I just finished watching a poker seminar video by Mike Caro University. Very good stuff! I think I’m going to start visiting his site for some good reading material.

During the seminar he gave a lot of good advice. Most of which I’ve never thought about, but made complete sense after hearing it. Following is one of the greatest pieces of information that a poker player needs to understand and learn:

You’re not getting paid to win pots; you’re getting paid to make good decisions.

Mike Caro

What a simple concept, but such a hard one for most people to grasp. In poker, you don’t make money by winning a lot of pots. If you win a lot of plots, it usually means that you are playing a lot of hands. When you play a lot of hands, there are a lot of pots that you do not win. Over time, you will lose money playing like this.

You get paid off (make money) in poker by making good decisions. These good decisions will win pots and over a period of time, you will make money. Making good decisions can be the hardest part of poker, because our natural instincts attempt to take over when we think we might be able to win, but the odds for us are bad. You really need to train the way you think while playing poker, because if your mind isn’t focused, you’ll make bad decisions, which ends up costing you money.