Not all patterns are equal. Of the GoF patterns, I'd say there are a few that are important to know: factory, observer, and visitor spring to mind. (Then there's the singleton pattern...)
http://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/singleton-considere...
http://www.informit.com/articles/printerfriendly.aspx?p=1404...
"When discussing which patterns to drop, we found that we still love them all. (Not really- I'm in favor of dropping Singleton. Its use is almost always a design smell.)"