Best way to learn

What was/is your single best source for improving your poker play?

Practice.

Here: http://www.cardschat.com/f51/ (http://www.cardschat.com/f51/)
or
here: http://www.cardschat.com/f50/ (http://www.cardschat.com/f50/)

Seriously, using the HA forums lets you "practice" without risking any money. You can read about how other players play certain common hands and think about how you'd play those same hands. If you'd play a hand differently you can post you own ideas which will then be discussed so you can see how and why your thinking is different.

If you just play hands the same as you usually do, you'll never get any better. You need to take a critical look at how you're playing and one of the easiest ways to do that is by posting hands or posting your thoughts on someone else's hand in the HA sections.

gl

I just posted on this in another forum about how to obtain the best strategy, and this is very similar.

Bump what WV said, the hand analysis forums are essential to success. Be ready to take some criticism but that's the only way to improve.

Also I'd recommend taking a look at the video forum which has a ton of cash/tourney videos w/ commentary so you can get a good sense of what some of the top players on the site are doing and thinking.
http://www.cardschat.com/f53/index-c...-games-149137/ (http://www.cardschat.com/f53/index-cardschat-members-videos-cash-games-149137/)

Reading strategy guides. Doyles super system is HARD going, but worth the effort.
Harrington on hold-em is pretty good too, and Chris Moneymakers book is full of great advice.
Saying that, practice makes perfect. Taking beats at the lower stakes isn't fun, but will teach you the finer points of the game faster than most other mediums.
Watching the TV games is up there too, especially tourneys where it shows the hole-cards (I know, the majority do!). Seeing the pro's making moves could inspire you to experiment.
Ok, so you said only one, but a combination of these three should be a perfect recipe for improvement.

My single best source to improving my poker game, is definitely the CC forum and freerolls where i get to practice with so many good players who i think usually play the $5/$10 or even higher tournament buy-in's, without having them take all my money (yet) lol. so practice is best, but i also like to watch the poker after dark show where i can learn how the pros actually play with out all the editing, like most of all the other shows. and i also learn alot from "turtleknife" videos on youtube, where he explains his every move in full detail.

I like to read poker books and then practice the ideas that I learn from the books. Obviously you can't just read a book and all of a sudden be a winning player, you have to practice everything thousands of times! Watching videos from GOOD players is also a good way to improve. I emphasized GOOD because I see videos all the time of bad players giving bad advice and it pisses me off! lol Also HA is essential to becoming a good player!! Learn from yours and others mistakes!!

I believe that you need to play in person with people you know and respect at least once a month, they will tell you if your walking the wrong path. Weather you want them to or not.
Playing online will only take you so far, if you plan on playing at real tourney's in the future, face to face is detramental.
If you don't have anyone experienced to play with, play with your family, You can learn alot about what you really know by teaching others! Be a mentor to your kids, spouse, parents, and freinds.
Even well actually best if it's only HEADS-UP. This is where most players are the least experianced, nervous, and where we all want to be.

my moto is: If you can't beat one person most of the time, what good are you in a croud.

Look for quality tourneys in your area, I'm a member of HeartlandPokerTour, I don't play their online room anymore, it's rather overrun with trash players. But the casino tourney's are pretty good.
Go to heartlandpokertour.com and check if we are in your area if you want or just look at the past tourney pics and stories. Satalites are affordable.

Time

Play as many hands as you can.
Keep a Log of your playing time.
Play as often and as long as you possibly can.
Play Play Play
Things will start to sink in.
Become second nature.
You will Develop a feel.

Results will follow.


Doing the same thing over and over again will typically yield the same results.

If what you are doing is not working don't continue down the same trail over and over again.

If what you are doing is working. Don't look back. Keep doing what works.

How to get good? The same way you learn a musical instrument.......practice until you are blue in the face. There have been several excellent books mentioned on this thread, definately read those. There are no shortcuts.

There should and can be a basic underlying style, but a good player will learn how to adapt to many different situations, and that can be the most effective strategy and style.

Adapt to the players and the table. Position, stack size and situation. Obviously in ring games, stack size is not a major factor as you should always be at a preferred buy-in level for the stakes and when your stack falls, you reload.

1. Learn to calculate odds - this will help you to call or fold at the right times.
2. Read about poker strategy - look online for sites and forums.
3. Practice and then practice some more

There are lots of ays but I found the FTP pla tables very good. They step up in chips from 25o to 1000 to 10000 to 100000. Once you get beyond the 1000 the guys playing sem to take it serious. When you get to 10000 they treasure their chips more than some guys treasure their buy in on MTT's and SnG's. If you get to 500000 you can play in a cash game for $40. There are usually around 30 to 40 in this. Try it and play as if it was cash.

The books mentioned are all great. The problem is that if you have not read the theory of poker you do not have the foundation to use the information correctly. The Theory of Poker is the foundation on which you build.

I don't think play can be substituted with anything else to make you better. I would also recommend reading and understanding the theory and fundamentals of the game you are playing. Making great decisions with the best hand and knowing your odds will lead to a little success.

I started by playing at free games and reading a lot of books. However, I probably got ahead of myself at an early stage by not really understanding basic theory. For instance, I read Sklansky's Advanced Hold'em and Doyle's Super/System before I read the Theory of Poker. Another mistake I made was by going to NL before I really had the theory down. I improved immensely and immediately when I decided to play only Limit until I became a winning player. At that point, everything I had learned about NL made a lot more sense.

I think a lot of things can be learnt by watching poker on TV. Negreanu, Juanda and the other pokerstars do it very well.

Of course this professional gamestyle isnt good in freerolls and tournaments with low buyins cos ppl play different style there (allin with nothing then win with huge luck etc...).

reading books seems to help me out a crap ton.

but also watching it on tv can really help out.... well kinda

Playing as much as possible, and watching videos. Usually when I encounter a situation I'm not sure of I can ask about it here, and the advice has been top notch and has helped me a ton.

Well, if you've just begun, reading up is probably the most important step. Brush up on terms, hands, pot odds, and whatnot. After that, the best two things to do are to practice and try and utilize new strategies that you pick up from reading or watching pros or training videos. If you're playing live poker, I'd also try training your body so that you don't give away anything with obvious tells.