Even if you were dealt pocket aces every hand, you would still lose some hands due to the concept of variance. Losing in the short term doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a bad player or that you played bad. A major part of a successful long term poker strategy is the ability to handle short term downswings.
If you’re going to play poker, you have to be willing to accept that sometimes it just won't be your day. It’s impossible to win every single hand or session that you play. In the short term, however, even the world’s best players experience losing streaks.
Whether you’re playing for fun at the smallest of stakes or dreaming of competing in the World Series of Poker, here are some things you should know about the game (we'll get to specific poker strategies shortly).Īgain, poker is a game of skill, and strong players with the best poker strategy will almost always win over a long period. If you want to win, it’s absolutely crucial to become intimately familiar with these concepts. Poker is entertaining and fun to play, but even if you want to just play for fun, it’s good to know the fundamental concepts and math of the game. Your long-term results will directly reflect the amount of work you put into your game. The good news is that hard work pays off in poker. If you want to be a winning player, the road to that goal is not easy. These players have gotten to where they are through years of hard work, spending countless hours playing the game, and studying poker strategy away from the table. Even the world’s best players with the most cutting-edge poker strategies go through losing stretches, but over the long term they consistently turn a profit. Poker is a game of the skill, but there is an element of luck that makes it impossible to win every time.