Did you learn to play Poker watching Poker tournaments on TV?

Mike Caro the esteemed poker pro and one of the best known poker authors wrote an awesome article about people who learn poker watching tv.

He points out that the television shows take an hour or even a few hours of a tournament that lasted several days. The television producers have simply pulled up the most interesting hands and edited them together. This means that they may edit out dozens of hands between the hands that air on tv. For example you may have missed the player folding weak hands or even folding large hands because he felt he was beaten. The hands that air on tv are typically hands where people go all in, or where people suck out because they are the most interesting hands to watch.

The problem becomes that this show isn’t a good lesson on “How to play poker”. Instead it is a show on what makes for interesting poker.

What really happens is that professional players vary their play. They may play it tight 80% of the time, but 20% of the time they have to play loose to put their opponents off. By varying their play they can fool their opponents and sometimes get a few extra bets out of them when they have the nuts, or get them to fold when they have nothing but rags.

Poker on TV is often only showing you that 20% where the player is playing loose. New players often see professionals playing weak hands. They don’t see the hundreds of times a player has to fold over the course of a day. Instead they show things like Doyle Brunson winning with the hammer (7,2) . After watching this they think this hand is cool or fun to play when in fact it is the WEAKEST hand in all of Texas Hold Em.

Check out Mike Caro’s article. It is worth a read.

- Fittsy

Mike Caro is a professional player. He has earned the nickname the “Mad Genius of Poker”. He has written 8 books on poker and is considered to be the worlds foremost authority of poker strategy. Mike has joined Doyle Brunson to create Doyle’s Room. Doyle’s is a cool new poker room which has regular “knockout” tournaments where you can play against Doyle Brunson, Ted Brunson (Doyle’s son and 2005 WSOP champion), and Mike Caro.

Posted by in Learn Poker, How to Play Poker, Tips from Poker Pros