There is no magic elixir one can drink to become a world champion poker player. Most sound advice includes lots of reading, watching training videos, and, above all, playing as often as possible. All well and good, but the inevitable question always arises – What can I do today to make myself a better player? I blame our fast food, instant gratification society for the impatience, but here are my top three things you can do right away. <READMORE>

Coming in at number three is finding a fresh perspective. Stop only seeing your game through your own eyes. Find a friend to watch you play a bit and then would be willing to honestly give their opinion. Regardless of your skill level, sometimes new eyes see things in a different way. Not that their thoughts are worth more than yours, it’s just more information.

If you have no poker playing friends you can always pay a professional to be your friend for a few hours ;o) Seriously though, it is often worth a few bucks to get a more informed opinion. Up until my semi-retirement recently I had been doing this for folks for almost a dozen years and nobody ever thought it a complete waste of money. I also found I got a lot out of it myself, so please don’t be so quick to say no if a friend asks for your help.

The second most important thing you can do today to improve your game is clear out all distractions. This means you need to be able to focus completely on your game, period. A good young player and new friend of mine put it quite succinctly, “Turn off the damn tv.”

That brings us to number 1. The single most important thing you can do to give you immediate improvement in your game is (where is that drumroll when I need it?)…

Get a screen capture program and start making videos of your game.

We’ve all seen, or at least seen ads for poker training videos by now. They are surprisingly easy to make. A good program you can buy is Camtasia, but if you go to sites like http://www.shareware.com, you can find a decent free alternative. You also need a microphone hooked up to your computer.

As possible, start recording your games and talking into the mike while you play. Since nobody else will ever see what you do, it is easy to relax and crank out a couple of videos. I suggest about a half hour at a time recording before you save the file to keep the size down, but I often make a lot at a time, so see what suits you best.

Now sit down and watch and listen to yourself. Sometimes the realism can be scary. The first question on most folk’s mind is “Do I really play like that?”

Reality is plastic. Yesterday’s $20 loss turns into a $2000 bad beat story with every telling. Your old high school girlfriend becomes more beautiful with every year. We stretch the truth and sometimes almost end up believing our own lies.

The video, on the other hand, does not change. What is there remains the same with each viewing. Now that you have a baseline available, you can begin to analyze your game objectively. It’s very hard for most of us to admit, even to ourselves, that we are not as good as we think we are at something we do, so memory can’t be trusted. Video can be trusted.

If you are not shy you can even combine numbers one and three and have a friend view and critique your video. But even alone you can see your game from a new perspective. Take a deep breath and take a mental step back and analyze away.

So what are you waiting for?
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