Good Poker or Bad Poker? - Published: 6/15/2007
Which one is more fun? I suppose I should't even have asked that question in the first place.
While obviously most people play poker for money, it is a commonly accepted fact (at least among those who know a thing or two about the game) that winning poker is anything but fun. It's more like a daily grind of putting in as many hours as possible to maximize the benefits. It's anything but glamorous. What it basically comes down to, is finding a few small edges ( like playing solidly from and for the blinds, signing up for a rakeback deal) which one can repeatedly apply, and a few other small edges that come with the dynamics of the game ( spotting certain mistakes opponents make, and capitalizing on them, making correct reads and so on).Other than that, a winning poker player makes positive EV plays all the time and only commits on mathematically appealing situations. Keeping this pace up, and not letting it become a routine is the main challenge here.
The problem is, that poker is a game, so by definition it should be fun. Many of us look for that fun aspect all the time and we try to make the game more interesting for ourselves. In the process however, we fail at remaining consistent at the winning game we know how to play. This is why a poker bot can gain an edge on a human player. It has no emotions and it's not searching for an adrenaline rush. It will stay focused at all times and it will never get bored. Otherwise, most of the current-generation poker bots can be edged by reasonably skilled human opponents. On the level of staying focused though and remaining consistent in the dull but effective strategy they follow, poker bots are and will always be well ahead of humans.
If you spend some time reading poker articles on the internet, you probably already saw articles in which the expert writer asks the question: what do you play poker for? Each and every one of us needs to clear this aspect of the game out for him/herself. That's because if you play for the money, you have to accept there won't be a whole lot of fun in it. Sure it's probably still more fun than doing quality-control for PCBs in an electronics factory, but it's nowhere near being exciting.
On the other hand, if you say you're playing the game for the fun, for the excitement, and for the occasional adrenaline rush it provides, then you're most probably not a winning player. This is where the dilemma most rookies are faced with surfaces: these guys believe they're entering a world of online gambling full of heroes and villains, spectacular lucky streaks and quite possibly no bad luck at all. These guys feel the need to have fun while playing, as they don't yet know that in poker you cannot marry fun to effectiveness. It takes a while for these players to understand that winning poker is not supposed to be fun, or at least it's not supposed to be that, while at the table. The fun part usually comes when one gets to enjoy the fruits of the hard work he's put in at the table and starts spending the cash earned in poker.
Television has had a huge role in conveying this "thrill ride" image of poker, most rookies have in their minds when they hit the tables for the first time. Because of the fabulous sums in play, and because of the sometimes seemingly extravagant moves players make, that is what they become obsessed with. This false image, paired with the unbelievably poor play online poker has at lower limits, makes it quite impossible for someone not investing enough time and energy into poker to ever learn to play the game properly.