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Poker and the Law of Diminishing Returns

If you've been thinking about learning a new game I can give you one more reason: the dreaded law of diminishing returns. The law of diminishing returns is a general thumb rule that can be applied to almost any skill game but it is very well suited to poker. Basically the law of diminishing returns says that acquiring skill has a greater positive effect when you first start than it will when your already a highly skilled player. To clear things up with an example I would say that someone who was a novice and learned the basic starting hands would have a greater improvement in the amount of money he wins than Doyle Brunson would if he improved 100%. The reason is that Doyle Brunson already does so many things 100% right that even though he's still improving to this day each small improvement matters less because he makes very few mistakes already. On the other hand Joe Newguy can learn just a few tricks and greatly improve his money won. So you may ask "What does this mean to me?" well it simply means that if you thrive on improvement and you've hit a wall you might consider trying a new game. This can be really satisfying as each little thing you learn in the new game will have a greater effect. As this whole process takes place you can gain a large amount of confidence which you can take back to your primary game to help you push your game to a higher level.

The final implications of the law is that it is much harder to make the jump from pro to top pro than it is from winning player to pro and that at some point the natural differences in luck can negate all the advantage a player has. Said another way if Phil Helmuth and Phil Ivey played forever heads up on full tilt in the very, very long run the skill differences (if there is on) would probably not matter at all and they would both lose money based on the rake.