Time to re-assess (part 1)

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but I’m only doing this because I love you. You are not good at poker. You have a ton of huge leaks in your game. You occasionally make good plays and you know some basic strategy, but your thought process is bad and causes you to make a lot of mistakes. A great player would absolutely destroy you in the long run.

Are you still reading? Good. Maybe there’s hope for you. The fact of the matter is, the above paragraph is true for about 95% of the people reading this article. Probably around 75% of readers are saying to themselves, “Well, that’s not me.” (So, if you said that, you’re still favoured to be bad.)

That’s your biggest leak: your ego.

Don’t worry, though. I’m here to help. Let’s get started.
As is the case with many self-improvement programs, the first step is admitting you have a problem.
Why do you think there’s so much money to be made in poker? It’s because of people like you who think they’re good. They don’t bother to improve themselves or to be careful about the games they play in.

Think about it. When a 300/600NL game is going on between two very good players, one of them is favoured to win in the long run, and the other is favoured to lose. Now people don’t get to playing 300/600NL without a lot of money, experience, talent, and intelligence (besides the occasional rich, untalented gambler). That means that many of the smartest, most talented poker players in the world overestimate their ability. And it happens all the time.

Read Part 2...

© Phil Galfond. Originally published in Bluff Magazine (US edition)

Phil Galfond is one of the world's most successful poker players - you can use your PKR Points to subscribe to his hugely popular poker training site, Bluefire poker.