There is something that I would like to say to you about poker and in particular studying poker. Poker is not just about playing some card game; if money was not involved and large amounts of money at that then many more people could be successful in poker and it would be all too easy to learn poker concepts.

But it takes an awful long time if you are studying the game on your own to eventually arrive at the truth. I went through long periods where I had no one to help me and no one to show me the way. Only when you fully start to realise just how complex and difficult poker is do you start to take on board how you need guidance.

It is really akin to studying for a degree but having no one to tell you what you need to learn and from what sources and who knew what they were talking about form those that don’t. Because I have an almost fetish like addiction to studying and analyzing all things gambling, my hard work and never say die attitude eventually paid off. I really do think that what did it for me was that I actually derided just as much pleasure from studying the game of poker as I did from playing but that kind of outlook is rare.

But studying poker on your own without guidance takes an awful long time and you are lucky if you even make it at all because it is unlikely that you will study the right things in the right order. Back in the beginning of my self imposed poker program, I had a very simplistic view of poker. In fact when I look back at the notes that I took ten years ago I find them laughable now.

But it is the way of all humans to look for more complex answers when sometimes the simple answer is staring you in the face. For many years I was over complicating the game and making it far more difficult to master than what it should have been. If you look at the mathematics that are inherent within the game then you could be forgiven for packing the entire thing in believing that it was too complicated.

I have poker books that are literally crammed with statistics and odds and probabilities…….99% of which are useless when it comes to making money.

I was once listening to two people talk about poker and they both readily agreed that mathematics was a vital part of the game and that this was really all there was to poker. There really is not that much mathematics in the game that ACTUALLY helps you to win money. The problem with studying poker is that it is difficult to avoid opinions and those opinions come from lots of different people.

Let us say that you are looking to get to a professional level and we can measure that process on a scale of 1 to 10 (keep with me here). You as a novice are at number 1 and a pro is at 9 or 10. Nearly everyone will have more knowledge than you but yet taking knowledge from people who are at 4 or 5 who are not properly understanding how to get to 9 or 10 could be a big mistake.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Come and see the bwin poker blog

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