I'm bored stupid with poker books

[SNOWBALL138]

I can't seem to pay any attention to poker books at the moment. I just picked up King Yao's book, and I was pretty disappointed by it. A lot of the conclusions he comes to in the book using math are sort of intuitive or automatic to me.

I'm not saying I'm a great player or anything, but after playing so many hours during the last year I've been serious about poker, decisions come to me in a natural and intuitive way, and its more rare for me to have to spend time making a decision.

Its not that I play on autopilot, because I focus intensely, its just that my thinking process is becoming less and less concious. I know I'm still using information and basing my decisions on the size of the pot, and the quality of my opposition, and such things.

Sure, I can beat party 3/6, and have done good at 5/10, but haven't played it for that long, but I am not an amazing player or anything like that. I feel strongly that I have an immense amount more to learn about poker, but somehow learning King Yao's DIPO method of pot odds doesn't really seem that much better to me than what I already use. I'm feeling more and more that the way to get good at poker mostly happens with playing experience, and developing good habits.

Is this healthy or am I just getting lazy?

A lot of great poker players say they've never read a poker book before. There is absolutely no substitute for experience. If you're already a solid player, don't look at books as a different way to play. And don't think just because you do some things differently than a book says, that your way is incorrect.

Look at it this way, read books for ideas, different thought methods, different ways to see the game. But you don't have to incorporate all those ideas into your game. If you see something that makes a lot of sense to you and you think it'll help your game, use it. If not, don't. Just be comfortable with the way you play and you should be okay.

I would suggest perhaps that you might want to put aside the poker books for a while - don't throw them away, just put them aside for a while - and read something else that stimulates you.

I am currently reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell and it is truly fascinating - and it is absolutely relelvant to poker.

[vexvelour]

Perhaps the books you're reading are redundant for your level of play. If you still feel the need to read books, focus on a different aspect of your game while choosing a book. (Like psychology, or tells..etc.). Other than that, I'd say just play!

[mosquito]

So put the books away for a couple months.

Pick them up again sometime, you will probably find
something you missed before or something you did not
understand as well before.

You get the most first time through, obviously. Be
patient on your re-reads, don't anticipate (memorize)
what is coming next.

[PokerCad]

play,,,play,,,play,,and more play,,,etc......

[jedi]

Read Ken Warren. It's a comedy.