Poker is a fantastic and enjoyable game that can make the few winners at the game large amounts of money.
Are you one of the winners?
Whether you a loser or a winner, improvement can always be made so its up to you to look for tactics and strategies you can use to make the most money possible from this great game.
Poker is constantly evolving and there are more resources than ever for people that want to play poker improve their game and come out a winner.
In Australia there are restrictions like the one enforced on online poker and in many states the only place to play poker for money is the casino.
Most players will lose money in the long term due to bad play or incorrect strategies, to come out as one of the winners you need to look at your game but also the game your opponents are playing and get the advantage over the competition.
Study
YouTube is a fantastic opportunity for poker player to learn basics and more advanced skills. Some of the channels that I have personally found helpful are
The Poker Guys
Pokerstars school
ReadingPokerTells
CrushLivePoker
Most you tube poker videos have only basic strategies but you can come across some more advanced techniques to try and look into. Many channels are dedicated to online poker which unfortunately is unavailable to Australians at the moment but hopefully will change in the future. I would recommend watching channels that focus more on the live strategy than an online based strategy, because there can be vast differences.
Learn from mistakes
If you make a big error use it as a learning experience. Every poker player has done the wrong move or bluffed into the someone they know they shouldn’t. By keeping a record of these and learning from these scenarios you can help your game move forward.
Everyone makes mistakes but how you learn from them is what makes the difference.
Ask opinions from others
Most players will have a core group of friends that they will discuss hands in between hands, after, during or before sessions. Doing this can help your game move to the next level, you can find out what other players think about the way you have played a particular hand or situation and find out if they believe you made the right play or made a mistake.
Join a forum. There are online forums where you can ask advice on hands and have a huge audience of experienced poker players giving you opinions on your play, but you can also look at other players experiences to improve your game.
twoplustwo is the most well-known forum with a huge member base and a great number of members looking to improve their poker game and giving advice to anyone looking for it.
Crushlivepoker.com also has a great forum full of players looking to improve their game through sharing experiences and learning from each other.
Keep records of your sessions
This is essential for everyone from beginner to the most seasoned pro. Keeping a record helps you to know if you are on “tilt” and always lose your session overall if you buy in twice. This can help you learn what your stop point should be for rebuying and can really help you analyse your game.
A couple phone apps I have tried myself are
Poker analytics
And
Poker Income
These are the apps that I have personally used and have helped me greatly control my bankroll and know how I have been performing the last few weeks and months to know when I need to further look at my game.
Keep notes on players
Some good things to take notes of are
-how often they play hands
-do they bluff often
-any tells they might have
-any history you have with this player
-any other information or ways that a hand happened can be useful
There are apps you can get for your phone that can help you to keep notes on players and make it easy to look up for next time you see them at your table.
Bet sizing
A major problem that a lot of poker players have and is one of the most complicated one to get right is sizing your bets correctly. There are so many people with differing opinions do you bet the same every time with value and bluffing or should you bet the max you will get called when betting for value and bet the amount that will get the person to fold when bluffing.
Learn about tells
There are plenty of YouTube videos on tells and what makes it so hard to learn is that a lot of people have differing opinions on what a tell means and in a lot of cases players will do the opposite of a tell. They could be doing this on purpose but most likely its just how they play and it is specific for that player. The best thing to do is watch these videos and then closely watch for this next time you’re at the tables.
There are so many tells to choose from, so each session just look for one or two, especially when you’re not in a hand because it is easier to look for without the distraction of what actions you should be doing in a hand.
Mike Caro has a great book on poker tells but as discussed, every player can have different tells so learn the different variations of common tells, he also has a couple YouTube videos discussing poker tells.
ReadingPokerTells is also a channel dedicated to live poker tells. Click here to check out the channel
Stay away from other casino games
Other casino games are one key reason that prevents most good poker players from having a consistent extra couple hundred in their bank account every week.
Most of the poker player I have known, as well as falling into this trap myself is to have a couple hands of blackjack or a couple spins of roulette after a session. These games are hugely in the casinos favour and while you might only do $50 at the end of a session it can add up over the year to be a huge drain on your bankroll.
I have in the past had very regrettable experiences on the roulette table where I have grinded out on the poker table making $150 and then on the way out played a couple spins of the roulette wheel and have walked out even or a loss.
One occasion I remember I lost $1000 in poker on a really unlucky night and instead of going home and watching a couple YouTube videos or watching tv I have tried to “get my money back” and followed up losing another $2000 on a combination of pokies and roulette which destroyed my bankroll and meant that I had to have a long break from poker which I did not want.
Practice making the same actions
Practicing making the same action is a commonly forgotten about skill because it does not have a direct impact straight away to your bankroll but over time will help your poker game greatly.
By making the same action when you bet, check, raise etc will prevent other players from getting tells off you and it is a very simple fix. A remember watching great video of Chris Ferguson that I cannot find now which has split screen of him value betting and bluffing with no difference, this is a great way to show how powerful it can be to not give your opponents any extra information to help their decisions.
Look at your cards only once
This is a very common one but something amateurs all over the world struggle with and it costs them money. It is a very simple thing to do which can help you to not give a couple tells away that can come about from looking at your cards a second or third time. The most common mistake is forgetting the suits of your cards. Practise doing it while even not in hands and it will be a something that you will never have to think about again over time.
Watch others even while not in hand
This is something that a lot of people talk about and that’s because its super important.
We all can become so distracted by having a chat with the person sitting next to us or the game that’s on the tv but your missing out on vital information. It is so much easier to find out what a person is up to when you’re not in the hand and can just focus on one player, you can find out how they are playing their bluffs or if they are just playing like a maniac.
Obviously, you still want to have fun while at the tables but you could have picked up a little piece of information that could have made or saved you 100s of dollars.
This includes watching what people are showing at the end of the hand.
Only show your hand when you’re required to do so
Why would you give your opponents extra information on the way you play?
I have definitely been someone that has fallen into the trap of showing my hand too often, you might think your doing the right thing by showing that you can bluff to put doubt in your opponent’s minds but the best thing to do is to NOT show them anything unless you must to win he hand.
Learn about the rake at different casinos
Rake can be a large factor when making some decisions at the poker table and is often overlooked. Some casinos do not have capped rake which means if you are attempting to play a big hand you need to account for the rake that will be taken away if your win.
A casino that I used to regularly play at had no cap of their rake so that would take so much money on the table and I personally have paid $300 in one hand just in rake. This can really affect your bottom line but unfortunately in Australia there are not too many options for poker players apart from the one casino in your city. The casino has now capped their rake at a max of $10 which can dramatically change the amount of hands you can play because the pot you may win is not taking a large amount of rake out.
Sign up to training sites
I firmly believe crush live poker has helped my game tremendously. Bart especially was the first person on YouTube that seemed to be thinking on the same wavelength as me, he makes stuff clear and precise and has helped me to focus on the major leaks I have in my game. I haven’t felt the need to sign up to any other training sites at the moment because there are so many videos and guides that I haven’t even got to look at yet.
If you’re interested in finding out more check out my review of crushlivepoker.com
Another popular training site is upswing poker. This site is run by Doug Polk a very familiar face if you have been watching poker videos on YouTube, and also the winner of the $111,111 buy in high roller for one drop for $3.7Million 2017.
These sites do cost money so I would only recommend using these sites if you are going to be serious about improving your game and taking it to the next level.
If you are just looking to improve you game slightly for games with friends or free poker games then YouTube is your most valuable resource.
Make a preflop hand range for yourself
Making a preflop range can help you prevent beginner mistakes and getting caught up in playing hands you know you shouldn’t. There are many sites out there that can give you ideas on what a good preflop range should be depending on the number of players.
You can tweak these slightly to your liking as you progress but make sure you change these before you start playing because if you are undisciplined it’s an easy way to be a losing player.
Poker Books
There are so many to choose from so its hard to know what the best books are available out there.
Some books that are highly recommended are
The variety of books from David Skalansky
Mike Caros book on poker tells – find out current price on ebay
Doyle Brunson – Super system
The above books can sometimes contain outdated information because poker is always evolving but can give you great insights from great minds in poker and even if you can pick up 1 or 2 valuable tips from each book this could make you $1000s of extra money.
Free Poker (apl or pub poker)
I would not recommend these to improve your poker game as the value of money and chips to not affect people decisions like they would with real money.
These can be valuable to get used to looking at any tells that recreational players might give off, or to practice in a real-life scenario making the same movements and behaviours whether value betting or bluffing.
One other benefit I can see from these games is getting your preflop ranges set up correctly, because you are able to practice in a real-life scenario and try to not get trapped into playing differently.
When I was 19 I really enjoyed playing APL and made a good group of friends from it but I can honestly say that it didn’t improve my poker game. I played every night for months and the amount of time and money I spent playing these games could have been better spent playing online, live or watching strategy videos.
Online Free Poker
Similar to pub poker the benefits of playing the free online poker apps is to get used to your preflop ranges in different scenarios popular free poker sites are
Zynga
And
Pokerstars.net
These games will not teach you what its like to play in a casino for real money but you can use them to train yourself in different aspects of poker.
Money Management
A key factor that the great players have and need. Keeping control of your bankroll makes sure that you will never get to $0 and drives your profits to the maximum.
These are varying opinions on how many buy ins you should have to enter into certain buy in games, but the main point is do not try to move up levels to get your losses back and go down to the smaller games to have a win and move back up when you can afford to.
Only play in games that you can afford to play, because once your bankroll gets to $0 you will not be able to play.
Do you agree with this list? Please comment if you have any other tips that should be added to this list that can help other players out. What has helped you the most to improve?
