The aim of poker

I was speaking to a few friends the other night and we were talking about the aim of poker.

I am from the school of thought that poker is about making the right decisions. Which if you do day in day out with strict BRM you will make money long term as a result.

But my friends say that they sit at the table and just try to make money. Sometimes making wrong decisions but as long as the pot goes to them they dont care.

What are your thoughts.

shorterm vs longterm views.

Sounds like your mates haven't studied proper game strategy for poker, and you

have. I guess from their point of view if they only play occasionally then just

focusing on winning "pots" and "$$" isn't so bad and I can understand where

they are comming from. However, I take your point of view, and agree it's all

about correct decisions ,and choosing the option that maximises your EV.

I guess the longer you want to play poker the more you must focus on your

sessions as a collective whole, and that in a nutshell is what you consider and

your mates don't.

well, your right. your friends will go broke sooner or later. and wonder why.
if they know they are making bad decisions but just want the money,
that is greeeed. your friends are gamblers and it doesn't matter what
game they play. always the same , broke at the end of the day.
of course your right decision dont always work out.
remember the cards can go cold and regardless of BRM you can still go broke.
the game is about attitude, the winning type.
at the end of my day i just wanted to know i had fun.

stuventus said:

I was speaking to a few friends the other night and we were talking about the aim of poker.

I am from the school of thought that poker is about making the right decisions. Which if you do day in day out with strict BRM you will make money long term as a result.

But my friends say that they sit at the table and just try to make money. Sometimes making wrong decisions but as long as the pot goes to them they dont care.

What are your thoughts.

Click to expand...

Ok well your friends are the large % of players I like to see and are the most common you will find. They will pay for their draws, pay for their sets, and they will pay off many of their 1 pair type hands.

They cannot be winning players long term because long term they will not get their money in as a % favorite in the hand. I always try, and often do, get my hand in as a large % favorite, at least 60-65%+.... thats all you can really do in poker.

If my friends told me that I'd try to play them as much as possible. The undeniable fact that you have on your side is that the MOST money comes from making the "right" decisions as much as possible. You should be playing with the somebody else's money LONG after your friends are looking for some more of their own to put down on the felt.

That's what most of us like so much about playing poker rather than something random like slots, roulette, or lottery. Being able to make the decision about how to proceed rather than just relying on luck is what keeps you going. There is still a luck element involved of course, which is why even if you could somehow make the right decision EVERY time, you still wouldn't always win.

My thoughts are that your friends are the people you want at your table.

you are shurely the right one here and you will take all your friends money if they give you the chance. Playing bad hands and winning just sets in bad habits and then they are lost to the donkey world

I heard too many people make money with poker. I think most of them lied. They only want to be good players. But actually they not.

Different people have different goals in poker. Sometimes, they don't fully understand what their goals are or what the relative priorities among those goals are. For example, some who want to be good work a lot harder to accomplish that than others.