Poker Articles

The college I attended was both a blessing and a curse. I call it a curse because, well, I'm still paying for it and probably will be until I die. However, I firmly believe that my time there played an enormous role in who I am and how I think. The person who most influenced the way I think was a history professor in his early 40's. Let's call him Dr. M. The good doctor was one of those people who are just noticeably smarter than you could reasonably expect anyone to be. He possessed a great wit and since of humor that allowed me to easily understand and relate to his teachings.

I took many classes with Dr M and over the years it turned out to be that one of the most influential statements he ever made to me was a very simple one. After being unable to answer a question that I asked he simply responded, "I will find out and get back to you." Now this in itself was routine. After class as I was leaving he said to me, "You know, you don't have to know everything, you just have to know where to find it."

There it was. The daunting task of acquiring and retaining a massive amount of knowledge had been simplified. You may be wondering what this has to do with poker. Well, when I first began playing seriously I started using a system that I now realize is one of the best things I have ever done. You see when we read a book on poker more often than not it just ends up on the shelf, and after a while remembering everything the book had to offer becomes difficult.

My solution is simple; make your own poker notes. When you’re reading a poker book (or any book for that matter) you should already be trying to identify the main ideas of each chapter and the related supporting arguments. If you keep a notebook or highlighter handy while reading you can easily notate what those ideas and arguments are. Once you have read the book in its entirety go back and summarize each idea and argument. I also am sure to stick a page number by each idea and argument for future use.

What you're left with is one of the most useful pieces of information available. A book's worth of knowledge in just a few pages and best of all its now in words you can easily understand, your own. Now you must realize that you can’t fit everything in your notes and you shouldn't need to. You have put hours into learning those concepts, sometimes you just need a brief reminder.

I find that these are particularly helpful if a hole develops in my game, a friend’s game, or a certain topic is up for discussion. After writing each set of notes I update a master table of contents with all of the topics that were discussed. I then assign a basic value to the information from each topic according to how helpful I found the original authors ideas were. When I need to work on something I go back and read my notes. If that's not enough I break out the book and now I know just where to find the information that I need.

Here’s another habit that developed accidentally really, before I play any bigger buy in tournaments I go back and read the notes I took on my favorite poker books. There are several but let’s use Harrington on Hold'em: The Endgame (volume II) as an example. I love his discussions on M so I am sure to read my notes on that. Also if it should happen that I do well in this event and we start to get down to the shorter tables I will quickly read my notes on his "Effective M" theory.

From time to time be sure to go back and read particular sections of the books and update your notes. While obviously the words won’t change your game and understanding of them will. When you complete these simple tasks not only are you approaching the game in a well organized way but your also ensuring that you are constantly making the effort to improve. Remember this is just my system; tweak it to what works for you. What's important is not the method we use here but that we have begun to approach things in a way that will certainly help improve or at the very least help maintain the level of your game.


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