Ways to Improve Your Poker Skills

[PHX]

How to get good at anything in life - Study and Practice, years of it.

Good article as to where to look for content to start to learn skills. Must put what you learned into practice though.

Plenty of good content here on Cardchat Forum. It is a good place to start.

 

[finaltable1]

My opinion is that hiring a coach to study poker is like hiring a professional liar to help you lie better, but what if he lies to you and the main lesson is that he simply played heads up with you for a 100% win(your payment)?


There is a phrase in dead Latin language"Sapere Aude"
You can read article in wikipedia for the meaning.


I can tell my story.
Pokerstrategy website helped me to understand poker and even give me free money to start with, it was years ago and they don't give free money anymore like they used to. This low level information about poker, that they give me about maths/bankroll management and helpful software, it was enough to win $800 with free $50 bankroll at low limits during 1st month. Patience, long run, odds, Eq, VPiP and so on - this free info was good enough to become a player, for some level maybe even a wining player.


The more information i was gathering the more obviously i've seen that something is wrong and nobody will show me a sure way to the top of the mountain. Maybe because there is no such "sure way".


Couple of things helped me to understand poker better.
I was playing live games each day at one restaurant, and one day i've started playing the game without watching my cards. I saw them only with all other players when it ws time for showdown. Nobody noticed this, all the time i acted like i know these 2 cards dealt, but i haven't. I keep playing and acting like i know my cards, bet\check\fold - i performed these actions relying on something else, but not on the cards i've been dealt. It's like you suddenly lost your eyes and your brain has to adopt to the world around you so it starts using other senses better. Brain changes it's structure and what you believed is irrational in past suddendly becomes logical and obvious.


Next - I was surprised to see the right words of some forum member, who stated in some thread that his hobby is to study behavioral economics. I've studied it myself in past for other reason, but it crossed with poker at some point. Studying behavioral, social, mathematical theories is the right key to understand poker better, if your goal is to improve the way you're thinking and make your decisions, poker is just a game that helps you to check if you're on the right way.
If you ask me what's the right way - i believe that there is no right way in poker, being objective i can only say that you have to understand your opponents, not the cards. If 90% of players n the world believe that QQ, KK or AA are the best hands, well - OK, but i belive that Royal Flush on showdown is a best hand. Having 38os in hand with AK888 on the deck is also a best hand.
Let them wait for AA and let them go home being mad at you, they've paid for it.


Ask yourself, if 99% of people are going to the left direction - will it be the best possible way to follow? If 99% are ruled by 1%, if 99% will leave the tourney and 1% or less will sit at the final table, then is it the right way to follow the majority?


Sapere Aude.

 

[cwdignus]

very good article and the posts with the comments that complement the ideas with experience.

I started my poker journey here in Cardschat, when I looked for a place that I could learn poker, I found Cardschat, at first I had a lot of difficulty. because I also did not know anything of English and did not know the translator of google, even about the translator I learned here in cc. today I already know what a pair is in poker and I also know that I love the Cardschat and all the opportunities it has offered me.

 

[dragunovich]

the steps that have led me to improve my poker have been to read the book super sistem by doyle brunson first .. in my opinion you have to have a game philosophy .. a base on which to support you in moments that require you to make a difficult decision .. but the most important have been the many hours i have practiced every day for more than 2 years .. my first intensive training decided to start on the strongest stage .. pokerstars freerolls .. then i asked myself: why will these freerolls be so difficult, without counting the Russian players? then on youtube looking for poker stuff I heard a Brazilian professional player talking about how he practiced his best moves in the pokerstars freerolls .. after 3 months i started playing more cashgames .. looking to be a more complete player and not just depend on tournaments .. it seemed to me that playing 1 year in cash would give me some experience (and it did) to do little i was forced to play cash for the rake question .. because i had to make an emergency withdrawal and i was forced to play cash a week and that old cash experience helped me to emerge victorious .. although I can not say that im a cashgame player, when someone asks me if i play it i have to say that i have experience in that matter .. which means that I am not a player easy to intimidate, or easy prey at a cash table .. although honestly i dont feel comfortable playing cashgames .. after my experiences in cashgames and see for myself how difficult it is to create a bankrolls from nothing, the tournaments have been my refuge as an aggressive player ..

the sit and go .. have given me the adrenaline needed to improve my game in a head up .. i think i have improved when it comes to playing a final table thanks to the sit and go tournaments .. the tension is felt from the first minute..

above all what old Doyle says about paying close attention ... when i pay close attention to what happens i start to exploit the weaknesses of my opponents ..

 

[No1eJoker]

Very good article,can help a lot to players..the best way to do this is to learn from your own mistakes, try to concentrate and have your game..and the less bluff, sometimes bad bluff throw-out me from the game

 

[vavilen_]

all in the complex I went through the basics of poker, I read books, I like to discuss handouts and I need lots of practice!

 

[Andrew Popov]

Remember that any theory is dead without practice. You need to know the general mathematical theory of poker, of course, but its use should be forbidden by practice.

For the training and understanding of the chip value model, the ICM trainer helped me a lot. This utility teaches well how to make decisions on a table with a small number of players and short stacks - this is often the case in any SnG, as well as the final and pre-final tables in MTT.

 

[Helloween]

I believe that personal experience is more important than theory. But without poker theory it's very difficult to play correctly, it gives the right direction in assessing your position and the strength of your hand. When I learned to play, I did not lose a single opportunity to read teaching literature and poker articles on the Internet. Also, the analysis of hands and discussion on the forum is very useful. After all, analysis is no less important than theory.

 

[albosaltenio]

there is no better way to learn than using the theory of trial and error.
using maths helps a lot and is one of the things that I refuse to learn because I really do not like reading, therefore the first thing that I discarded were the books.
I try to read and listen to the advice of the pros and put them into practice and there are as many good results as good advice and just the opposite, that's why I say that the best way is with the trial and error

 

[charlie2013]

In my opinion, anything that you are going to improve, you might have studied allthe steps. And people are different of each other. I think its very personal the way that you study and practice.I used to watch a lot of poker tv shows. and now youtube. but its quite different when you play online. and I believe, most of here play online as well. But now in the moment I prefer to comment my dead hands with other players. I think thats better to learn...

 

[Jack Reacher]

If we take into account the fact that coaches are expensive and we do not have very big bankroll,my first choice would be definitively be a book.

 

[tagece]

Nice article!I use to read strategy topics in the forum, which had been very useful to me. It's maybe my principal font of study today. And there is always something valuable in the hand discussions.
I like to watch videos on Youtube too, specially when the player show a complete tournament and explains his plays. But I found some weak ones teaching in a way that I don't agree at all. You really need to do a search on the player before following in his footsteps. I always distrust those who advertise too much on the internet.
Coaching is not for me. It's just too expensive to any recreacional player.

 

[mtl mile end]

A very thorough introduction to learning to play poker. My friends (a lot of them) need to read this - but of course they won't, that's why they need to read this.

I've read a book or two and watched lots of televised poker, listening to the expert commentary. I think the most helpful thing for me has been playing hundreds of thousands (millions ?) of hands online and live and reexamining my plays and the plays of others afterwards. Reexamining not to memorize my bad beat story so that I can demonstrate that online poker is rigged, but to understand the reasons why everything went down as it did.

When "learning by experience", it is of paramount importance to objectively examine what has occurred. This approach clearly does not work for everyone. As Charles Darwin once said: "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge".

 

[Trillian]

I use mostly strategy articles and videos. Be aware to use material, that fits your limit. NL200 stuff will not work at NL2 and vice versa. Another thing I deem usefull are hand discussions, which I read a lot but don't have very much to contribute. I could/should however post more own hands to be discussed. I struggle with session revievs. That is certainly a topic I should work more on.

 

[CRStals]

For many recreational players, the easiest way to learn the game is to watch the game. We live in a world where there are thousands of videos on YouTube to go view, both from a pure coaching side and the playing side, but going to watch online pros play on Twitch remains my #1 source. Nothing beats listening and watching someone who knows what they are doing talk through hands. The key is to then predict the moves for later hands, and learn the signs and triggers to pull certain bets, checks, folds, or raises off.

 

[azforlife]

Found this article within the link very insightful! reg. balancing your ranges to fare well against your opponents expectations; at the end of the day, you're not "only" playing your cards, but essentially your opponent so this idea of balancing your range can give you some leeway when you're put in marginal spots when being 4bet, can make those spots more easier to maneuver imo. https://www.cardschat.com/poker-strategy.php

 

[chicopaw]

i do watch poker poker on twitch, but overall, it is my expeirence that playing different buy-in,tournys,,sng, ,also the speed hyper,turbo,reg games will give you much more exp.,keeping in mind the $$ your able to invest

 

[MrHachiman]

The best way to learn and improve your game is a combination of the experience gained after hours of play and the analysis of your game outside the tables. For this, a hand-tracking program is essential today. I often like to play a tournament dedicating 100% of my attention to each movement, in general I am doing very well and when I finish eliminated I analyze the hands I played one by one to see if I could have acted better. This can help you a lot to find small errors that we do not usually review in most cases.

 

[TDTODDY]

Just playing as much as possible live, will help enormously. Once you're staring down a few all in bets with less than the nuts, you get a much better idea of where you are spectrum of players.

 

[iwont20]

I really liked the last part of the article, I need to reread it pretty often I think Motivating :icon_thum

As you can guess I have hard time of balancing study - practice. Usually my studying consists of reading articles, watching strategy videos and reviewing my hands. Over time I began to find it very useful and interesting to look at any hands posted at the forums in order to see what kind of thinking other players have. I may not necessarily agree with opinions but I always seem to find something new that I lately research on more.

But consistency of studying is a key, because after too much playing with no studying I may notice that I start to make the same old mistakes or that I completely forgot about some concepts I was aware of and used before

A lot of people talk about Twitch being a useful tool, and while I may agree that that's probably the only source of up-to-date strategy and you can rather quickly get knowledge about playing in different spots and stages, I personally still do not use it, probably dislike the format, as it's long and a lot of unnecessary talking is going on there. And chat is ridiculous. It's probably more of an entertainment, which is not bad for poker itself. Maybe I just didn't encounter a good streamers yet. Probably need to give it another try.

 

[effece]

the different ways of learning poker vary in their effectiveness according to the personality of each one, therefore a more social person will find more didactic a forum where interacting with others motivates him. On the other hand, others with greater visual ease will have the necessary effect in the videos. what is important is the study and knowing what form will be most effective in the diversity of media. but I think that the greatest knowledge is given by practice.

 

[BigRivers]

I learned a lot from watching Stones Live. They have normal players playing normal stakes, and their commentators are very knowledgeable. I also like that you can see everyone's hands, and not just one streamer.:smile:

 

[RidersFan]

One really great way to improve that wasn’t mentioned in the article is watching players on twitch. I’ve been watching a lot of Lex Valdhuis and Jeff Gross lately and I have definitely seen an improvement in my game. If you really pay attention when you watch both of them go into great detail into the hands they play and are really good at explaining why they are doing things in certain spots.

 

[Rijckenborg]

I should study more.I have some poker books.
I like to review hands with friends,
It always help to make better decision on the felt.


Thank you Cardschat for this precious article

 

[frnandoh]

In my opinion a good coaching is the best way to improve skill, but all ways are anyway effective. Books, Videos, Forums and Friends... all are good, The main important thing is to think about poker. In poker, we dont win just at the tables, we win before we sit on it.