Where does money come from: Poker's 90/10 rule

March 8, 7:46 PMOnline Poker ExaminerSteven Ruddock

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There is an old poker adage that says, "you'll make more money from your opponents mistakes, than you will from your good plays." And truer words have never been spoken. I call this the 90/10 rule, and it has two parts.

Part 1: 90% of your profits come from straightforward plays; 10% of your profits will come from fancy plays.

One of the traps educated players fall into is over-analyzing: They turn simple decisions into complex scenarios. Too much time is spent analyzing some minuscule advantage they might have that they lose sight of the big picture; you're opponents are playing badly!  If 90% of your profits are coming from straightforward plays you should be spending 90% of your time trying to plug major leaks, and work on the ABC's of your game.

In the business world these people are known as micro-managers: the company is losing $100,000 a month because the employees are not trained properly. So, instead of training the employees, these geniuses spend days, or weeks, figuring out a way to save $150 a month on office products.

Part 2: 90% of the money you win will come from 10% of the players.

This is a problem even the best players have, they try to beat everyone, instead of focusing on the weaker players. In a typical game there will be one or two players who are feeding chips to the rest of the table ( at the lower limits you may find three or four players feeding the table). These are the guys playing 75% of the hands they are dealt, and calling to the river.

Good players will attempt to exploit these feeders by isolating them in pots, while avoiding any other good players with all but their best hands. There is no point in continually battling players that are as good as yourself when you have players who are practically throwing their money at you.

I'm not condoning total avoidance of decent players, just realize the reward you may receive from these players often doesn't justify the risks involved. If you're constantly playing pots against players who make few mistakes, you'll be fighting an uphill battle: Remember, most of your profits are coming from your opponents mistakes.

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Contact Steve at bostonpokerexaminer@live.com