Taylor "Green Plastic" Caby is an instructor for CardRunners.com.

When most players are working to improve their poker game they focus on discussing strategy and theory. By now, most people understand that even with a strong grasp on optimal poker strategy they still must consider other things like bankroll management and tilt control in order to be winning players. <READMORE>I have always tried to stay ahead of what the “average” winning player does, and looked for even more ways to improve my game outside of simply improving my play. In this article I am going to discuss a few improvements that are simple to integrate into your game and should help your bottom line immediately. Making improvements like the ones I will outline today should help you set yourself apart from the average online poker player.

First, I should discuss the most basic improvements you can make. These have all been touched upon many times by poker authors but I would like to share my suggestions with you as well. The easiest way for a winning poker player to go broke is to play out your bankroll. This is very basic but it should never, ever, be forgotten. If you have a habit of playing over your bankroll to recoup losses, I can promise you will go broke. It may take a few months or even years, but it will happen. I see players all the time find success this way, and unless they change their ways, it always results in them being broke. If you can’t follow this rule, don’t expect to win at poker.

Next, tilt control is very important. My best advice on this topic is to always remember why you are playing poker. If you are playing to have fun and gamble, by all means tilt it up. I know I am playing to make sure I am financially secure for years to come. There is too much money at stake in the games I play to play less than my best. I can happily say I’ve only really tilted once this year. When you feel yourself losing control, ask yourself, “Why do I play poker?” If the answer is “to make money,” then obviously playing your best game, and not tilting, is what you need to do. Mark Gregorich once told me his advice for tilting in the internet games. He said he places a sign that says “Are you playing your best poker?” on his monitor. If at any time during the match he can’t say yes, he quits. Although I have never actually used a sign, I ask myself that question all the time.

After you can manage your bankroll and control tilt, there are a few other quick and easy improvements that can be made to your game. You should NEVER feel bad about quitting a game if you feel for any reason it is not favorable for you to continue playing. I will quit a game at any time if I feel I am losing control or the lineup of players becomes unfavorable. This is obviously a luxury you have only in cash games, but if you are an MTT or SNG player and for some reason you feel you aren’t playing your best or maybe Sheets, Bax, and Rizen all signed up for your next SNG, consider un-registering and taking a 30 minute break.

Tracking your play is also extremely important. I suggest signing up for a program like PokerTracker to record all of your poker stats. You must avoid the temptation to selectively record sessions and track every single time you play poker. Using the data you collect you can analyze the strong suits of your game. You may be a $20 and $30 SNG player, playing some HU, some 6 handed, and some full table games. Through collecting data for a few months, you may find out that your ROI is significantly higher in the 6+ handed games, which would tell you a few things. First, your heads up play obviously needs work. You should try to work on your heads up game at the lower levels until you start to see an improvement in your ROI. When this starts to happen, you can start to play some more HU games at the $20 and $30 level again. It is so important to analyze all aspects of your game. In this example, moving down a level or two for HU games will obviously help HU play improve. But what many people don’t realize is that it will also have a positive impact on your ROI at the 6+ handed SNG’s because you will be a better closer when you get down to one on one play. This simple example illustrates how examining your data can help your play in more ways than you can imagine.

Another advantage of examining your data is learning who your best opponents are. It is common knowledge that you should avoid playing the best players if at all possible. But who are the best players, and how can identifying them help your own play? The only way to truly find out who is playing the best is to identify who has the highest ROI or BB/100 over a long period of time. Over the course of a few months, if you can track the results of the tables you usually play you can probably get a pretty good idea who the top players are. Even if you aren’t playing, you might consider leaving your tracking program open and recording hand histories into your database. After you have compiled enough data, determine which of your opponents has the highest BB/100 or ROI and avoid these players if possible. The other thing you can do is go through their hand histories and figure out what makes these players so good. One thing I do is sort their hands by biggest wins and losses. I try to find out what these players did right or wrong in the biggest pots they played. You might pick up an interesting way to play a certain type of hand. Another thing you can do is look at how the best players play their premium and trouble hands. I recommend sorting through every big pair that the “big winner” has. Also look at hands like suited connectors, small pairs, or trouble hands like AQ and suited one and two gappers.

There is an unlimited amount of information out there for players who want to take their game to the next level. Thousands of players have already joined internet poker training sites such as CardRunners or PokerXFactor. Soon enough it will almost be a prerequisite to being a winning player to know the principles that these websites teach, just like it is almost a prerequisite to having read at least one or two poker books to get an idea of standard poker strategy. However, there will always be something that will set the BEST players apart from the rest of the pack. Using the principles I outlined today will help you move beyond average and on to real success.

</READMORE>