Over my next few blog postings I’ll share one of Mike Caro’s true and false poker question lists.  It’s not a quiz, because you don’t get to answer the questions. He does. For your convenience, he’s arranged the questions into two groups – the true group – poker facts – and the false group – poker fiction. OK, here goes on the True Group. (I will cover the list of Poker Fiction om a later blog post).

THE TRUE GROUP. Everything on this list is true.

Female poker players have psychological tools at their disposal that make them potentially capable of winning more money than male poker players. (Years ago, I even wrote a book about this. Women poker players can take advantage of male biases at the table. There is no equivalent advantage available to men.)

High-low split games require less psychological skill than other forms of poker. (Sure. It’s harder to bluff, harder to manipulate weak opponents, and harder to read tells. In fact, there just aren’t as many tells. That’s because opponents tend to think they have a way to escape, even if you have them beat. “Got me beat high? Hey, I’ll try for low.” – that sort of thinking prevails. In making their decisions, they react less to you than they would in a straight high-hand-wins game. They relate mostly to their own hand and what they think your cards imply.)

Most professional players go on tilt at least once a week. (Sad but true. The trick is to convince yourself to play your best game all the time. Years ago, I wrote a column for another publication about “Caro’s Law of Least Tilt.” It pointed out that top players seemed to observe a ritual of taking turns playing too aggressively with poor hands. In effect, they take turns going on tilt. And – among equally skilled professionals – players who waste the littlest time emotionally steaming and playing poorly, while not letting their opponents know they’re being short changed, fare the best. Thus, Caro’s Law of Least Tilt was born, speaking what was plainly true but not plainly obvious to some – that he who spends the least time on tilt earns the most money.)

Most players who complain about losing with six full houses in a session actually lost on three or fewer full houses. (Same goes for all other sympathy-seeking claims.)

If you complain to another player about how poor your luck is, citing a true example of your bad beats, your story probably will be raised by an even sadder story. (However, the story used to make this raise will never be true.)

Most poker opponents in the $50/$100 limits and up cannot easily afford to be playing that limit and could not afford to sustain four major losing sessions in a row. (It’s poker’s dark little secret. Come to think of it, most $100/$200 players could not rationally be able to afford a $40/$80 game by standards they themselves would set if you forced them to think about it.)

The majority of today’s top players have been broke at least twice in the last 15 years. (What usually breaks them is (a) not keeping a big enough bankroll, (b) betting sports, (c) going on tilt, or (d) being cheated. But the top players usually spring back. They tend to play better when they need to win – usually meaning right after going broke and while rebuilding their bankrolls.)

If you approach them away from the table, most opponents will tell you exactly how they play, if you simply ask them a few questions about imaginary poker situations. (This amazing fact has been worth possibly $100,000 to me over the years. Remember not to volunteer your opinions. The object is to flatter them. Listen attentively. They’ll think they’re teaching you something about how you should play. But you’re really just learning something about how they play.)

Big-limit players tip dealers less, on average, than medium-limit players. (I don’t know why for sure. We all have our theories about this. But the bigger the limits get, the meaner some players treat dealers. They rant, they rave, they whimper, they whine, and they seldom tip. There’s also a direct correlation between the size of the game and the ferocity that losing cards are thrown at the dealer. Bigger limits, cards thrown harder – and more words sworn.)

Most professional hold ’em players raise too often before the flop. (Still true after all these years. Although I advocate an aggressive style of play, most pros overdo aggression before the flop. They think that by raising, they’ll drive out hands that might otherwise hang in there and beat them. In truth, they often drive away hands that might otherwise hang in and reward them. The opponents holding strong hands call the raise, while the opponents holding weak hands – hands that could have been coaxed into supplying more profit had they called – are the ones that get chased out of the pot. The trouble with limit-the-field technology is that it often limits the field of the wrong opponents. You should only raise if (a) you have a significant edge, (b) your raise will confuse your opponents or somehow influence them to act to their detriment, or (c) you have a good chance of winning the pot outright without proceeding to a contested showdown.)

Ace-to-five lowball is the easiest common form of poker to teach a beginner to beat in the shortest time. (Nothing comes close.)

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