Tuesday nights on ESPN now belong again to the WSOP, so I figure that in order to get the most out of watching the pros do what they do, I would give you readers a guide to extract the most from your viewing and learning experience.
The first thing you have to remember, when you’re watching to learn the game is that they edit heavily. If you watch carefully, you’ll see that nearly every poker hand has a large pile of chips in the middle and someone is either going home or getting severely disappointed. You have to remember that the majority of the hands that are played are not shown. And if you’ve ever played, you’ll notice the same thing. There can be long lulls in the action before you get to those crucial all-in moments.
Second, it’s a great way to learn about Pot Odds. If you watch the broadcasts you’ll see that a player’s percentage of winning the hand is shown along with their cards. If you want to try an exercise, you can see if you can correctly figure pot odds (the amount needed to call a bet) for a given player when you have the information in front of you. Say a player is 18% to win. He needs roughly 1:5 odds to call profitably. Watch and see if they players on TV are playing by correctly using Pot Odds.
Finally, there’s no need to be a walking advertisement in YOUR poker life. You see a lot of players at the WSOP who are wearing apparel from various sites and casinos. You have to remember that they’re getting paid to do this. No need for you to advertise freely unless you really just like the hideous outfits to wear. It’s not like this when you play online poker at a casino online.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.