The biggest mistake smart players make
Dara O'Kearney thinks a lot of intelligent poker players can't get out of their own way when it comes to study in poker.
One of the biggest leaks I see in intelligent poker players is perfectionism. There are a lot of smart people who could make a good living at the game if they were just able to get out of their own way.
This is especially true in the solver era, where we finally have answers to how to play a poker hand. The certainty that comes with having an optimal solution in a solver has led to a greater deal of uncertainty for a lot of poker players whenever they play.
Often I will get questions and hand histories from students or book readers where they beat themselves up for taking a non-GTO line. Often their line is close, or maybe even better from an exploitative perspective, but they still cannot reconcile this.
I am reminded of this aphorism, often attributed to Voltaire, which can be applied to solver use - Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Get out of your own way
That means, don't focus on replicating and memorising the perfect solutions (both impossible), instead just try and extract some good general principles from the solvers.
Fedor Holz said the same thing to us on an episode of The Chip Race. We asked him why he and his group of German crushers did so well in the modern game, which he answered “we didn’t have perfect answers for any spot but we had a good answer for every spot”.
One of the things low stakes players are surprised about when they watch High Roller MTTs is how few above-the-rim plays there are. There are few huge hero calls, hero falls, or crazy bluffs, just good solid poker.
In tournament poker in particular this is the case. Bad regs think MTTs are like horse racing when it is like showjumping. MTTs reward the players who make the fewest mistakes, not the best plays.
I started with a very old quote, I'll end with one. Napoleon's definition of Military Genius translates well in the modern solver era. He defined it as "the man who can do the average thing when all those around him are going crazy".
Does this sound like you? Let us know in the comments:
