Lessons from poker

[GregH37]

That's basically why I've quit playing poker, it's hard to keep up with all the latest 'trends' in the game if you're not consistently playing.
The last time I seriously played poker was about 5 years ago and I'd gotten pretty good at playing tournaments.

I'd end up at the final table pretty frequently, because I was very much interested into researching and improving on strategies that other players used.
The thing is that you really have to keep your knowledge up-to-date, I'd spend several hours per day watching other people play and improve on my own strategy.

This just became too much of a hassle in the end and I didn't enjoy playing anymore.

I'm not into sports betting for the same reason, I know what a time-sink it would be...

Maybe all you need is to push harder rather than given up on it, if you have had good 5 years’ experience in the game, you can still make it if it’s something you have passion for except you no longer have passion for it again.  Like you said, knowledge needs to be upgrade and rather than quitting it you could still be acquiring more knowledge which might be useful to other games too.

Take for example, I almost gave up on forex trading some years ago but I kept pushing, little did I know that it will be very useful for me in crypto day trading which overtime made me become a guru in trading.

[fasdorcas]

Hey OP, this wonderful piece of advice got through your short article does not only fit in to poker game alone.
It is also applicable to other games too as I don’t play poker even though based on your write up, I might try it too.

I have learnt a lot through this short article and will apply it to other games I get myself involved with pending the time I learn to play poker game too and be a guru like you. Thanks once again man. By the way, any information on how to learn poker game online will be highly appreciated.

[onrise]

Not to be result oriented is the most difficult part.
For me,the 2 most important tips about playing poker are:
1.Be unpredictable.Don't follow a strategy.If you follow a pattern,other players will "read" your game.
2.Be patient as f*ck.The lack of patience will break your game.

Firstly play to enjoy the game and the time you spend in the casinos while playing poker. This will become your good memories irrespective of whatever the end result be. But if played just to make money and you end up losing will become bad memory which will disturb you a lot.

[Thanasis]

Not to be result oriented is the most difficult part.
For me,the 2 most important tips about playing poker are:
1.Be unpredictable.Don't follow a strategy.If you follow a pattern,other players will "read" your game.
2.Be patient as f*ck.The lack of patience will break your game.

Firstly play to enjoy the game and the time you spend in the casinos while playing poker. This will become your good memories irrespective of whatever the end result be. But if played just to make money and you end up losing will become bad memory which will disturb you a lot.

Playing poker is not like other games which will feel like you are losing to someone so it will make your ego grower which will initiate the greediness of winning against them at any cost.

[Caladonian]

Not to be result oriented is the most difficult part.
For me,the 2 most important tips about playing poker are:
1.Be unpredictable.Don't follow a strategy.If you follow a pattern,other players will "read" your game.
2.Be patient as f*ck.The lack of patience will break your game.

Firstly play to enjoy the game and the time you spend in the casinos while playing poker. This will become your good memories irrespective of whatever the end result be. But if played just to make money and you end up losing will become bad memory which will disturb you a lot.

Playing poker is not like other games which will feel like you are losing to someone so it will make your ego grower which will initiate the greediness of winning against them at any cost.

With that perceptions, your eagerness to win against your opponents will add spice to your enjoyment,  most of those experienced players/gamblers
loves being challenge, it's adding enjoyment each time they seen someone who wanted to win over them, strategies being made on an actual basis,
they have to keep changing paces in order not being caught.

You are playing both for ego and money, for sure you will try harder to win at any cause.

[Tytanowy Janusz]

Not to be result oriented is the most difficult part.
For me,the 2 most important tips about playing poker are:
1.Be unpredictable.Don't follow a strategy.If you follow a pattern,other players will "read" your game.
2.Be patient as f*ck.The lack of patience will break your game.

Since i agree with second one i can't agree with first rule. In poker strategy is the most important. Being unpredictable will push you to bet against statistics and sooner or later math will kill you before your opponent will realise what is your strategy.

[Ucy]

One thing I found interesting in op post is that poker like other similar gambling require alot talent and skills to be successful.  So this doesn't quallify as probability based gambling. It more like a game of football where the most prepared team wins and goes home with a trophy.

So should this really be called gambling?

[adzino]

One thing I found interesting in op post is that poker like other similar gambling require alot talent and skills to be successful.  So this doesn't quallify as probability based gambling. It more like a game of football where the most prepared team wins and goes home with a trophy.

So should this really be called gambling?

Yeah, poker is actually a skill based game, but luck does have a factor over here. Probability also plays a huge role in this case when the cards are being flipped. Its more like 50% skill and 50% luck, unlike other gambling games like dice which depends on 100% of luck with no skills being involved. This is one of the reason why I like playing poker since you have to apply skills so it kinda becomes fair for long players that have experience vs the new players.

[Oceat]

Not to be result oriented is the most difficult part.
For me,the 2 most important tips about playing poker are:
1.Be unpredictable.Don't follow a strategy.If you follow a pattern,other players will "read" your game.
2.Be patient as f*ck.The lack of patience will break your game.

Since i agree with second one i can't agree with first rule. In poker strategy is the most important. Being unpredictable will push you to bet against statistics and sooner or later math will kill you before your opponent will realise what is your strategy.

I think the first rule is where you use your skills this include the denial of strategy that you use since you assume that your opponent knows what you were doing that's why you have to use some skills and be unpredictable so that your opponent couldn't read your next move.

[pixie85]

A played some poker but full time so not as much as OP and I didn't play with a lot of money because I'm poor. There's a big difference if you play low stake tables because people tend to be more careless and all the newbies play there so I can honestly say that I didn't play "real" poker with people who know what they're doing and run statistics. There's no point in trying to read random people at a low stake table that will quit and an hour later you'll be playing someone else.

[carlfebz2]

A played some poker but full time so not as much as OP and I didn't play with a lot of money because I'm poor. There's a big difference if you play low stake tables because people tend to be more careless and all the newbies play there so I can honestly say that I didn't play "real" poker with people who know what they're doing and run statistics. There's no point in trying to read random people at a low stake table that will quit and an hour later you'll be playing someone else.

I cant really say that there no point in trying yet you would really need this thing to build up your experience plus skills.It is much better that you can
able to play with someone else every once in a while.Reading others is always been there and you will see different behaviors along the way and with that
you can able to point out which is bluff or real.

[btc78]

I'm not much of a poker player myself.  It is definitely a mental game that requires a lot of skill.  Whether that is staying calm, reading your opponents, or just making the right moves more often than not.

But if you continuously play poker then you’ll find to use strategy (ofcourse practice made perfect all the time)not like some games that purely needed is luck in poker we need skills and ability to add chances for winnings

A played some poker but full time so not as much as OP and I didn't play with a lot of money because I'm poor. There's a big difference if you play low stake tables because people tend to be more careless and all the newbies play there so I can honestly say that I didn't play "real" poker with people who know what they're doing and run statistics. There's no point in trying to read random people at a low stake table that will quit and an hour later you'll be playing someone else.

I guess OP is a rich son thats why he can afford playing daily even when he was young because he talked as if he lose lots of money from the time he played.
I myself use to be an addict in local gambling since i was young but I didn’t come to play constantly as how Op did

[richminded]

Not to be result oriented is the most difficult part.
For me,the 2 most important tips about playing poker are:
1.Be unpredictable.Don't follow a strategy.If you follow a pattern,other players will "read" your game.
2.Be patient as f*ck.The lack of patience will break your game.

Since i agree with second one i can't agree with first rule. In poker strategy is the most important. Being unpredictable will push you to bet against statistics and sooner or later math will kill you before your opponent will realise what is your strategy.

Strategies will work of poker so technically we really need to make strategies in order for us to win because for sure your enemy knows what to do just to beat you. Patience will also play a big role in poker if you have a good cards then you have to be patient and focus on your strategies just don’t mind people around you.

[posi]

I'm not much of a poker player myself.  It is definitely a mental game that requires a lot of skill.  Whether that is staying calm, reading your opponents, or just making the right moves more often than not.

But if you continuously play poker then you’ll find to use strategy (ofcourse practice made perfect all the time)not like some games that purely needed is luck in poker we need skills and ability to add chances for winnings

Simultaneously learning and playing of poker will make a player become master in the game but I can assure that every aspect of gambling or investment have to do with luck because the synonyms of luck mean success. Aside that, players skills alone is not enough to provide a rewarding result and this is why some people gambling a chance of making money.

[JohnBitCo]

During the online poker boom of the mid-2000s, I played full-time for a few years.

I'd be hesitant to describe myself as a "pro"; I was young and not playing particularly high stakes. But I was churning out hands (playing 24 tables at once) and making an hourly well ahead of what anyone would pay me at the time.

Anyway, I haven't played poker (online) for many years now, but a lot of the lessons I learned during those years have served me well when sports betting. Here are three of them:

Don't be results orientated

Poker is very much a game of ups and downs. It is common for good moves to backfire and bad moves to pay off. Accordingly, it was extremely important to separate your actions from results. For instance, if I managed to get an opponent to bet all their chips against me with a worse hand, only for them to hit one of the only two cards in the deck they needed to beat me, I needed to keep my head up and acknowledge I'd done the right thing, despite losing.

But equally, if the roles were reversed, I couldn't celebrate knowing I'd made a bad play.

When it comes to sports betting, it is much the same. If I call a tight game between strong defences, bet on a 0-0 draw, and then watch a tight game finish 1-0 due to a freak goal out of nowhere, I know to tell myself that if I keep doing what I'm doing, I'll come out top in the long-run.

Information is power... but only if your opponent doesn't have it too

People who play poker a lot tend to run programs which provide thousands of statistics on their opponents. This is fine, and the information is great for informing decisions. But it becomes worthless if the other players has the same information, and knows I have this information. If the stats show a crazily aggressive opponent, but that opponent knows I have this information, they can easily adapt their game to fool me.

With sports betting, it is easy to get carried away with information. "Messi is injured so it makes sense to bet against Barcelona". Well, no, because obviously the bookmaker knows this too, and has already adapted their odds accordingly.


There's no system, only constant improvement

I eventually fell out of love with poker and stopped studying the game. My results quickly went downhill. It is the same with sports betting. Finding an edge is hard, but possible. The thing is even if you find one, don't bank on keeping it very long. For a couple of years, I had a lot of success betting on football from very obscure leagues. I had an algorithm which was great at spotting games where bookmakers had not priced up correctly. But very quickly this edge vanished, as the bookmakers improved their own pricing strategies.

Would love to hear from anyone else who played poker seriously online and now bets on sports...

These are some  golden behaviors rather then techniques. Although they not grantee that you will win but our overall experience of poker and gambling will be better if we follow them.

[udidrone]

I'm not much of a poker player myself.  It is definitely a mental game that requires a lot of skill.  Whether that is staying calm, reading your opponents, or just making the right moves more often than not.

But if you continuously play poker then you’ll find to use strategy (ofcourse practice made perfect all the time)not like some games that purely needed is luck in poker we need skills and ability to add chances for winnings

Simultaneously learning and playing of poker will make a player become master in the game but I can assure that every aspect of gambling or investment have to do with luck because the synonyms of luck mean success. Aside that, players skills alone is not enough to provide a rewarding result and this is why some people gambling a chance of making money.

I think is everything that play simultaneously, can make us better and better in that aspect. In poker it is really useful because like what you said, beside luck from a card skill from that player itself really affect on it.