There is an old adage that “knowledge is power” and I for one am not going to argue with that. However that adage is in total conflict with another famous quote that says that “a little knowledge can be a very dangerous thing”. So which is it to be? Clearly we need knowledge in order to evolve as poker players but it is also clear that this “knowledge” needs to be appropriate to our needs and properly managed. The reason why I am writing this article is because this is a subject that is very dear to me simply because I went the wrong way about getting my poker education in the past.
Simply buying books in a totally haphazard way and trying to crack it by mass reading can work but it is far more likely to lead to stunted growth as a poker player. This process leads to you acquiring a lot of knowledge but only a tiny amount of that knowledge is going to be relevant to us earning money properly. Imagine the chaos that would result if someone were left to their own devices when it came to studying to become a doctor!
However this is what millions of people do all over the world when it comes to studying poker……they attempt to go it alone. They have no idea of what to study…..by who and for how long. Some of the more determined finally get to where they are trying to be by brute force…….this was my method. The more supposed knowledge that you acquire then the more information that you have at your disposal the next time that you play poker. So any intelligent person with imagination now has the tools to get themselves into an awful lot of trouble.
There is a famous quote in poker called “fancy play syndrome”. This is a “condition” suffered by players who have advanced to the intermediate level who have spent some considerable time studying the game. In their imaginations then they really “know” the game. However the game that they “know” is in fact a warped representation of reality and will undoubtedly cost them money along the way. Certain concepts may be misunderstood or misapplied and losses result from this. So players with enough money and who possess some poker knowledge and who have some bravado to play higher stakes have the capacity to do serious financial harm to themselves.
Carl Sampson is an online poker player and ambassador for 888poker
