Most players are too lazy with their poker growth.
They might watch a video and learn something new, but they don’t practice it. They’ll read a full chapter in a poker book and learn 17 things, but they don’t practice any of it before moving on to the next chapter. They might listen to a poker strategy podcast every week for an entire year, but don’t spend even one session practicing what they learn from any one of those podcast episodes.
Does this sound like you?
If it does, then there’s a good chance your skills are not progressing the way you want them to. You study this and you study that, but you don’t practice any of it.
I want you to approach poker growth through this philosophy:
“Action is the greatest teacher.”
We learn best when we DO. To get the most from anything you study, you must commit to taking action and purposefully practicing it.
It’s like the basketball player who wants to become better at free throws. So, he shoots 1,000 free throws every day. This action is going to improve his technique, and he’ll score more than his teammates, and his competition, who only shoot 100 per day.
In my last three articles, I taught these very useful bits of strategy that can easily be practiced:
- Let’s Get More Aggressive Preflop – “You aren’t just going to look at your hand (22, JTs, A9o) and auto-call. You have to weigh the merits of folding or raising, and this will force you to take into account other aspects (of the hand).”
- The 6 Key Factors of Every Poker Hand – “The smaller the effective stacks, the more selective you have to be in battling. The larger the effective stacks, the more room you have to maneuver both pre- and post-flop.”
- 4 Poker Plays I Don’t Respect… and How I Exploit ’em! – “When a target limps under the gun, and I hold a hand like A9s, KTs or 88, I love raising it to 5-6bb. The goal is to get them heads up on the flop.”
You might think to yourself after reading each of those bits of strategy, “That’s great! I’m going to use that tonight!”
But inevitably, what happens is you fire up the online poker tables and you just play your regular game. You forgot all about the poker strategy you learned, so the idea of practicing it goes right out the window.
How do we get beyond this laziness? How do you purposefully work to grow your poker skills?
This simple 3-step process will help you take action with every useful strategy you learn from here on out.
Step 1. Make a Commitment to Practice What You Just Learned
That means you have to make note of it somewhere so you remember to practice it during your next session. Write it on a sticky note and attach it to your monitor. Send yourself an email. Write it on the back of your hand. Ask your wife to remind you of it before you play tonight. If you don’t do any of this, it’s almost guaranteed you’ll forget it.
Step 2. Figure Out How to Practice What You Learned
Each of the three strategies listed above can be practiced while playing, but it often requires you to pay more attention or put yourself in spots to practice it. Example ways to practice the strategies above:
- “Weigh the merits of folding or raising.” – Don’t allow yourself to just click call with suited-connectors, pocket pairs, AX and broadways. Take your hand off your mouse, and ask yourself, “If I 3bet, will he fold?” “If I call, what’s the flop going to look like? Is folding better than seeing the flop OOP with this hand?”
- Consider stack sizes – Before you enter a hand, say aloud the stack sizes of your opponents. “He’s got 100bb’s, this is a good set mining spot.” Before you call with a flush draw, “He’s only got 25BBs left, there’s not enough to chase this flush draw.”
- Target limpers – Pay attention to the action, before it gets to you, and watch for limpers. When they limp, “This might be my chance to isolate ‘em and practice the strategy.” Before you iso-raise, limp behind or fold, determine whether or not your hand is good enough to take on this limper with other players still to act.
Step 3. Practice the Strategy as Often as is Profitable
This requires that you’re not distracted and you’re actively looking for the spots to use your strategies. When the opportunity comes, and sometimes you have to put yourself in that spot, weigh the merits of using the strategy. If it seems like a profitable opportunity to use it, pull the trigger! And when you’re not involved, but someone else is in that spot, ask yourself, “What would I do if I were him? Is this a profitable spot to use the strategy?” The more often you pull the trigger, or noodle on the spot, the better, and sooner, you’ll learn it.
Action is the Greatest Teacher
Execute the three steps above in your very next session with any strategy you recently learned. Do it tonight, do it tomorrow, and over and over again.
I know that if you always take action with the strategies you learn, you will have a fun and rewarding poker journey.
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