Evolution
Poker has become immensely popular over these last few years, and as a result, the competition has also become immeasurably tougher. As with anything that is at first a novelty, when things were first starting out, you had people who were inherently good and “got it,” and those people succeeded. And you have a very large gap between the top and bottom.
But now that the steam has put the engine into full throttle, the “game just isn’t the same, it’s changing.” Along came this think called the internet, and with it came the dissemination of information in an instant. And people started learning, fast. Take some of the lesser players in today’s game and put them against some of the better ones just 20 years ago, and you’d see that even today’s novices may be able to give those in the upper tiers a challenge.
In the days long past, one could make a decent living playing like a rock. Just bet your big hands, and fold, fold, fold. If you play like that today, you’re going to lose more in blinds than you’re going to make when you finally make a move at a pot with your monster.
No, the game is constantly evolving now, and as the weeks and months go by, the strategy keeps changing. Instead of one consistent winning strategy, the game now is a continual game of rock, paper, scissors. One strategy starts to win, then someone finds a way to counter that strategy, so the strategy changes, and and a new strategy emerges, ad infinitum.
That’s not to say that there isn’t a certain skill set that is universally successful, because there is one of those. Skills of mathematical probability and computation will always help a poker online player. Observation skills, and rating your starting hands will always be a crucial part of the game. And learning from mistakes will perhaps be the most vital part of anyone’s game. But those alone are not enough to make you a consistent winner in the world of poker online today. Instead, the game has evolved to the point where it is played on a meta-level, where the basics are assumed, and the new order is to be innovative, and not only innovative, but correct when being creative.
That said, if you’re shooting for the stars, be ready to give it your all, because instead of poker being just a past time for the rogues, it has for many become a full time job and obsession. And in order to beat the game, it’s going to require the same amount of practice and dedication.
