10 Ways to Rapidly Improve Your Poker Skills

10 Ways to Rapidly Improve Your Poker Skills

1. For the Study & NOT Just for CuriosityばStudy with Intent

I know many feel like reading a few such articles or watching random poker videos can make for good time, but true progress is made when you approach studying with intent. If we are honest with ourselves, there must be a few ‘leaks’ in your game or way of thinking if you’re spewing off money on the river so often. Loosening up too early in the hand? This allows you to focus on one problem at a time. Poker is not a game of knowledge so much that it is unleashing laser beam accuracy on holes in your opponents games.

2. Purposeful, Not Just for Volume

Grinders love the word volume. The more you play, the more you learn to win — correct? Not quite. Those mindless hours at the table won’t do you much good if you’re just making the same mistakes over and over again. Instead, play fewer hands over shorter periods of time and single them out with a purpose: work on your c-bet sizing or walk-through ranges live. However, remember that quality always beats quantity — even when it comes to chasing growth and not just variance.

3. Analyze Every Session (Even the Ugly Ones)

It is easy to look back on big wins with I told you so placation. It is just painful to talk about a bad beat or that horrible calling station river call you made because you were tilting. But that’s where the gold is. Make notes too after every session, for the hands that got your heart racing are wins or losses that carry a lot of emotional and strategic depth with them. Going over them, we see patterns and mindsets that live coaching videos will never be able to teach.

4. Employ Tracking Software — Numbers Can Be Tamed

The figures never lie even if your memory does Only PokerTracker or Hold’em Manager can show how we really play. Do you messure up to your own words of beeing a tight-aggressive? How much you fold to 3-bets? Do you value bet thin enough? These stats are your mirror. They are not Nicholous Cage, they do not GIVE compliments but rather reflect that which you give to them.

5. Participate in Strategy Forums — Be Harassed by Strangers

Playing online with other people broadens your horizons in ways you never would have dreamed of alone. TwoPlusTwo, r/poker and other forums are crawling with players breaking down hands and discussing lines. Other times, affirmation through brutal comebacks — “Why would you ever ring in that spot? —create the greatest leaps. In other words, poker success typically starts at the edge of your comfort zone.

6. Coach—Cheat Your Way Through the Muddy Water

What makes a good coach is not so much pointing out the mistakes you are making, it is training your brain to think differently. Meanwhile, they know you have blind spots and lazy lines that need to be challenged. That thing that would have taken you 6 months to work out on your own, they can show in a week. Yes, it costs. And investing in a coach is basically the same as paying to skip that detour and just get straight to all of the good stuff.

7. Stack the Pros, but with a Notepad

If you are a poker stream viewer then surely the activity is particularly entertaining. You applaud, you smile and ask hands()<<“”; Well you have to take notes otherwise, what will you learn. Pause the video. Ask them why they 4-bet light there or folded middle set on a dry board. CALL : Analyze their thoughts, not merely swag. Even better if you anticipate the action they might take. Then compare. That is how professionals become your home teachers.

8. Part 3: How To Practice Hand Reading — Make Ranges, Not Wishes

Hand reading is one of the most important, yet underdeveloped skills in poker. Do not just wonder the same after seeing someone’s method post-showdown — build this hand. What could they not have? How about—What do they raise the turn with (instead of river.) The best hand readers read off of deduction rather than clairvoyance. And the more you hone this skill the better vision you develop of what everyone else is where each bit sits.

9. How to Start Thinking in EV

The truth is — poker decisions are not binary, they revolve around EV (expected value). Basically this means every time you bet, call or fold it is based on long-term good +EV and not short term emotion. Begin by calculating EV in simple spots. Did that bluff end up being so profitable in the long run? Has that thin value bet really been +EV? Base Play Evaluation on Math, Not Feel It’s a new perspective that changes everything.

10. Challenge Yourself To Play Better Competitions [Despite Whether You Win Or Loose]

But they are fun to bitch slap around. But growth? That lives in pain. Being seated with people who are better than you sucks — but it learns. You will find lines you did not think of. Pressure will be applied in ways that seem unreasonably unfair… until you understand them. And yeah, you’ll lose. But each one of those hands is a branch extended by someone who has learned even more than I have. What’s that worth? But in case you wanted to know how much that actually pays the elite of the elite, here’s an eye-opener: 탑플레이어포커 (seems) money is worth — or a reminder that mastery at poker isn’t solely for fun and games.