Moneymake:In poker "practice makes perfect" True?

[Vincent Lepore]

I've been playing poker for a few years now. Lot's of hours. I'm not a perfect poker player. Well, then again, I might be. I will concede that my assessment is a bit biased. Anyway, Chris Moneymakar in a Pokerstars Commercial makes the claim that "playing makes perfect". Now I realize he's trying to sell a pokersite to the public but his statement is an interesting discussion point. At least I think so. How many of you believe this statement (literally)? How many of you believe that by merely "playing -poker" (which is what Moneymaker is saying) one will become (or can become) a "perfect player"?

Vince

[Pog0]

Not even close.

Bad habits are easily practiced. This applies to any skill learned, but if you're self taught, good chance you're learning and reinforcing bad habits with "bad practice"

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Not even close.

Bad habits are easily practiced. This applies to any skill learned, but if you're self taught, good chance you're learning and reinforcing bad habits with "bad practice"

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Exactly. Practice in the absense of knowledge is useless. Knowledge in the absense of application is useless. Knowledge and practice = $$$.

You not only need books to understand your own game, but books help you understand the games of those who read books to understand themselves [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
So my answer is read even if you were a morphy or bobby fisher of the poker world and figure out alot of theory on your own, you would need to fully establish their theories first since it isn't based on perfect knowledge like chess is.

Bobby Fischer constantly read anything on the subject he could find. So should we.

[AaronBrown]

I'm with Pog0 and Aaron_C (no relation, as far as I know anyway). Good practice reinforces good skills, bad practice reinforces bad ones. I know lots of people who have played Poker for decades without getting any better.

You can tell a good player the first time he sits down at the table. If he's inexperienced, he's likely to lose, but he still plays differently than the experienced bad players. He gets better fast. Someday he might get rusty or lazy, or play when he's upset or tired or ill or drunk, or try an unfamiliar game; all these things will hurt him; but he still won't play the way bad players do.

In principle a bad player could get good by discipline, study and practice; but that's rare. Smart bad players quit the game. The rest can't imagine how to be less bad.

moneymaker should announce these stipulations; "perfect practice makes perfect", or "practice makes permanent"
simply playing a lot is not enough to make you improve if you are playing the wrong way. the pokerstars.net site for play money is breeding bad players who won't be ready for real money games. which is good i guess, so keep it up, moneymaker!

Wait a minute. I alwayas thought that this is his winning secret^ “Find a style that works for you. Mix it up and fo what you are comfortable with. You don’t need to bluff a lot if it makes you uncomfortable. Make sure you have a flexible game plan”. (took it from here- the last paragraph)
I don't agree with this "perfect-player" theory. Though, sometimes it works. But it happens when you play against good player. I think there is no use to play with fish. You will earn some money, but it's not the way to improve your playing skills.

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I think there is no use to play with fish. You will earn some money, but it's not the way to improve your playing skills.

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You can go on thinking that, but at every level the best players are the best, first and formost, at maximizing the money they take from fish (and this includes good players who are steaming or playing below their level).

On another note, while practice, alone, may not make bad players into good players, no one will ever be a good player with out a ton of practice, no matter how talented he or she is.

[AaronBrown]

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at every level the best players are the best, first and formost, at maximizing the money they take from fish (and this includes good players who are steaming or playing below their level).

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I don't agree with this, but it comes down to the definition of "best players" rather than a question of fact.

If you want to make a living playing Poker, then obviously it is essential to take lots of money from bad players, or good players playing badly. But the skills required for this, in my opinion, are not Poker skills. Would you say the best golfers are the ones who can make the most money betting with everyday players? The smartest people are the ones who make the most money betting on their IQ test results? The best moral philosopher is the one who makes the most money betting on moral questions?

I think the best Poker players are the ones who win consistently among good players. Some of them choose to earn their living playing Poker, in which case they must learn hustling skills as well as Poker ones. Others make their livings in other ways, and play Poker for side profit and fun. These people have no more interest in hustling bad players than they would in any other form of hustling.