starts to resemble your style of play that is when your opponents will make very few mistakes against you, and this is why you would want to then go ahead and mix-up your play.