Poker Strategy: Play More Poker

One of the most important poker strategies that I could have embraced when I started playing poker was also the most obvious one: play more poker. It wasn't that I didn't play poker, I played but I could have played more. What I mean by that is I spent a lot of time reading books on poker strategy and watching video about poker strategy when I could have been using that time to play poker and develop strategy.

I don't want anybody to think for a second that I would discourage reading up on tips or studying footage of players on television. That stuff is all important in developing your understanding of playing poker. It gives you background, but you have to play to understand your game.

Poker strategy can only be developed at the table

My biggest mistake when I was starting out was coming to the game with a head full of theory. I would play periodically, being careful and patient, waiting for ideal opportunities. What would usually happen would be a brutal river or miracle turn for some completely unexpected hand that I was up against. I didn't stop to think more about the kind of game I was in. It was a low level limit table. I found myself thinking that these players were all crazy and that if I just waited them out, I would empty them. That of course, doesn't happen in that kind of game.

What I should have been doing was going and playing in the games that I planned on starting at and studying the play. The poker game you enter will dictate the strategy. You can't bring strategy into a game you don't know anything about. I once read that there was a poker room that T.J. Cloutier enjoyed playing at but if he got there and didn't know enough of the guys at the table, he wouldn't even bother to sit down. This was a guy with tremendous experience and a killer cash game but he valued his knowledge of the game he was going to sit in more highly than all his experience. In other words, his experience taught him to know the game first before you bring your strategy.

Playing poker breeds strategy

Once you have had the chance to play several times wherever it is you play poker, you will be able to start implementing strategy. This will come from knowing the players and the room you are playing in. Poker rooms are a lot like poker players, they all have their own personality. For example, it is well known that California rooms play different than Vegas rooms. The general principal is that Vegas rooms are tighter. In the beginning I made the mistake of bringing a Vegas style of game to a California room. It didn't work. I just thought that what I had studied would start to work eventually. Instead what I should have been doing was realizing that the style of play at the game I was in was always going to be loose and give more action than what I was planning for.

Once I was able to see what the game was all about I could adapt my play accordingly and apply what I had learned for that particular type of poker game. I got so caught up on a particular poker strategy, I forgot to pay attention to the most valuable information available. That was the game itself. What I am saying may sound a little silly to the more seasoned player, but once it hit me that I was wasting time waiting for a particular poker strategy to start working, everything turned around. Playing more poker will help you to develop plenty of sound poker strategy.