This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.
Mastering poker is a lifelong journey, and like any other skill, it takes a
lot of effort, dedication and perseverance.
However, there are better and
worse ways to learn, and if you really want to improve your poker game, it
doesn’t have to take decades.
By following the right steps and making the right amount of effort, you can
see almost immediate improvement in your poker results.
And if you are really dedicated, you can completely transform your poker game
in as little time as one month.
It won’t be easy, but it will certainly be
worth it.
This article will show you how to do exactly that, regardless of your previous
poker knowledge.
Whether you’re a beginner or intermediate player, this
article will help you take your game to the next level.
1. Focus on One Thing at a Time
The quickest way to improve your poker skills is choosing one topic, and one
topic only, and focusing on improving it until you get to the level that you
don’t even have to think about it.
You just do it instinctively, without consciously thinking about it.
But to
get to that level, you need to think consciously about it A LOT.
While you probably won’t see a dramatic improvement in your overall game in
just a month, you could improve significantly in the one area that you choose
to focus on.
When you master that, you move on to the next thing.
This will be far more beneficial for your game than jumping from one topic to
another day to day, without having a clear plan in mind.
A lot of beginner and intermediate poker players alike make the mistake of
trying to learn everything there is to learn in a short time span, and hoping
something sticks.
They might read a poker book one day about one topic, watch a youtube video on
another topic the other day, and then listen to a podcast on mental game the
third day.
Don’t make the same mistake as Nathan discusses in a recent video.
Poker is insanely complex as it is, and trying to master more than one thing
at a time is usually not a good idea.
If anything, it can be outright
counterproductive.
You can get easily overwhelmed and discouraged due to the
lack of any significant progress at best, and get confused and start making
mistakes you otherwise wouldn’t at worst.
Learning is a painful process, and you are certainly going to make mistakes
when trying to apply new concepts.
Applying one new concept is hard enough,
and applying two at the same time is near impossible.
Humans actually aren’t very good at multitasking, it's actually proven by science. So, shifting your attention back
and forth impedes the learning process.
You might think you’re getting more
work done in a shorter amount of time, but that’s usually not the case.
It’s more likely that you’re merely getting the illusion of progress, when in
reality you’re just spinning in circles.
So instead of trying to learn everything at once, try the one and done
approach.
Choose one topic and devote your study and play time to it until you
master it to the level of unconscious competence.
It might seem more tedious this way (and it is), but you’ll be guaranteed to
make more progress this way.
If you have to ask if your skill is trained to
the level of unconscious competence yet, it isn’t. Keep studying.
2. When Building a House, You Don’t Start with a Roof
The topic you choose to study will depend on where you are on your poker
journey, and what goals you’re trying to achieve with your game.
This will
take some honest self reflection.
If you’re a losing or a breakeven player, chances are you don’t need to start
dabbling with solvers.
In fact, using a poker solver might even end up harming your results!
If you’re a winning player with a proven track record
looking to jump up in stakes, then you might look into the more advanced poker
concepts.
But regardless of where you are on your poker journey, chances are you might
benefit from brushing up on the fundamentals.
Even the experienced poker
players have some glaring weaknesses in understanding the most basic poker
concepts, like the pot odds and the implied odds, bet sizing, and so on.
If you want to master any topic, forget about the minutiae and focus on the
basics first.
When building a house, you start with the foundations, not the
roof.
Elon Musk has a great analogy. According to him, you have to view knowledge as a tree.
You have to start with the trunk and the big branches first, before
getting to the smaller branches and the leaves.
If you don't, the leaves and
the branches have nothing to hang on to.
Even though you might think you have a solid grasp of the basic poker concept,
brushing up on them is still likely to be beneficial for your game.
Repetition
is the mother of knowledge. The deeper the roots of your knowledge tree, the
higher it can grow.
If you don’t know which part of your poker game to work on, preflop is usually
the best place to start.
You’re bound to encounter similar preflop situations
over and over again, so studying them is more beneficial than focusing on some
highly specific river spots that occur once in a blue moon.
The easiest way to quickly master the basics of preflop strategy is just to read my free poker cheat sheet.
Learn to Make $1000 Per Month in Small Stakes Games With My Free Poker Cheat Sheet
If so, then I wrote this free poker cheat sheet for you.
This is the best completely free poker strategy guide available online today.
It shows you how to crush the small stakes games step by step.
Learn exactly what hands to play and when to bet, raise and bluff all in!
These are the proven strategies that I have used as a 10+ year poker pro to create some of the highest winnings of all time in these games.
Enter your details below and I will send my free poker "cheat sheet" to your inbox right now.
3. You Can’t Improve What You Don’t Measure
So you’ve chosen the topics to study off the felt, you’re hitting the books
with a pen and a notebook in hand, and you’re applying what you learn during
your poker sessions.
Now, how the hell do you know if you’re improving or not?
Well, it’s hard to
tell, because as you know, variance plays a role in your short term result,
and what’s more, our perception of our own abilities is subjective at best,
and completely wrong at worst.
So the only way to improve is to have an accurate assessment of your skill
level before and after. The problem is, you can’t exactly measure skill.
But
you can still figure out where your skills might be lacking by trying to fix
your leaks of the felt.
You can’t improve what you can’t measure.
So if you’re serious about improving
your game, it will be worthwhile to invest in a poker tracking software.
The best poker tracking software for professional and amateur poker
players alike is Poker Tracker 4.
I have already written a complete PokerTracker review where you can also download my custom HUD for free.
If you’re playing poker online, the software allows you to import your hand history from your preferred poker site, and gives you a comprehensive view of your stats, winrate, leaks and much more.
If you’re playing poker online, the software allows you to import your hand history from your preferred poker site, and gives you a comprehensive view of your stats, winrate, leaks and much more.
One of the most powerful features of the software is the hand filtering.
For
example, if you’re looking to improve your light continuation betting, you can
filter for all the spots where you had the opportunity to c-bet, but chose not
to.
Or you want to play Ace-King better in 3-bet pots. Simply filter for Ace-King
and 3-bet pots, and you’ll get all the hands in your database that match the
filter.
You can go as general or as specific as you want. What’s more, you can save
your filters so you don’t have to plug them in manually every time.
Another great part of the software is the Leak Tracker.
If you want to improve
your poker game, but don’t even know where to begin, the Leak Tracker will
tell you.
It shows you exactly where your stats fall out of norm for the winning poker
players, for example are you playing too many hands, are you being aggressive
enough on the turn, do you c-bet too often or too rarely and so on.
You don’t need to spend any time trying to figure out where exactly you’re
bleeding money.
Poker Tracker 4 does that for you.
Arguably the best part of the software is the poker heads-up display (or HUD
for short).
It’s a little pop-up display that shows up next to your opponent’s
username and shows you their stats in real time.
This means you can see at a glance what type of a player they are, are they
loose or tight, passive or aggressive, do they call too much, do they bluff
too much and so on.
The benefits of the software are too many to go through here, so the best way
is to try it out yourself.
Poker Tracker 4 offers a 14 day free trial, so
there’s no reason not to give it a chance.
You wouldn’t want to play another
session without it.
4. Practice Makes Perfect
Once you’ve chosen the topics to study and developed a studying plan, it’s
time to actually apply what you learn.
Merely passively absorbing content,
like reading books or articles, or watching videos is not the most effective
way to learn.
You will increase your retention dramatically if you take a more proactive
approach.
This means taking notes while studying, and looking for ways to
implement what you’ve learned in your game.
But since nobody particularly enjoys studying, even if it’s a topic you’re
passionate about, there’s a better and more effective way to learn, and that
is through direct experience.
Poker is a skill like any other, and like any
other skill, you get better at it with practice.
So how do you improve your poker game quickly? You play a lot of poker!
Practice makes perfect.
But not just any practice will do. You’ll need to be more deliberate in your
approach.
This means that you should play your sessions with a clearly defined goal of
improving a certain aspect of your game, and making a conscious effort
throughout the session to apply the concept you’re learning.
For example, if you’re trying to improve your poker related math skills, try
to calculate the pot odds and/or stack-to-pot ratio in every spot you play.
If
you’re trying to improve your hand reading skills, try narrowing down your
opponent’s range through the streets.
Another way to apply what you learn more effectively is using a pen and paper
(or a phone) to keep track of your decisions throughout the session.
For example, let’s say you’re trying to improve your flop light c-betting
(making a continuation bet on the flop without the best hand, i.e. bluffing).
By the way, I discuss this in much more detail in my new Elite Poker University training.
Learn EXACTLY how to start crushing small and mid stakes poker games, play semi-pro or even full time pro. Use my proven elite poker strategies to start winning fast.
Get $100 OFF Use Code: Elite100
You can do so by making three columns on a piece of paper titled:
1) Value c-bet
2) Light c-bet
3) Didn’t c-bet
Then, every time you make a c-bet, or fail to make one, you make one tick in
the appropriate column.
This will cause you to really think through your
decisions, instead of just playing on autopilot.
It will also make you pay
attention to details you might have otherwise overlooked.
You can use this system for other concepts as well, like 3-betting preflop
(re-raising against another player’s open-raise), double barreling (making a
turn continuation bet), check-raising and so on.
It’s entirely up to you which kind of a system to use.
The point is, that
whatever it is you’re trying to improve, you’ll have much better results if
you can find a way to measure it in some way.
If you ever feel stumped in a certain situation, and don’t know what to do,
mark down the hand for later review.
This is another instance where a free poker HUD software
like Poker Tracker 4 comes in handy.
Chances are that the spots that you’re having trouble with could illuminate
what you should be working on next.
Summary
There is no magic bullet to improving your poker skills quickly.
Yes, there are tons of great resources to help you improve your game these days, including free poker software tools.
But none of this can just magically
pour poker knowledge in your brain!
It will require a bit of effort on your part.
Since poker is insanely complex beneath the surface, the best way to not get
overwhelmed by it is to choose one topic to work on until you’ve mastered it.
Then, and only then, can you move on to the next topic. This might seem
tedious, but that’s because it works.
If you don’t know where to start, focus on the fundamentals.
The preflop game
alone can offer you way more than 30 days worth of study time. You can’t improve what you don’t measure.
Since short-term poker results
aren’t the most accurate measure of your poker skills, you’ll need some sort
of reliable system that tells you whether or not you’re improving, and what
you should focus on.
So if you’re serious about improving your poker skills,
consider investing in a tracking software like Poker Tracker 4.
After you’ve studied up and figured out where your leaks are, the only thing
that remains is to apply what you learn on the felt.
Practice makes perfect, but only deliberate practice counts.
Lastly, if you want to know the complete strategy I use to make $1000+ per month in small stakes games, get a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.
Lastly, if you want to know the complete strategy I use to make $1000+ per month in small stakes games, get a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.
