The Do’s and Don’ts of Studying Poker

As a poker enthusiast, you will start to learn more than just the basics. It’s for that reason that I have put together this guide to help you become a badass poker player. You can become that player if you put in the required effort. The following are strategies that we find most helpful and make sure everyone interested in playing poker should be implementing.

The techniques listed below will drastically increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your studies. Start with one that connects with you and hits your soul first, then keep going until you have completed all do’s and left all the don’ts.

Top 4 Dos

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1. Study One Topic Weekly

An entire week can easily be dedicated to studying one topic. If you had made this move earlier and focused on playing 3,000 hands per week, imagine how different your life would be right now? Your skills would have improved due to learning over 52 new topics while you played over fifty thousand hands which would help you consciously work on your skills.

Starting today, you must devote every week’s study time to one subject. Suppose you want to improve on how you play cbet. You have to watch every video, read every article, and listen to every podcast dedicated to making profitable CBets.

2. Schedule your Poker Study Time Daily

You can’t accomplish anything unless it is done on a schedule. Most great and big minds have an important strategy and concept that they follow, that has gotten them to their spot in the first place. So, set a time each day to study poker. You can easily fit in a 30 min session during lunch breaks at work (even 10 min). If you’re like me, you might be better off studying in the morning. The next morning, wake up at 5:30 instead of 6 o’clock. Set your coffee maker to have a pot ready by 5:25. Pick it up as you go over to study and you’re ready to go.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter when you finish your studies, as long as you do them. Put it in your daily schedule and get started at a time that’s convenient for you.

3. Take Action with New Strategies

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A large number of players don’t get the most out of their study of the game. Sometimes they only watch videos and do not take notes or do not act on what they have learned. This has happened to me a thousand times.

How about poker readers? Many poker books contain a minimum of 15 chapters. This will take you 15 different weeks to study, dedicating each week to learning all there is to know about a new chapter and practicing what has been taught. That is how learning should be done.

After you have studied from videos and read books, you should try to practice what you have been taught in a game. So, within a few days, you can practice purposefully by implementing all you’ve gathered. As you play poker, you can review your notes before the session starts to help you stay focused. When you study this way, you get the most out of the books you have read.

4. Try out a hand-reading exercise

Hand reading is the most important skill that you can develop and practice as you get older and more experienced with the game itself. With it, you are imagining and giving your opponent a preflop range of hands based on how they entered the pot and by reading their body language. You can watch a lot of videos on YouTube when it comes to body language and reading someone else’s gameplay. In the long run, you’re looking at higher chances and a better percentage of scoring and winning big!

Top 4 Don’ts

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1. Don’t Jump from Topic to Topic Every Day

Different players fail to grasp one concept completely in studying due to jumping to different topics daily. On Monday, they watched a cbet video. The next day and on a Tuesday, they read an article from 3Bet, followed by a podcast on tilt management. They then read one chapter from a poker book about ICM on Wednesday.

Focusing on one topic per week will allow you to consume content from different coaches and this will help you make the most of your poker study.

Bonuses are important features to focus on. For instance, you can win more with BonusCodePoker. While this cannot guarantee winnings, it can improve your chances of doing so.

2. Do NOT Hope to find the Time to Study at Some Point in the Day

Due to your scale of preference and their importance or urgency, other things may take precedence before your study. Planning your study time will allow you to accomplish a lot more than those who don’t. Those who don’t usually plan or people who just go with the wind tend to accomplish a lot fewer tasks and projects each day. Buy yourself a planner or a notebook that will allow you to focus on different topics and visualize your day before it starts!

3. Don’t Learn a New Strategy without Implementing it

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They say that action is the best teacher. You’re not getting the most f your study time if you just watch, read, or listen to get new strategies. You might read an article that explains how to raise the bigger blinds to attract the fishiest players. However, you won’t have learned anything if you keep iso-raising. As an aspiring poker player, it is necessary to try out all new strategies learned to get the best of them.

4. Don’t play robotic poker

Have you ever played a round of poker in which you’d do everything so robotically and make a common pattern of mindless decisions? Great poker players stay focused and are always sharp, thinking and rethinking each move before they ever play it.

PS: If you feel like you’re stuck we recommend that you start recording game tape and force yourself to speak through your actions. Take some time to review and watch this tape. You’ll catch yourself making a ton of rookie mistakes, which will allow you to isolate them and work on that specific pattern.

Conclusion

The following steps should be implemented one at a time until all are a part of your studying mechanism. Choose one that resonates most with you. It will more likely become a part of your poker study routine if it speaks to you and you see the value in it already. As a result, you’ll get more out of your study time. Take both the do’s and don’ts into consideration and you’ll be a step closer to a significant win.