Hello Chatters!
I would like to get some feed back from you on the topic of learning poker and evolving in the game.
Wich way do you think is best?
Books or videos or a combo?
Let's suppose that a recreational player wants to take the next step and become a grinder. How would you advise him to proceed?

Study. Plenty of free videos on Youtube. Jonathan Little has a podcast called Weekly Poker hand. Listen to other podcasts like Red Chip Poker or Ante-Up Poker podcasts. Also some good poker books available, too. But you also need to study your own play. Figure out where the leaks are in your game and plug them.

Everyone learns differently.

For me, it is a mix of studying + trial and error.

I'd avoid being a grinder and play the biggest MTTs you can play. The longer you play poker the more rake you feed. The longer you play poker the more poisonous the game gets to you financially since it is a revenue based rake.

watch donk play videos on youtube.

Once you are motivated to really learn, you will seek out all material you can find. Books and videos are good methods to learn. Learned quite a bit by asking questions on hands that were played. Give all information you can, stack sizes, postion in the field, where you are at with repect to the bubble and you will get comments that will bring insight on what could have been done differently.

It will open up other thought process you may have missed. Good luck on you're quest.

Everyone learns differently - so find the way that works best for you. Once you find that way then you need to apply what you have learned. This is key - there is no point learning things and then not applying them.

books are overrated. It's much better to watch videos but not only watch them. Just make the notes. When I watch a video which is 1hour lenght it takes my about 5-7 hours to finish it. Why? because I stop it a lot, I try to make my own decisions, I compare it with author of a video and I make many notes.

But still best possible way to learn is to analyze your game, hands.

Books + Videos are definately good combo. But as i said earlier in one thread experience is your best teacher.

Video.

Pokerstars School is great thing for learning poker. There are a lot of articles and videos.

There are lo-o-ots of ways to study poker nowadays. For me the best ones are:
- playing as more hands as you can + analysing hands you played. You can't improve your skill without practicing;
- watching videos on YouTube, both live games and educational videos;
- listening podcasts, you can combine it with your everyday routine;
- reading books (may be quite boring at the beginning).

Hi, it is a combination of both but first read books, read the thread of hand analysis in the forum and watch videos poker different YouTube channels or the training sessions of the poker school, that would be my recommendation

I think that the most important thing in learning is game practice and analysis of one’s mistakes.

I'm in the same process.. I started by a book to refresh the basics of poker then starting to watch live players on Twich... some of them are playing and explain how they play their hands and why. There's also a lot of video on YouTube. I heard someone saying : if you're looking for an answer, type your question in google and add "site: youtube.com" at the end.. some has made a video on the topic! It works 99% of the time!

Btw, don't be suprised if you study more then you play for a while.. it can happen!!

Good luck!

-TRP-

Originally Posted by teepack

Study. Plenty of free videos on Youtube. Jonathan Little has a podcast called Weekly Poker hand. Listen to other podcasts like Red Chip Poker or Ante-Up Poker podcasts. Also some good poker books available, too. But you also need to study your own play. Figure out where the leaks are in your game and plug them.

i find online poker require's a different strategy to real poker ..........i find the poker sites have quite good schools..........

I think videos are best. I like watching live and archived twitch videos. You can watch a variety of live online play and videos specifically designed for poker education and you can pick your instructor

I subscribed to this thread and waiting for answers. But I think that there is no simple answer here. Cause poker is never ending really. Today you may learn that a standard raise is between 2.2x and 2.5x while tomorrow things may change and you could be a loser if you keep playing like that.

I was reading an article on Upswing that Doug told that poker books to get written may take some years and will probably be outdated when published so youtube coaching videos are better. And he also mentioned he is saying that while he is an author of two books. Books would be probably good to learn the basics, cause sometime we may think that we know them but thats not always the truth. I could see a lot of good players failing or struggling on a simple basic poker quiz.

I knew a player that he is living from poker. All day he was studying with his team and analyzing hands and spots. That seems like a lot of work but in the end I believe its the only thing that you can do if you want to go from rec to reg.

Finally there are online coaches but I have seen a lot of these pros struggling in micros and I really dont know what to think.

In my opinion, it is best to combine books, videos and daily practice. In addition, it is important to regularly analyze your game and your mistakes.

Books are easiest source to find detailed information but you need multiple books, from youtube it is almost impossible to come up with detailed information about case studied, training sites are also good way to go and combined with quality study and other material (like books, chats, friends) probably superior from early to medium stages.

@Spaceman: "Today you may learn that a standard raise is between 2.2x and 2.5x"
- Things like this do not matter at all before quite advanced levels and even then I doubt it ever does. What matters is your opponents, if they let you then you use the size most suitable.

Originally Posted by kristersb123

Pokerstars School is great thing for learning poker. There are a lot of articles and videos.

Couldn't agree with this more. Will help greatly with Proper Betting. Teaches you right & wrong with dialogue.

PokerStars Poker School is like taking an Online Driving Course. Way better than the Books.

For each individually. I used to play and read forums, books, and make out distributions. I was greatly influenced by the analysis of the hands of super highroller games in live tournaments(PCA,EPT). I looked at the pause and thought for 10 minutes sometimes why he made such a bet. I think this is very good material for learning.