Tue, 03/01/2011 – 00:43 – PokerPages Staff

#5 – Live players are much older than online players
You imagine tech-savvy young guns like Viktor Blom being online whizz-kids while seasoned veterans like Doyle Brunson stick to the old-school bricks and mortar poker rooms.  But the number of 18-20 year-old grinders frequenting casinos is surprising – and pros of Doyle’s vintage aren’t strangers to playing online either.

#4 – Good players win frequently
Even most experienced pros usually win no more than 60 percent of the games they enter.  Yup – 40 percent of the time they leave poorer than when they went it.  The trick is to minimize the losses by knowing when not to raise or when to fold – sometimes small battles must be lost before the war is won.

#3 –Tip generously and you’ll get good luck from the dealer
There’s zero mathematical justification for this belief, but if you believe that what goes around comes around, it’s a fair enough principal to play by.  Just don’t expect magic – you get what you’re dealt, and the Gods of Poker don’t slip prime cards to the dealer just for you.

#2 – It’s good to mix your play up frequently
If you’re enjoying a good run and no one else has shifted gear, why should you?  A good rule of thumb is to switch tactics only if your table image starts to look too close to your natural playing style – that’s when your opponents will make very few errors about your strategy.

#1 – Aces are the most common card on the flop
By far the most common poker myth.  People tend to believe that Aces appear on just about every flop, making a KK useless against an AQ or an AK. Balderdash!  Studies show that Aces flop no more frequently than other cards, and all online poker sites are checked by a third party gambling commission to make sure there are no irregularities or glitches like this.