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Why Poker Education via Television is a Bad Way of Learning

There is no doubt to the popularity of poker in television today. All sorts of poker programs emerge: from a simple coverage of tournaments, to celebrities playing poker, up to a reality show involving poker players. The popularity has also incited an interest in people to play poker.

Having more people becoming interested in poker is a good thing. However, it also leads to a lot of bad players. The reason for this is that some of the new players only rely on television as their main source of poker education.

If you are drawn to poker by television shows, you might want to consider reading up on strategies before even attempting to play. Here are the reasons why:

1. Television networks often edit the games. They only present the juicy and entertaining parts. For example, they often show how a bad hand could beat the hell out of a good hand. This most often happens when a player who is all-in achieves an almost miraculous improvement on the river.

The truth is, there is only a miniscule chance of that thing happening. The better poker plays are often those that look boring. And indeed, the game of poker may be a boring spectator sport, since a good strategy will involve playing less hands (which means folding often), thus having less showdowns occur.

2. People are then misled into thinking that luck is a big factor in poker. But it actually isn't. Strategy is a key factor in poker. While sometimes people might get lucky improvements on the board cards, it only happens a few times in a hundred.

Poker does not have that slot-like excitement as shown on TV. Its excitement is more like that of chess, where a match-up of good strategies will definitely stir each player's blood.

3. Television shows often assign more value to a particular play than it has. For example, bluffing is often misrepresented as a simple aggressive play. Thus, new poker players raise and play aggressively like there's no tomorrow, thinking that they'll bluff their way to the pot.

In reality, a good poker player will only bluff if they see that the conditions are ripe: few hands, a large probability that the active hands will not improve, and that they have good position.

Remember: there is no such thing as a good poker education via watching television. It does help to watch, especially since you can become more familiar with the game. If you are interested in playing poker, read up on poker strategy guides, and try to practice them online. Once you do, you will be on the way to becoming a good, if not great, poker player.