Poker Advice – Extract the true value

Poker advice comes in many forms. These days, you can get it from your friends, online poker forums, books, DVDs, television shows, and even your opponents. Anymore, with so many people playing the game, it’s become an incredibly abundant resource.

However, while it certainly has its merits, poker advice is often misused and misapplied by beginners.

Fact or Strategy? Understand the difference.

In general, there are two types of poker advice you’ll get from other players. The first type of advice you’ll receive on how to play poker is fact related. These are concepts such as your number of outs, starting hand win percentages, and your current pot odds. These are things that have no gray areas. Pocket aces will always be the best starting hand against any other. If your opponent has a pair with no draw, and you have a flush draw, you will always have 9 outs.

When you receive this type of advice, just remember that there are still many players who don’t even fully understand what they are telling you. It’s always best to do your homework before using it in your own game.

The second type of poker advice you’ll get is strategy related. This is advice such as “you should have folded your top pair in that situation”, or “I would have raised more pre-flop with that hand”. Since most poker players approach situations differently, you’ll get advice up and down the spectrum when it comes to strategy. Ask a room full of poker players about how to play a hand, and you’ll likely get a room full of answers.

Remember, when everybody’s an expert, nobody’s an expert.

Seemingly everyone today thinks that they have single-handedly figured out the optimal way to play poker. There’s no harm in taking advice about your game. If used properly, it can benefit you greatly. However, much like buying stock, you need to do your own homework first before blindly accepting someone’s advice.

How to get the most from poker advice

Poker advice is good for making you take a look at your own game. It’s also good for introducing you to concepts and strategies that you might not otherwise have been aware of. When someone points something out to you that they feel you’re doing wrong, or tells you how they would have played it differently, you’ve now gained insight into how other players view you. In addition, you’ve also gotten a look at how your opponents approach certain situations.

How to use it properly

The way to get maximum value from poker advice is to treat it like tool, not a silver bullet. When someone tells you how they think you should play, don’t try to determine whether they are correct or not. After all, poker situations often have many possible right answers, and no absolute right answers. Instead, try to understand the logic behind their suggestion.

I once posted this bit of advice on a poker forum (in regards to looking for a single answer to poker strategies), and it pretty much sums it up:

“You should never be looking for a single answer. Look for ideas and concepts, and really think about what types of situations they might work best in, and why they might work. Once you understand the logic behind the concepts, you can better apply them to the correct game situations... and most importantly, modify or ignore them where appropriate."

Used correctly, poker advice can be highly beneficial. Just remember that there’s no right or wrong way to play this game. Once you start getting the courage to make mistakes and learn from them, you’ll be well on your way to increasing your overall profit.