Self-Taught Players

An unbelievable number of poker players think that they can perfect the game on their own. This is not even close to true. Very few people have the capacity to derive calculus, and few would try. Chess masters become grandmasters by studying what other grandmasters have already established.

Somehow, many people think they can understand poker on their own. Poker is different from the other two disciplines in that a poker player can frequently do the right thing without knowing why or how. Usually they only have three choices of action; even a monkey could make the right decision a certain number of times.

Many players are bright and can adapt quickly based upon their results if they analyze them. Poker theory is not magic. If a person is highly logical and thinks clearly and comprehensively, it is possible to become quite talented.

However, most of these people employ `trial and error' to learn the game and some are even able to hone in on a strategy that is somewhat close to correct due to their natural grasp of cards and their abilities to read people. Often, they are limited to specific games they understand.

The same trend frequently appears in video poker players or blackjack players who come close to a correct strategy relying on their natural sense of what is right or perhaps extrapolating from results.

Their rate of improvement will not nearly be as fast as someone who studies accurate textbooks. Believe me, the difference between a close strategy and an expert strategy is considerable. I have never met a video poker player or blackjack player who played near perfect without making use of the results discovered with computer simulations.

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