While not a fan of Mason Malmuth, he did have one solid bit of advice in "Poker Essays, Vol. II." Essentially, he said you have to think about poker all of the time . . . become obsessed. Phil Ivey during his 'no home Jerome' days is prime example of this approach.
A word of caution, for most of us, the above advise is an express route to burnout.
Do something different everyday, learn something new everyday, understand something new everyday..all based on poker! Experience everything but never get addicted to anything!
Even though am still on the same boat as you..this is how far I've got to..and the journey still goes on.. Peace.
Possibilities are limitless, you can do anything, you can be anything, you can change the world..
One thing that helped me out a lot was playing your cards based on position.
You can get away with playing more marginal hands in late position since they are easy to get rid of.
Play the cards in front of you. What I mean by this is play your two cards don't try and represent a hand at the table unless you can confidently feel you can make others see that, but that takes knowing more about your opponent and their cards than the average player can do.
Suck outs happen, nothing is rigged. Knowing this will keep you grounded and away fro tilting.
Well said. Back in the high point of the poker boom, there was a radio show that used to have some pretty successful players as guests. Each week the hosts would ask what was the key to being successful. While the specifics would often differ, the advise almost always boiled down to "do the work."
BTW, the hosts would never accept the advise, as they were looking for the poker secret that would magically make them successful. :banghead:
Play less hands out of position. Also play lots of hands and study/read books. There is a ton of free information out there and also free trials for training sites. Take advantage of all of this.
When I first came to CC I was carrying around so much crap in my head, I could hardly even play without wanting to bust my laptop over something. I was losing bad and I was mad as hell about it. But Bear kept telling me that I had to start controlling my enter demons. I didn't know how to do that because I didn't know what they were, even though they were right in front of me. Anger while you play will get you no where. You will only lose more and more. When I took Bear's advice and started to control my anger about anything that happens during my game play, then I began to win again.
I had to play lots of hands and study/read/watch, books & video's.
You get a better feel for the game the longer you have played. Whe I first joined CC, I learnt mostly about position & cards selection while trying to improve my bet/raise/fold skills.
Take notes. Player notes & the odd scribble have helped me too.
Learn from your mistakes so you can fill those leaks.
First would be play the correct hands. Dont play every hand you get. Stick to premium hands and pocket pairs.
Knowing when your beat and folding. AA is the best starting hand but when the flop shows KK5 then your hand just doesnt look as good anymore. AA can be folded.
Play on a budget. For a beginner you really need to start small then work up to bigger tournament buyins. People play diffferent based on the cost of the buyin. Loose and crazy players tend to play micro buyins but if you play in in tournament with $100 or more you tend to see alot tigher play.
Best advice would be play smart. Know when your beat. And practice makes perfect.
i think experience is the only way to get better, but along the way, remember this:
Patience, Discipline, Strength, Agression.
These are the four pillars to any successful poker game. Know when to use each of them, and where, and you should go far!
I also think that watching live play as opposed to the 'highlight reel' shows is a great way to pick up knowledge without risking any monies. Shows that stream live on sites like pokerstars.tv and hptpoker.com can get you tremendous insight as how/when/what to play.
something i just read on bluff magazine was an article back in march. Long story short , the advice given was to be fascinated by poker and how it is played. Wanting to work at it, and understand it for what it is. Trying to better yourself everytime. Its really time consuming when learning to be good at it, just depends on the person, and what your willing to learn and how you learn i guess. Gotta make time for it. the more time you put in. the more you will understand poker.