How do you constantly improve your game?

As of today I realized that I am no where near the level of poker I thought I was (Thanks to JL anyway ). I saw the constant flaws in my game bite me so hard in my ass that I had to stand up for a few minutes. My flaws are that the blinds whoop my butt at the 150/300 and so on and not beening able to pull the trigger when Im damn sure if hes got a worse hand than I do. I am truly going to focus on getting better at these. Im also gonna focus on my heads up play and accumulation of chips early on in the intermediate levels 30/60, 40/80, and so on

How do i keep improving my game? By getting my ass beat in ring games! I still can't crack those f-ing things and lose big time there. But I am getting better. It only took me 1 hour this time around to bust out.

Read, think about why you make the mistakes you do, play a lot. Whenever you think you are finally getting it figured out sit down with people who play in the forum games, like JL, lol & then lick your wounds & repeat process until done or broke.

I think that if poker were judged on like a bell curve system I could see where I stood, cus i think I stand among the ranks of a steaming donkey and a dried up fish. I started playing a little under a year ago and Ive stripped my game down three times to build it back stronger and still are getting no where, but Kenzie I will and hopefully win enough money to be back in the sunday game to win.

I guess just practice
whenever you come up with a situation where you don't know what to do or you felt your play was weak, post on cc and ask for help
then you can get other peoples' perspective on what you're weaknesses or strengths are.
reading poker books should also help considerably
i've only read one so far and it's changed my outlook on poker

plus if you've only been playing for less than a year, you can't expect to be a complete player yet
as the saying goes, it takes a day to learn holdem and a lifetime to master it.

One good way of gaining experience and realising your mistakes is playing a game online and having somebody who is quite a good holdem player beside you so that he/she can analyze your game as you play.

... or the second best thing: Find a situation that you're uncomfortable with and post the hand in the hand analysis forum.

For instance, and I'm just making stuff up here, but what would you in this situation?

$1/$2 limit hold'em (ring game). You have A♥K♥ in the CO. It's two limpers to you, and you raise. The button and the small blind folds, the big blind and both limpers call. The flop comes

J♣8♥2♦

Big blind and the first limper check, then the second limper bets.

What do you do here?

Play at a level you are comfortable with.
Read books.
Watch games on tv.
Dont be scared of laying down a good hand if you think you are beat.
Try to find a regular game with people you can measure your game with (ie. forum games).
Play SnGs
Be Confident and make positive moves.

Oh and enjoy playing

IanT

Glad you brought up the having fun part of the game. I've know a few people who just lost that ability by being way too analytical and over critquing everything. They just wanted to get better, and forgot why they played poker in the first place. Win or lose, I still love this game.

But there's some good advice here Mike. Playing games in itself is a tool for learning The more you practice anything can only make you better in the long run. Even if funds are low, play chip games still count as scenarios that you may encounter in the future ( I still play some play chip games from time to time) Freerolls can be unbelievably long and very hard to get good reads on in the early rounds, but they do afford you opportunity to play at no cost.

With about 15,000 books on the subject out there, finding one that is written in a way that is easiest for you to comprehend should be easy enough. In almost all of them, strategy and odds and other basics will be remarkably similar.

A regular game with competent players is a very good idea also. With 10,000 or so friends around here, finding a game where you can openly talk about your play ( after you win or lose...of course) and discussing what occured at the table could do a lot for you and your ability to analyze scenarios and hands.

And take advantage of the fact that you belong to the best forum (in my humble opinion) for resources on the game of poker and how to improve your game. In my few months here I've met more very good poker players than I have anywhere else since I've started playing (over 20 years ago)

I hope this helps and I hope your game gets to the level that you'd like it to sooner than later!

Mike, dont get yourself down about the JL play either - if he didn't have J or 10 he'd probably have folded and your aggression would have been rewarded (of course he had 2 10's!). You can overdo plays like this, but losing plays aren't always bad ones (and of course, winning plays aren't always good ones).

Mike, that move you made generally works against me (Rob can testify that very well), and with those huge blinds going all in to steal some pots was the only way to survive (there was a moment were everybody at the table had less than 10xBB).
That move wasn´t at all anything to measure your level of play, but if you think that you have been committing a lot of mistakes at similar situations, then post some hands here and you´ll receive good advices.
I like playing 6 handed ring games, and recently i played a hand that i didn´t know what was the best move. I posted it here because i was confused about what to do in that situation (it´s a very common situation at the limits i play) and i got very interesting answers. Asking questions that better players can answer is a great way to learn.

BTW you have to remember that you´re still a newbie, and you have a lot to learn by the experience. In my opinion admitting that you´re a newbie and you need a lot to learn, is the best way to start improving. I consider myself a newbie and that´s why i´m not afraid asking for help.

Raise the hellouta it and wait for the fold. Then take the money and run.

Definately read up on the subject. No one i know of got better at chess w/o reading some books...