I thought studying was something you were supposed to do in school. Although it was some time ago I seem to recall I didnt like school much.
Well, that is a shame, because clearly no one ever taught you the philosophy of always being a student.
“Do you know the secret of the true scholar? In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him; and in that I am his pupil.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Those who commit to an endless will to learn are bound to be more successful and wiser than they would have otherwise been, and are likely to be steps ahead of their peers and contemporaries.
As far as poker study goes, I don't think you always have to be reading books and theory in order to be "studying." You can always spend some time watching others play--it works with and without hole cards exposed, but is undoubtedly more fun to watch with the cards exposed. And one of the few poker books that I have read more than once, and one that I like to go back to in order to step outside my own head and instead view the game from another perspective is Every Hand Revealed.
Humans really like to fall into patterns and habits of behavior, of which they often find difficult to break or stray from. Just think about all the small habits and behaviors that you might engage in throughout your daily life. I get up every day and drink coffee, never thinking about it as one of those habits. I eat similar things all the time, which is so common amongst humans that we have a name for it: the diet. And when you "go on a diet" you are really just changing your daily eating habits to only healthy, reasonable size servings of food. Many of us even wear the exact same work clothes everyday, weather it is a suit and tie, or the uniform of anything from a cop or firefighter to a mechanic or fast food worker. We buy the same products, like deodorant, toothpaste, toilet paper, dish soap. We don't usually try new brands or new scents/flavors that often, if ever. We fall into what is recognizable and familiar, because what is familiar is comforting, and to simplify the human condition a bit, all we are trying to do in life is make ourselves more comfortable.
Being hyper aware of your own habits can help you avoid becoming highly exploitable. But how exactly do you change the habits and behaviors that can sometimes seem damn near rooted in your dna? That's where things get a bit more difficult, in my opinion; it always seems harder to me to actually change the habits rather than just identify them.
I think one of, if not the main reason I go back to my books and the videos of old and recent tournaments (the MDS replay on PS is also helpful) is because I have always felt that being a student and an observer can really help me gain a new perspective, which can help when trying to think of ways to break certain habits that I have at the tables. I sometimes see the same bad habits in other players and I can see where they went wrong and get ideas about what not to do next time in a certain situation or line. Sometimes I just get ideas for where I need to be raising instead of calling, checking instead of betting, and so on. Studying can help me evolve, and that is what I am constantly trying to do. I want to keep advancing and growing as a player, so that some day in the future, when I finally make my jump to mid stakes and bigger live tournaments, I will have all the experience I need to be a winning player.
