Top 10 best poker habits to get into to be successful?

Hi guys just wanting everyones feedback. What makes you successful or makes you a better player or focused better?

Just list some things that benefit you as a player and gives you an edge.

Thanks for your feedback, I just want to have a checklist to help myself.

not ten but one: dont play on tilt

My number one money loser BY FAR is playing while tired and stuck.

DO NOT play tired and while stuck trying to get even.....

The chances you're playing anywhere near optimal are small.

Also, relatedly, do not think of poker in sessions....it isn't broken up into sessions; it is one long session. Don't worry about leaving "loser"...this is something I always have struggled with.

I have a few things I try to remember when/ before playing.

1. Try to make sure that there are no other things around that will distract you, (kids playing up, missus moaning, mother-in law visiting), anything like that.

2. Do NOT play when I've had a drink.

3. Play within my limits.

4. Don't play for a day or so if you've had a really bad session - try to think about where you went wrong. (If you did).

These are the basics but others are around like don't play when your tired - already said.

GL with your checklist - will be interesting to see what follows.

A2345Razz said:

My number one money loser BY FAR is playing while tired and stuck.

Click to expand...

Exactly, I'm kind of a beginner, but my biggest struggle, while trying to maintain my bankroll, have been playing while tired or trying to come even.

Advice according to my experience:

1: Never play when tired or out of mood for poker.

2: After a few wins on your stakes/level don't move on to higher stakes, it will only make you lose the money you've earned with hard work. (No-one wants to lose 5 STT's prize in just one bigger buy-in STT)

3: There must be a reason behind all the actions you make. Before you play a hand ask yourself: Whats the reason behind this move? If you can't answer that question you're probably making the wrong decision.

4: The most I lose is usually when I'm upset because of a bad beat. Anytime you don't feel comfortable take a short break (grab a bite, watch an episode of your fav. series, go out, anything).

The hardest about these things is not learning them, but having the discipline to keep to them, especially for me.

I hope I helped!
Looking forward to the list!

IMO, the most important habit to develop to become a successful player hasn't been listed yet in this thread: hand/session review.

I play at Bovada so I can't use a HUD, but I import all my cash game hands into HM2 and review all my cash sessions. There is no doubt that the biggest improvements in my game have come during those review sessions --- away from the virtual felt and at my leisure. Anyone seriously pursing poker or trying to take their game to their next level needs to review all their sessions.

Additionally, post the trouble-spot hands in the hand analysis section here. Getting insights from other players will definitely help you make better decisions at the table.

-HooDooKoo

don't get emotional over a bad beat

i'm guilty of this

HooDooKoo;2487614[I said:

]IMO, the most important habit to develop to become a successful player hasn't been listed yet in this thread: hand/session review.[/I]

I play at Bovada so I can't use a HUD, but I import all my cash game hands into HM2 and review all my cash sessions. There is no doubt that the biggest improvements in my game have come during those review sessions --- away from the virtual felt and at my leisure. Anyone seriously pursing poker or trying to take their game to their next level needs to review all their sessions.

Additionally, post the trouble-spot hands in the hand analysis section here. Getting insights from other players will definitely help you make better decisions at the table.

-HooDooKoo

Click to expand...

There is no doubt in my mind that hand reviews are valuable, but what I see a lot of here and among beginners these days in general is a tendency to go to off the felt learning without a proper amount of play. I mean you have people playing 100-200 hands and then spending more time reviewing this piddly amount of hands and pretending to figure out patterns of bad/good play through samples of a couple thousand hands which is laughable.

TO GET BETTER AT POKER YOU NEED TO PLAY A LOT OF HANDS. THESE DAYS THAT MIGHT MEAN YOU LOSE SOME MONEY AT THE BEGINNING OF YOUR CAREER.

People don't want to hear that, but it is true. PLAY MORE PEOPLE.

Why? The more basic the errors the more frequently they occur. Database analysis is meaningless over small samples but had analysis is sample size invariant. Don't agree with that statement at all

A2345Razz said:

There is no doubt in my mind that hand reviews are valuable, but what I see a lot of here and among beginners these days in general is a tendency to go to off the felt learning without a proper amount of play. I mean you have people playing 100-200 hands and then spending more time reviewing this piddly amount of hands and pretending to figure out patterns of bad/good play through samples of a couple thousand hands which is laughable.

TO GET BETTER AT POKER YOU NEED TO PLAY A LOT OF HANDS. THESE DAYS THAT MIGHT MEAN YOU LOSE SOME MONEY AT THE BEGINNING OF YOUR CAREER.

People don't want to hear that, but it is true. PLAY MORE PEOPLE.

Click to expand...

How much play, exactly, is the PROPER amount of play? Because I want to be sure that I'm playing the PROPER amount.

-HooDooKoo

Poker success.

1. Set goals.
2. Play what you like.
3. Play a variety of games so you...
4. Don't play on tilt.
5. Be proud when you play well and learn more.
6. Look at your bankroll as found money.
7. Look at your wins as earned money.
8. Manage your bankroll like it's precious.
9. Take chances.
10. Cash out.

HooDooKoo said:

How much play, exactly, is the PROPER amount of play? Because I want to be sure that I'm playing the PROPER amount.

-HooDooKoo

Click to expand...

I mean like everything else in poker the answer is an unsatisfying "it depends"....

Here are some factors though:

1) How many tables you are playing.
2) How deep you are playing...also SNG/MTT/CG play.
3) Are you finding yourself adjusting your play to others strategy used against you, or are you just playing a fixed "plan" of poker.
4) Results
5) What level of poker are you playing stakes-wise.


If you are asking me how long it would be before I would do a hand review session with someone I was tutoring, well, I would have the person play at least 5k hands after a lesson and before reviewing spots. Maybe closer to 10k if they multitable.

Remember, proper EV can only really be determined with any statistical validity at around 100k hands. I mean you can have suggestive data that is valid for the purposed of X...but a real meaty statistical set would be like 100k hands.

You have to play a lot to get better.

The above numbers relate to 40-100BB normal cash games where someone was 2-4 tabling. So if you averaged 166 hands/hr for 3 hours a session (500 hands), that would be 10-20 sessions until looking back at the hands seriously.

This is in regards to beginning and early intermediate players. I think the vast majority of CC falls into those categories from looking at the level of the their posting and play in tournaments I have taken part in.

focus on improving and learning rather than the monetary value. Eventually, you will be profitable along the process.

freestocks said:

1. Set goals.
2. Play what you like.
3. Play a variety of games so you...
4. Don't play on tilt.
5. Be proud when you play well and learn more.
6. Look at your bankroll as found money.
7. Look at your wins as earned money.
8. Manage your bankroll like it's precious.
9. Take chances.
10. Cash out.

Click to expand...

A lot of parts of this list seem to to contradict others....

Look, as far as bankroll these days you gotta be willing to lose some money learning in my opinion for MOST people. I am shocked at how advanced some regs are at really low limits even down to NL 10 on Merge...and how tight the games can be at times. A beginner probably shouldn't be able to beat those games without a lot of luck/natural talent, but I still would recommend getting to them pretty quickly over NL5 bc NL5 is so much different than the rest of the stakes and can reinforce bad habits like trappy and passive play that won't get punished at the very lowest stakes.

This isn't 2004 anymore...you cant just mine gold and step right in, play tight and crush instantly really.

i would say knowing and recognizing your in tilt shold be right on the top
once your almost mad with the game just walk away and live to fight another day
if you still have chips take a break a 5 or 10m break and try to do something that calms you and makes you laugh before picking up

also i know alot of players say its impossible to do it online but i fell like i can read players and have most of the time a good guess about what they have
it helps if you see how they play even when your not envolved and this might seem stupid but if i have a big stack and im faced with a smal bet even knowing im behind i might call just to see how they playd those cards and try to use that on a future pot to win big becouse the best way in my opinion is to get involved in a pot where both players have good hands but your hand is just better ....or you can just try to bingo it lol

A2345Razz said:

I mean like everything else in poker the answer is an unsatisfying "it depends"....

Here are some factors though:

1) How many tables you are playing.
2) How deep you are playing...also SNG/MTT/CG play.
3) Are you finding yourself adjusting your play to others strategy used against you, or are you just playing a fixed "plan" of poker.
4) Results
5) What level of poker are you playing stakes-wise.


If you are asking me how long it would be before I would do a hand review session with someone I was tutoring, well, I would have the person play at least 5k hands after a lesson and before reviewing spots. Maybe closer to 10k if they multitable.

Remember, proper EV can only really be determined with any statistical validity at around 100k hands. I mean you can have suggestive data that is valid for the purposed of X...but a real meaty statistical set would be like 100k hands.

You have to play a lot to get better.

The above numbers relate to 40-100BB normal cash games where someone was 2-4 tabling. So if you averaged 166 hands/hr for 3 hours a session (500 hands), that would be 10-20 sessions until looking back at the hands seriously.

This is in regards to beginning and early intermediate players. I think the vast majority of CC falls into those categories from looking at the level of the their posting and play in tournaments I have taken part in.

Click to expand...

Your thresholds are completely arbitrary, and are, as a result, completely meaningless. I'm not espousing having players use a database to optimize their VPIP, 3-bet percentage, c-bet percentage, etc ... I'm talking about having them use their database to review SINGLE HANDs from a given poker session. You can do that effectively with a sample size of 10 hands or a sample size of 10 million hands (if you have the time in the latter case).

Most players of any skill level can improve their play by looking back at the most meaningful hands (biggest BR swings, be they positive or negative) from their individual poker sessions. Just because a hand resulted in a big loss, it doesn't mean that hand was played poorly. The converse is also true. What's important is looking back at those hands and evaluating whether or not the decisions made "in the moment" were good decisions. Hopefully we'll feel, after review, that we made good decisions --- but oftentimes we realize we called river raises in situations where we should have realized that we were beaten. If you see this from yourself often enough, you'll learn how to fold in those spots --- which is hugely important to long-term profitability. Hand review can also teach us that we gave up on our cowboys too easily (e.g., to people bluff-raising with TT on an AJ4 rainbow board). We can also evaluate our bet sizing to determine whether we unintentionally priced people in when we didn't mean to, or whether we lost value by betting too large, or whether we made a bad 3-bet call OOP pre-flop.

These types of evaluations aren't dependent on how much poker we have played or how many hands are in our database --- but they have a HUGE impact on a poker player's bottom line. IMO, players that aren't doing this will always trail players that review hands religiously.

-HooDooKoo

take detailed notes on ranges. this has really helped me especially in the DON's

1- starting hands
2- position
3-styles of play
4-reads
5-countering , trapping players to make mistakes
6- setting table dynamics to suit the way the table needs to play in my favor
7-misleading players on the type of play I am playing (ATC at times Or tight play )
8-picking the right games to play in
9- manage bank roll properly
10 -get the experience and to do all this in seconds and as quick as possible before the others at the table can set any thing up.

Oh YEA 11- Know if your ahead or behind before you put all your chips in

What would make me suuccessful is after a nice run the minute I lose a hand is for me to get up. I play lose that hand, and then say I will leave once I get back to that number, and I very rarely do, then leave on tilt and play in some tournaments and piss away my money..

gus201 said:

1- starting hands
2- position
3-styles of play
4-reads
5-countering , trapping players to make mistakes
6- setting table dynamics to suit the way the table needs to play in my favor
7-misleading players on the type of play I am playing (ATC at times Or tight play )
8-picking the right games to play in
9- manage bank roll properly
10 -get the experience and to do all this in seconds and as quick as possible before the others at the table can set any thing up.

Oh YEA 11- Know if your ahead or behind before you put all your chips in

Click to expand...

Hmmm number 11. I thought with things being so hard and tight these days... We need to play some hands when we will be losing a bit but winning slightly more?

I think to find certain spots and make them more profitable because the stakes on some sites hurt you, so you need to find that lil bit extra somewhere to stay afloat?

Since I named several factors by which I would determine the amount of hands this is literally impossible to be right.

Didn't read past the first line....

HooDooKoo said:

Your thresholds are completely arbitrary, and are, as a result, completely meaningless. I'm not espousing having players use a database to optimize their VPIP, 3-bet percentage, c-bet percentage, etc ... I'm talking about having them use their database to review SINGLE HANDs from a given poker session. You can do that effectively with a sample size of 10 hands or a sample size of 10 million hands (if you have the time in the latter case).

Most players of any skill level can improve their play by looking back at the most meaningful hands (biggest BR swings, be they positive or negative) from their individual poker sessions. Just because a hand resulted in a big loss, it doesn't mean that hand was played poorly. The converse is also true. What's important is looking back at those hands and evaluating whether or not the decisions made "in the moment" were good decisions. Hopefully we'll feel, after review, that we made good decisions --- but oftentimes we realize we called river raises in situations where we should have realized that we were beaten. If you see this from yourself often enough, you'll learn how to fold in those spots --- which is hugely important to long-term profitability. Hand review can also teach us that we gave up on our cowboys too easily (e.g., to people bluff-raising with TT on an AJ4 rainbow board). We can also evaluate our bet sizing to determine whether we unintentionally priced people in when we didn't mean to, or whether we lost value by betting too large, or whether we made a bad 3-bet call OOP pre-flop.

These types of evaluations aren't dependent on how much poker we have played or how many hands are in our database --- but they have a HUGE impact on a poker player's bottom line. IMO, players that aren't doing this will always trail players that review hands religiously.

-HooDooKoo

Click to expand...

Made a post similar to hookoodoo but it didn't post it seems

A2345Razz said:

Since I named several factors by which I would determine the amount of hands this is literally impossible to be right.

Didn't read past the first line....

Click to expand...

OK, just bury your head in the sand. That will really help your game.

Good luck to you.

-HooDooKoo

Aces2w1n said:

Hmmm number 11. I thought with things being so hard and tight these days... We need to play some hands when we will be losing a bit but winning slightly more?

I think to find certain spots and make them more profitable because the stakes on some sites hurt you, so you need to find that lil bit extra somewhere to stay afloat?

Click to expand...

Yes if your playing the numbers and dont have your hand reading skills sharpened be yound just ranges. Some players can put players on hands quite frequently and quickly and because of this it helps them with a more indepth game and post flop play too .

I tell you 2 things to have in mind.
1)Play only with good hands
2)Do not play when you are tired or because you have nothing to do.