Poker Articles

Jake was struggling to build a bankroll, but convinced of his potential to make it in the poker world.  He started posting regularly at an online forum, bought five poker books, and subscribed to an online training site.  After a month he took his first private lesson.

Dick was also struggling to build a bankroll and equally convinced of his potential to make it in the poker world.  He bought five poker books, subscribed to an online training site and started to post at an online forum.  After a month he took his first private lesson.

When they embarked on this journey they were identical in terms of play and skill. 

Fast-forward one year to now.  Jake is enjoying the game more than ever and making good money.   The quality of Dick’s play, however, has not improved and his frustration has grown as he continues to barely break even long-term. 

Superficially, each man took the same steps so to discover why their results are so different we must examine their paths more closely.

Dick wandered into his local Barnes and Noble, glanced over the titles and blurbs in the poker section and bought five books.  When he got home he started reading the most interesting looking one and was proud to get halfway through it on the first day.  He finished it later that week and put it away.  He read bits of another three over the next few months, not finding them particularly applicable to, or useful in, the games he played.  The fifth is still gathering dust.

Jake browsed through as many forums as possible, eventually choosing the one he thought he’d gain most benefit from being active in.  One where he could post questions on hands knowing he’d get quality replies.  A forum where he could reply to other people’s hands without fear of being made to look or feel stupid.  There was a lot of advanced discussion he didn’t understand at first, but when he asked a question there was always someone willing to explain things a little more clearly.  It was a place where he could admit, despite his playing experience, that he had weaknesses and even that he was, in terms of poker theory, effectively a beginner.  It was a place where he could grow.

And he did.  Jake posted a lot of hands himself and made a point of commenting in every strategy thread.  Despite his constant analytical errors he was never flamed, only guided, and he gradually made the transition from naive posts to the point where he was the one handing out advice to the weaker members.  He noted with pride that as time went on the players he respected most increasingly agreed with his posts.

Dick subscribed to a training site chosen at random.  He watched a few videos while he was playing.  He found most of them boring and often disagreed with the commentary. He began to doubt the ability of the people making the video and, as they were distracting him during play, he simply stopped watching them having barely started on the available content.

Along with the hands and strategy questions Jake asked his forum for advice on which books he should study.  He read reviews of all the recommended books and narrowed the list down to five.  He read through them all quickly, carrying one with him most places he went so he could read a few pages while waiting for a bus, with his lunch, any available slot of dead time.  When he’d finished he set aside an hour each day for study.  He reread the books slowly and made notes - much as he’d done at college with textbooks.  Even after careful study there were several areas he didn’t quite understand and a couple where he thought the author was in error.  He used his forum to discuss these issues and get deeper inside the subject matter.

Dick googled “poker forum” and joined one.  He posted a couple of hands and replied to a couple of posts but the other members didn’t really seem interested.  Those who did reply usually flamed him or showed in their reply that they didn’t know what they were doing.  He stopped posting but kept reading – the soap-opera conflicts were funny.  As was watching other people get flamed.  After a while he started posting again but this time only to gossip or to flame other people.

Jake read reviews of all the available training sites and again sought advice on which one was not only the best, but also the most suitable for him.  He would occasionally have a video playing in the background while he was playing a tournament but he also set aside time each week to watch some videos while making notes.  Jake jotted down key hands, making special notes about things he didn’t understand or where he thought the player was wrong.  He would rewatch these segments a week later.  If he still didn’t understand/agree then he would post about the hand on his forum.

Dick was irritated by the end of the first month.  The training site was a wash-out, the books unhelpful and he wasn’t making any extra money from his play.  In fact the changes he’d made to his game immediately upon watching a certain video or reading a book usually cost him money.  One day on his forum he saw another player recommend a coach.and declare a huge improvement in results after a lesson.. He contacted the coach, transferred him the fee and set up a session for later that evening.  He played for 60 minutes while the coach watched and they discussed the hands.  The next day Dick could barely remember the hands or what they’d talked about. He certainly couldn’t see any benefit or improvement in his game.  He gave the whole deal up as a bad job and decided not to waste any more money learning poker.  He would just keep playing.  Until he got better.

Jake was thrilled with his progress after the first month.  He realized there was much he still didn’t understand but his results were starting to show improvement.  More importantly he was starting to understand some of the discussion on the forums and notice definite mistakes in other people’s play.  He decided to build on his progress by taking some private lessons, obviously using his forums to ask around for an appropriate coach   He found a player he respected at a reasonable price and set up a lesson. After the lesson Jake reviewed what had happened and made notes.  He was excited by the differences in approach and thought and at the end of the lesson he felt as if he knew more.  He was a little disappointed that there wasn’t any immediate improvement in his actual results but had learned enough now to realize why, that it took time to assimilate new ideas into an already established framework of practice.  Jake scheduled another lesson to build upon the first.  Now he takes a lesson every month or so to stay fresh and catch any new sprung leaks in his game before they become serious.  He also takes additional lessons when learning a new game or going through a rough patch.

While Dick hasn’t improved his results and is starting to hate poker, Jake is considering quitting his job.  For a while now he’s been making more from his “hobby” than he has from his career.  If we visited Jake in another year’s time we can only envision him being successful.  Dick on the other hand is unlikely to be doing any better than he is now.  Indeed the kindest advice one could give him is to quit.  As the players around him continue to improve he won’t even be able to break even anymore. 

Why the difference?  We could say that Dick gave up while Jake persevered, but while it’s true that perseverance is an important quality it isn’t the whole story here.  If Dick had continued to do everything he did in the first month any improvement in his game would be negligible.  The real difference is in their approach.  Jake studied poker achieving a good balance between putting in playing time (gaining experience) and study hours (building knowledge).  He also found that the increased knowledge from study made his playing hours more enjoyable and more profitable.  Dick was too busy playing to ever put real effort into study.

So the moral of this tale is thus: Follow Jake’s example and don’t be a Dick.