May 12, 2020 | Last update: None
Duplicated from the Poker1 Talk forum for inclusion in the Library. Forum topic: “So-called “New Poker” is a disgrace”
Let me start this forum by being more confrontational than usual.
Something has been bothering me for years and it’s what is often called “New Poker.”Why? Because it treats the science of poker as if it’s the fashion industry. According to its adherents, you have to keep up with the changes, because what won in 2016 doesn’t win in 2020.
False
But that’s not true. Core poker winning strategy never changes. Players change, though. So, you adapt to opponents’ mistakes the same way you always did. You take advantage.
What was true in 1970 is still true in 2020, fifty years later, and always will be. Sure, my recent research has refined that strategy, but the core truths stay the same.
You can’t beat rational strategy by playing poorly. So-called “new-poker” players are super-aggressive and tend to promote and teach clearly losing decisions on the basis of what’s in fashion.
Decades ago
Ranges, EV — almost all those terms you hear thrown about are actually recycled variations of concepts I and others pioneered many decades ago. Unfortunately, “new poker” is nothing more than misapplication of those concepts.
If you bet or raise too much or too often, you’re easy to exploit. Today, poker tables are populated by players trying to mimic “new poker.” And almost all of them fail miserably. Granted, there are those that can brag about the millions of dollars they won. But with so many players making similar nonsensical decisions, a few will get lucky for a year or two. They will pass along their “wisdom” based on that good fortune.
The truth is, you don’t have to adjust to “new poker” at all. Those players will self-destruct. Of course, you can beat them even faster if you do adjust to their mistakes, thereby taking full advantage.
No different
But that’s no different from the way we handled them forty years ago. There were just less of them back then. And when they came to our tables, we said, “Yum-yum!”
“New poker” advocates are sending thousands of potentially winning players to slaughter — all so they can feed their egos by babbling on the Internet, in books, and on TV.
Maybe you saw my self-quote of the day on the Poker1 home page yesterday. It was:
“New Poker” allows overly aggressive players to remain convinced of your stupidity while you win their money.
Think about it — Mike Caro
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