Best Way to Improve

[Gustavo]

In your opinion whats the best way to improve.

1. Play Alot
2. Analyze key hands
3. Read twoplustwo

This is what i do but i feel it isnt enough.

+

[UOPokerPlayer]

4.Get Poker Tracker
5.Play some more.

[kongo_totte]

6. Get and read: Theory of Poker (sklansky), Pot and No Limit Poker ( Ciaffone and Reuben), Improve your Poker (Ciaffone). Also I hear Harrington on hold 'em is good but I haven't read it yet. Super System is also a good read.

[jkkkk]

7. get playerview
8. post on 2+2

[Student Caine]

Harrington on Hold 'Em is an excellent book imo. Harrington and Robertie do a fantastic job of explaining things in ways that are very easy to understand and the book gives you a reality of what to expect while playing poker (i.e., the examples he uses are taken from actual tournaments and there are examples in which the "right choice" actually loses, but they explain why it was still the right choice).

I am not a very good player by any means, so there may be some flaws that I am unaware of, but it has definitely helped me to improve my game.

[punter11235]

9.Experiment a bit. I think this is great way to improve one's play. Try to observe how ppl react in common situations, you have AK, raise preflop, got one caller, flop is xxx, you bet 1/2pot are they folding ? raising too
much ? (maybe bluffing), how they react to 2/3 bet ? is it better to bet 1/2pot with AA here or more ? is 1/3 bet here provoking a bluff ? (it is [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ). Maybe it is better to switch , bet 1/2pot with overpair and 2/3 with bluff ? or maybe always bet the same.
You have set, you slowplay how much $$ do you make ? or maybe it is better to lead the pot and just reraise on the flop ? You hit your flush on ther river, how much do you bet ? maybe a pot to try making it look like a bluff, or maybe a check to set a "trap" ?
You got your TPTK after preflop raise you lead the pot one person calls, which line is generally more effective lead again or check the turn to lead the river ?
Which way is better at YOUR level to extract most money ? You will have tones of problems after a while... and tons of ideas I think collecting them is sth really important in NL, in my opinion, nothing compares.

Best wishes
punter11235

[TheWorstPlayer]

10. Play short-handed
11. Do the math behind common situations and difficult situations. Work out exactly what percentage of the time you need to be ahead in each situation. Work out exactly what percentage fold equity you need for bluffs/semi-bluff to be +EV. Especially work out combination situations like "I will be ahead x% of the time, when I am behind hand 1 I will win y% of the time and he will have hand 1 z% of the time, when I am behind hand 2 I will win a% of the time and he will have hand 2 b% of the time, he will fold hand 3 c% of the time and he will have hand 3 d% of the time, he will fold hand 4 e% of the time and he will have hand 4 f% of the time." Once you work out a few of those types of hands, you will start to develop a feel for the rough percentages and how they add up together and that will help your game a lot (I need to do WAY more of this). Look at guys like El D, Matt F, etc and you will see them say stuff like "He needs to be free-rolling 25-30% of the time here to make this a fold". That comes from experience and working out the math.

[bkholdem]

12. Create a poker journal to document your progress, area's of difficulty, patterns of misplay (as opposed to misplay on particular hands), precursors to tilt, signs you are tilting, thoughts on areas to improve/ ideas on ways to improve.
13. Create a basic study guide/crip sheet with key points you need to pay attention to when playing and read this daily before you play and possibly keep it in front of you while you play, or at least one key point that is a leak to remind yourself not to do it.
14. Periodically review your journal (or extract key info from it as you write it) to add to your study guide.
15. Work on your study guide on an ongoing basis as you continue to develop towards being a good player.

[piki]

0. Be prepared to lose a lot of money

[PinkSteel]

I started playing online in October last year. Bought the standard books. Lost money and considered it tuition. Lost money in October, November, December, January, February.

Then I did two things, and my game took a complete U-turn. I won money in March, won money in April, and have won more in May so far than I did in all of April.

The two things I did were:

(1) Started religiously reading this forum, posting hands and views and inviting feedback.

(2) Thanks to reading posts on the forum, bought PokerTracker and started religiously using it to analyze hands and overall play.

Absolutely no question, the 2+2 boards and PokerTracker are what turned me around.