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"

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.

[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.

[ QUOTE ]
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"

[/ QUOTE ]

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

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

[TaintedRogue]

My wife wanted to learn, so she downloaded the free site. She got frustrated and asked for help, so I did. She didn't lose as fast and became more interested. I gave her Lee Jone's book, she read it, learned a little, didn't ask for help on the parts she didn't understand and did better. Was happy for awhile. But only awhile.

So, I staked her in the .05/.10 game for $3.00 and she proceeded to lose it in 2 hrs. So I played the same game, and, when I doubled my money, she was hell bent on being able to do the same thing.

She read/studied, asked questions, practiced......I'm about ready to take her to Atlantic City and stake her in the 3/6. Not yet, however, give her a few thousand more hands on Pokerstars.net........All her hands are now being downloaed into Pokertracker where she can she in print, her leaks.

I have promised to stake her in a 3/6, once she gets my money back ($8.45) that she has lost so far in the .05/.10..
She has won almost 1/2 of it back. She's treading water.

A husband can't drill a wife with knowledge, you have to wait for her to come ask [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

I will add further that i didn't have the proper tools to learn poker profitably until i had read books. This is obviously not the case: brunson [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]