The Concept of learning poker part six

But I have already stated how the phrase “evolution not revolution” is my all time favourite poker saying. Well my second all time favourite poker saying is in relation to deciding what level to play at and that is that you should play at a level that “motivates not intimidates”.

These little gems of wisdom really hit the nail on the head and they really strike a chord with me. Let us take a look at that statement for a minute because when we dig beneath the surface of those three words, it reveals the truth about selecting the appropriate level for an awful lot of players.

If the level of play is not motivating you to play well and the money is meaningless then you will slowly bleed money and under no circumstances will you be a winning player. You could take a player like Phil Hellmuth who is one of the greatest no limit hold’em players on the planet and he could easily be a fish in a $2-$4 limit game.

Many people would totally fail to comprehend that and would find it difficult to understand how a player who is successful when playing for hundreds of thousands of dollars could fare so poorly when playing for low stakes. By the way Phil, I am not saying that you couldn’t beat a $2-$4 game so please don’t come looking for me.

But you get the idea of what I am trying to say. All of the material that is presented inside this series means an awful lot to me simply because they are either mistakes that I have made in the past or lessons that I have learned or sessions that I have played. I want you to not only see poker for what it really is but to hopefully learn from the countless mistakes that I have made down the years.

If the writing of this series can save just a small number of people from personal and financial heartache then I will retire a very happy man safe in the knowledge that my efforts have served to help others.

But I am going to round this chapter off by repeating once again that the process of mastering poker is a long and painful one. A problem made all the worse by too many people who don’t really fully understand what they are talking about rehashing old material that was either wrong in the first place or is now out of date.

Another example is the “big stack” myth. There has long been a supposed golden rule in poker that two big stacks should not go head to head against each other and that they should concentrate on the smaller stacks who do not have the chip strength to bust them.

This rule applies more to tournament poker than cash games but my point is to underline how even long standing supposed poker wisdom can be wrong.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Author – “Winning Cash Game Poker”