So, you are to the point where you have read a few books and looked through the web for all the little pieces of hidden information. Your game has developed over the past few months and you are winning a little more than you are losing for the first time in your poker career. You have a system and as long as you follow it you know you will win in the long run. It took me over a year of dedicated playing just to get to this point. Many players (myself included) get stuck here for a long time and do not understand why or how to get past it. Many don’t even have the desire to get past it. I have figured out why this happened to me and I hope my advice will help you push past this point in your poker journey.
At this point in their poker career, most players are playing on a system. It is possible to win at poker by simply following the advice you find on the web and tailoring it to a game you are comfortable with. If you dedicate yourself to defining your game you don’t even need poker skill to win. You just need a logical string of decisions to follow. This is why people are able to write computer programs to beat average human players. With my system, all of the decisions were made before the cards were even dealt. I even had a spreadsheet that looked something like this:
| Always Play | 3x The Blind | 1x The Blind |
| AA | KQs | KJs |
| KK | AJs | K10s |
| ATs | 1010 | |
| AKs | AQos | AJos |
| AQs | JJ | A10os |
| AKos |
There were many other parts to my system included finding the tables with the suckers, taking notes, and when to fold which hands. It was a giant mess, but it won more than it lost, albeit at a very slow rate. My favorite activity at work was telling my co-workers how I could “teach” them how to win no-limit Hold’em poker using a flowchart (though none of them ever took me up on it).
I really was content for a while. I did not feel any need to get past this point. After all, I enjoyed what I was doing and I was making a little money. Why get better?
This point your poker career is much like having just graduated from school. You are feeling really good about yourself. You have the skills it takes to be an adult. You even have the skills it takes to make a little money. The people who are content to stop at this point never improve. They are perfectly happy being who they are and never want more.
Then there are people who push through this barrier. They go to college to learn more and improve their lives. You are obviously one of these achievers (at least in poker) since you are reading this information on how to improve. Now you just have to go do it. Pick up more books. Work on your game. Stop being content.
The first thing you need to understand is your system is a good thing. It has given you a basis on which your entire strategy can be built. Notice I said strategy, not system. What is the difference? A system can be played while you are watching TV or reading a book. Strategy involves paying attention and learning about the game while you play.
The very basics of strategy are learning discipline and reading opponents. Discipline involves knowing when a good hand is not going to win and being able to throw it away. This is extremely difficult, even for a seasoned player. Did you watch the WSOP on TV? Top pros agonize over these decisions. Two pair is not a very good hand if you have to pay $100 to play it.
This leads to knowing your opponents. You think playing two pair is a bad decision for $100? Sometimes it is. If you are up against Mr. Maniac who bet $100 behind you, playing two pair is an easy decision to make. However, if the other guy in the hand betting $100 into you is Mr. Tighttush and has played three hands in the last hour, it is definitely time to fold.
Being in control of the betting is maybe the single most important skill I have learned recently. You have got to be in control of the betting whenever possible. When you are sitting there checking and dreading the next bet, the hand is essentially over. You will be amazed how much better it feels when you are the one betting into every pot and taking away the pot odds of the players behind you. The small pots you win will make up for the losses and you will be much more respected at the table.
Lastly, you have got to learn how to bluff to complete your strategy. It is a scary skill to learn, but it will make an incredible difference in your game. Players do not realize how profitable it is to bluff, but I promise you, even if you only bluff when it makes sense (in late position or on a draw) you will dramatically increase your winnings.
Discipline, knowing your opponents, controlling the betting, and bluffing are typically not part of a system because they require understanding position at the table, the number of players in the hand, and the tendencies of the other players. In other words, you have to pay attention to everything that happens and use it to your advantage.
There are many books available to help you improve you game. The Theory of Poker by Sklansky is an excellent tool. All you have to do is to once again dedicate yourself to getting better. You did it to get to this point, now push through this barrier and win some real money (preferably not at my table though please).
