What is poker all about?

[aznman08]

I think Kenny Rogers summed it up pretty well:

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when youre sittin at the table.
Therell be time enough for countin when the dealins done.

 

[c9h13no3]

Someone else tried to convince me Poker is all about protecting your blind and stealing other peoples blinds.

He was half right. How many hands would you play if there were no blinds?

 

[StormRaven]

Hard Work

Poker is about hard work. Constantly watching, observing, manipulating, thinking, strategy, patience, perservereance, etc;

IMO, dj is has a short and sweet correct answer.

It takes hard work to become successful at poker. Stealing blinds is a good tactic, it's not everything.

Making good reads, the tough folds, the tough calls, the right bets in the right places against the right opp. Inducing more mistakes from your opps than you do yourself. Luck is only short term, the hard work and right decisions will bring long term profits.

 

[WVHillbilly]

Poker is about hard work. Constantly watching, observing, manipulating, thinking, strategy, patience, perservereance, etc;

IMO, dj is has a short and sweet correct answer.

It takes hard work to become successful at poker. Stealing blinds is a good tactic, it's not everything.

Making good reads, the tough folds, the tough calls, the right bets in the right places against the right opp. Inducing more mistakes from your opps than you do yourself. Luck is only short term, the hard work and right decisions will bring long term profits.

Fundamental Theorem of Poker stuff right there. That's what it's all about.

 

[dwolfg]

Poker is about making correct decisions and making your opponents make incorrect decisions.

 

[spranger]

$.

 

[Wes747]

If you're late in a tournament, poker is ALL about stealing blinds. Once the blinds get huge it seems like you can go 10-15 hands without even seeing a flop, sometimes more. But if you're playing cash games or something...defending your blind can be a wrong decision. If you call pre-flop from the blinds you're going to end up playing your whole hand out of position.

Oh and in cash games I would say it is not very profitable to just try to win the blinds. And by not very profitable I mean you will lose money if thats all you try to do is blind-steal....

 

[Syfted]

Poker, like life, is about making those choices which maximize your expected value.

 

[lektrikguy]

Poker is a mental chess game. You can't always have the best hand, the best luck, or even better skills than everyone at the table. You have to put fear aside and shove your chips in sometimes. But mostly I think it's about learning not to pull your hair out after a bad beat.

 

[Stu_Ungar]

Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponents' cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose. Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose.

I think this sums it up.

When I first read that I just couldn't get my head around it. I couldn't understannd what Sklansky was saying. Of course I would win if I could see my opponents cards!!!

The skill of poker is not telepathy, its correctly narrowing your opponents range and getting it right more times than its wrong, and then making decisions based of that infomation.

Experts get it wrong all of the time.. but they get it right more often than most... that is the skill.