Poker is as complex a game as any and it would not be an exaggeration to call it an art. And as any art, it requires a bit of philosophy. Because unless you are a machine you need more than the electricity running up and down your spine to motivate you towards genuine love (of a game as well as of a person) and true accomplishment. Naturally, you don’t have to be a “philosopher” to have a philosophy and if the term makes you uncomfortable you might as well change it to “imagination” or “psychology.”
Imagination and perception are the springboards to allow you to force yourself to do that which you don’t like to do. These two concepts will enable you to view the unwelcome chore from a more favorable perspective. Think of comparing the somewhat abhorrent task of developing communication skills with taking a cold shower. The cold shower will shock your system and turn you off of them completely. But with repetition, over a few weeks of taking them one or two times a week, you actually may look forward to the occasion and you won’t give them up. It becomes a challenge to step into the shower, but it will wake you up, and the warm water feels so good after the cold.
This is true of almost any new skill that is humanly possible to acquire and that is why some people like to learn “new things” even though the initiatory stages are always necessarily stressful to a certain degree.
Try cold showers and, with the perspective of the enterprise washed in healthy glowing colors, with this philosophy in mind plunge into whatever poker areas you most dislike.
The philosophy lessons ends here, and now you might consider several more general and practical tips. Hiring a professional to train you privately is one of the best ways to acquire experience and learn about your weaknesses. A private coach will also teach you to keep an effective track of your mistakes in order to learn from them.
A professional trainer can be a budget buster, but you can get the same experience and knowledge by acquiring some poker playing pals. The give and take of play with others who enjoy the game, even if their play is not so hot, will improve your technique and insightfulness. Don’t overlook the value of online poker forums. There are some crackerjack players who love to post their knowledge and experience on these boards.
Don’t forget to take notes. Whether on or offline, while playing the game, record your play to enable you to review the hands later and learn from this as to where you went wrong. Notes can reveal all the choices you could have made but didn’t, putting you on to greater possibilities of alternate moves in the future. They will also help your self-introspection and will lead you to ask yourself why you made the moves you did. This skill at introspection also applies greatly to your opponents moves. You want to reach the point where you can ask these crucial questions of yourself before you make that bet or play that card.
Did your opponent react the way you thought he would? Is his reaction in keeping with what you expected after learning the ways of your opponent? Did he bet or raise according to your expectations? What cards do you want him to think are in your hand? At which point in the hand to you want him to call or raise?
If you continuously ask yourself questions like these, while cumbersome and difficult at first, they will become second nature. After a while, this questioning process will become a welcome challenge and this is when you become a genuine player of the game of poker.
The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Rakeback at Paradise Poker and Rakeback at PKR Poker.