Poker has been around for centuries and people love playing it now as much as they did when it first appeared. It’s one of the casino games that you see most in pop culture, like films and TV shows and it’s always shown as being one of the more serious games you can play.
With all of this mystery and intrigue, it’s no wonder there have been a few myths attached to the game. Anything that has been around for as long as poker has is going to have a few bits of false information following it around. Our job is to tell you the fact from the fiction so that you know all the myths to ignore when you’re playing poker.
Poker myths debunked
It’s more difficult to win online
Lots of people nowadays like to play poker online. It’s so much easier for people who are constantly on the go as it’s a lot more convenient. But with online poker on the rise, so are the rumours.
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One of these rumours is that online poker makes it more difficult to win. In reality, this is not the case as the rules and chances are all the same as if you were playing at a land-based casino. It’s just as random as if you were playing in person.
We’re not sure where this rumour came from, but we’re sure it’s not true. You’ve got just as much chance of winning as you would at a casino where you’re playing in person.
Poker is all about luck
Most casino games are based on luck and there is very little skill involved. This is particularly true in slot games or roulette where the machine is in charge. The outcomes are uncertain, but they’re not solely based on luck.
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The luck comes in what hand you’ve been dealt, that’s the part you can’t control. It can take a while to get to grips with the differing poker hands, but once you do, you’ll understand where the skill comes into play. There are people who are much better poker players than others – this in itself shows that it’s not solely based on luck.
You can play a good hand and a bad hand well – it just depends on you as a player. Of course, you’re not always going to win with a bad hand. But you can still make it work to your advantage. The skill is also in knowing when it’s time to give up and fold!
It’s easier to win when the stakes are high
This theory says that it’s easier to beat the higher stakes than the lower stakes because people are less likely to make silly decisions when the stakes are high. But anyone who has played poker will know that this is not true at all!
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There could be something in thinking that people are less likely to risk a bad hand at higher stakes, but again, people don’t always make sensible decisions. Of course, you want to win more when the stakes are higher, but that doesn’t do anything to your hand or skill set.
People think that better players will fold easier when the stakes are high, but again, this is not always the case. Players will make a bad decision no matter how high the stakes are – the trick is to make sure that player isn’t you.
Taking your time to learn the game well at the lower stake end will mean you’re more likely to do the same when the stakes are high. Slow and steady wins the race is a good motto to have when playing poker.
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You know a player’s hand by their tell
People love to think that it’s easy to guess exactly what a player has in their hand by their tell. While tells are an important part of poker and can be very useful, you can’t actually tell exactly what someone has in their hands just from this.
You can know that perhaps someone is lying about what they have in their hand, but you don’t know the extent. You can use a tell in combination with other physical elements such as how they tend to bet and how often they raise the stakes. But none of this information tells you exact information.
You would also need to know a person very well to understand what their tell is. You’d need to have played multiple games with them just to be in with a chance of knowing what it is. This is also made more difficult by playing poker online instead of in person.
Another issue is that a good poker player will know how to keep their tell at bay, so you’d never find out what it is regardless. The best thing to do is to watch other players for their body language, but to put it together with the other information you have in front of you.
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What other poker myths have you found out not to be true?
