No matter what type of poker you play, free poker or high stakes buy in online or offline you’re no doubt aware of the crowd of people who want to tell you what to play and how to play it.
Some of them have won lots of money and high profile tournaments so they are coming at you from a perceived position of great authority. However…
Unless you’re totally hopeless and just don’t get poker at all the fact is that nearly all players play just about the same way. Some may call with hands slightly better than another or chase slightly better draws to the river but they are playing the same buy in or poker tournaments you are just with slightly less or more risk.
Much of the pro TV talk is just that. Talk to make them feel like the stars the online poker industry tells them they are when in fact the best in the world may win 1 in 100 times.
No one person’s game is ever 100% correct and it never really matters how you play either. Pro’s or “Pro donks” as I call them try to tell you that you need to play wild and crazy because one first place can be millions of dollars where as just making the money, say 50k, you would have to win 20 times to make the same amount. This is true but many of the people saying this have never won a WSOP main event or even have a WSOP bracelet!
Personally I think pro’s just say a lot of this stuff on TV in hopes that the people watching will mimic what they say.
Here’s are my top 4 free poker games tips pro’s will tell you that is very wrong and misleading. If you doubt this try them out in free poker tournaments and see where you end up!
Picking up “tells” on players and acting accordingly.
The tell you pick up may not be right or the player you think you have a tell on was giving away the tell to use it later as an advantage. Good poker players can switch style’s as easy as they switch persona’s. The read you had 15 mins ago may no longer be applicable. People will say “oh watch this pro he makes the best reads” what they don’t notice is the 20 times before that hand that he/she was wrong.
Go for 1st or go home!
There is nothing wrong with just trying to make the money. In most pro poker games you’ll be making $25k+ and who is to say you won’t win after that? Think of all those tennis and golf pros who never win a major event but always place. They make a very nice living thank you very much! Many times I have been the low stack when it gets to the money and go on a wild run to go on and become final table. Having a ton of chips is nice to play with yes, but not really needed.
Mix your poker play style up a lot to confuse opponents.
This is a very common tip and one that I’ve said many a time too! It is true but again misleading. If no one has seen any of your hands all they can do is guess. A player may look super tight only calling once in a blue moon. This could mean he is super tight or It could mean that he/she has been getting absolute junk for the last 40 mins. Also a player seems to be wild and crazy may actually be getting/hitting hands. Until they have actually seen your cards you are safe.
Bet/call 3x plus or don’t bother playing.
Good advice but again misleading. I’ll see a poker pro tell players this on TV and the very next hand they limp in the pot for the min with 6 8 suited. It’s a good play if you have a monster hand and want to lower the playing field but there is nothing wrong with just calling regardless of what you have. You can flat call with junk to get priced in to see a flop or you can flat call with AA so as to throw everyone off as to what you have.
I hope this has been illuminating! These free poker tips or “anti” tips are not, as I hope you can see all wrong or all misleading but simply “tips” not a one size fits all cure-all as the TV Pros would have you believe.
As with so many things they are only appropriate in a specific context when you fully understand how and when to apply such method or philosophy. My advice…not tip…is simple. Play a lot of free poker games and get good before you start to throw money about, then the pros tips may be more meaningful.