There are many different styles in Texas Holdem poker and this can form a problem for players who are looking to learn the game. Also there are many people writing about poker who are not completely down the evolutionary road with regards their own education. This presents another problem because you often read information that is not completely accurate. Unfortunately this cannot be avoided as there are no laws or guidelines that dictate who can write about poker. There are no formal rules and so you do not need to be a strong player to be able to write about poker.
However even reading advice from strong players is no guarantee that it will work for you because styles that suit one person may be totally unsuitable for someone else. Therefore in this article then I am not going to suggest an “optimal” style for playing poker but what I believe is an “ideal” style for many players who are new to the game. Actually even very experienced players would do well to follow what I am about to say here. This is because having more experience can be double edged as it can lead to over confidence.
Becoming a successful poker player is not a simple process, if it were then all that a person would need to do would be to get a good coach and then learn from them and simply copy what they do. Being a successful poker player often requires a long learning curve and there is in my opinion a mean average amount of time that a player achieves true expertise. I believe that this is a lot longer than many people realise and many successful players of today are not true experts in my opinion. This is never more highlighted by previously successful players who I have personally been aware of now being forced out of the game.
In my opinion there is too much complexity in the game and when things become complex then the correct way forward is no longer clear. There is a huge misconception that for something to work in a field that is highly complex then the system has to be complex as well. This isn’t the case and it has proven to be so in other areas like financial trading for example. There have been traders who have made millions through simple but fiendishly successful systems.
So I believe in simplicity these days because the simpler the system then the less chance there is of it breaking down under pressure. But when I say that a system is simple then in no way do I mean that you could pass this on in a few easy steps. If I had to teach my system to someone new then in no way could I teach it in a short time frame despite me still calling it “simple”. I think that a better word or phrase to explain what I am talking about here is “uncomplicated”.