How to really study the game.

[soko]

Many if not all of us have read the same books, so while this will make us better than 50% or so of the poker community, how do we reach farther to take our game to the next level?

Just reading the books and playing 10's of thousands of hands isn't enough.

List and describe some of the ways you go far and beyond the median poker player to give you the edge in your decision making.

[ QUOTE ]
Many if not all of us have read the same books, so while this will make us better than 50% or so of the poker community, how do we reach farther to take our game to the next level?

Just reading the books and playing 10's of thousands of hands isn't enough.

List and describe some of the ways you go far and beyond the median poker player to give you the edge in your decision making.

[/ QUOTE ]

all those books eventually get into player/situation reads pretty fast. so i think that's where you really have to go. you really have to start putting your opponent's on hands and stuff (and the real experts say it'll be shaky at first but you'll get better very fast)... but that seems to be the key. and the good things about reading hands is "it's subjective" and it's a lifetime's work (i.e. you can always get better).

[Arnfinn Madsen]

First of all, the median player has never read a book, but I get your point.

Some of the advice from some of the posters on this site go deeper than the books, so that can be a good source. Other than that, I think being observant at the table to improve your opponent profiling and hand reading skills is the best way to get an edge. Also, not leaving tough tables is very important as I think the best way to get significantly better is to play against better players.

[b33nz]

Just keep on playing, that's my advice to every solution in poker [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]. Play, play, play.

Going over hands in which you had to make a difficult decision(s), and seeing if, and how, you could've played them better.

What about finding a mentor? My gut feeling is that's what I really need right now. I emailed ZeeJustin offering to pick up his dry-cleaning. But surprisingly was not taken up on my offer. He did respond though, nice guy.

I did find these very helpful: http://www.tightpoker.com/visitor_histories.html

I played along with Strassa and Daliman and tried to guess what they would do. Anyone know where I can find more of these posteed, by truly great players?

[Xhad]

Play games other than your "standard" game. Notice what skills you have to develop to excel at the "new" game and see if you can't take them back to your "old" game.

[BluffTHIS!]

Mike Caro said in an article that you need to think about the right things in the right order. And what those things are depends on the game, the stakes, the stack sizes (big bet), the equities of the particular situation in question and the players involved. Barry Greenstein's book in his hand examples uses the analysis of determining the correct play and the perfect play (in hindsight) so as to make better plays in the future. It is well worth reading to learn how to take your decision process to the next level.

In a recent post I asked for some coaching assistance. This post gave me a direction. Thanks.

If anyone tries any of these coaches, please post back with the results. I'll do the same.