Poker Strategy - Creative Ways to Improve your game
Online Poker Strategy
Creative Ways to Improve your game
You’ll read a lot of articles online that are focused on ways to improve your poker game. Most of the stress fundamental approaches – read poker books, talk to other players, get feedback about your game, and so on. All of those approaches are valid and useful, but after a bit, you might find yourself getting bored with them. When that time comes, consider the following creative ways to improve your poker game.
1. Watch poker training videos. These are more and more common these days, with several major sites such as PokerXFactor, Cardrunners and RealPokerTraining offering you blow-by-blow insight of some of the top online players. You’ll find videos for both no limit hold em tournament strategy and cash game strategy, In many of these videos, top pros walk you through their decision making process, sometimes in actual game-time, which results in a level of detail that you just can’t get from a book. Many of these sites do charge for access, but you can find a few free samples and plenty of no-cost homemade videos from people with less of a reputation,
2. Make your own videos. It’s easier than you might think, and it’s a great way to learn about your game. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to charge anyone for your videos (although you never can tell what people will pay for). You don’t need much – just a microphone (cheap is fine) and some free software from SourceForge (Audible for sound recording and CamStudio for screen video capture). If you want to record your games in real time, that’s all you’ll need. If you’d prefer to go back and record at a later time, search around for a hand replayer that can translate your hand histories into a graphical format suitable for recording. I like the Universal Hand Replayer – it works with several major rooms, so if you play at Poker Stars or have a Full Tilt rake back deal , you can just use your hand histories that you already have on your computer
3. Write your own articles. If you make a habit out of writing about poker every day before you play, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how quickly you can improve. They don’t have to be novels – short essays on a specific topic are probably best. It’s almost like writing a daily poker quiz for yourself. Just think of a situation from your last session or a nagging problem you’ve been facing, or a neat move you’ve been using to great success lately – whatever you choose, you’re going to read the benefits of making your ideas about poker more concrete. When your ideas are more concrete, it’s easier to refine them and to remember and apply them, all critical steps on the path from theory to practice.
Hopefully those tips will help you shake out of a rut, get some new ideas about your game, or just make poker a little more interesting. If they don’t work for you, try your own variations. The whole goal is to not let learning become a boring routine that you have to force yourself through, because once learning feels stale, your game is bound to suffer.