Planning on making 2025 the year in which you finally not only begin playing poker, but become a great poker player?
Well, we have some good news: you won’t need the whole year to reach your objective. Done correctly, anyone who’s determined enough can become a top-quality player in as little as six months.
But make a note of those vital words: determined. With some 100 million poker players across the globe, standards are pretty darn high, so becoming a better-than-average player won’t be a walk in the park.
Though neither will it be impossible. We’ve put together a few handy strategies that’ll get you moving in the right direction.
Understanding the Game
And when we say ‘understanding the game,’ we mean really understanding. One of the great things about poker is that it’s relatively easy to learn the basics of the game. All you need is a few hours, and you’ll know how to play.
But that doesn’t mean that you’ll understand the game. The more you play, the more you’ll realise just how complex it is. You can get yourself up to speed quickly by reading those classic poker books (The Mental Game of Poker by Barry Carter; Hold’em Poker by David Sklansky) and completing online courses. In fact, doing just those things alone will make you a better player than the vast chunk of everyday players.
Mix Up Your Variants
Texas Hold’em is by far the most popular poker variant out there, to the point where many newcomers to the game don’t even realise that other variants exist.
But they do, and it’s a good idea to go through the process of learning them. Why? Well, there are two reasons.
The first is that you might discover that you have a penchant for a different variant. The other is that even if you return to Texas Hold’em, you’ll find diving into other poker forms for a while has improved your overall play.
Play in Tournaments
Playing in poker tournaments is an outstanding way to improve your poker skills, yet oddly, most newcomers overlook taking this approach. Perhaps it’s because decent-level tournaments have historically been hard to find (and even harder to get a seat at), though that’s starting to change. Initiatives like the PokerStars Power Path are making it easier for everyday players to compete in tournaments, allowing relative newcomers to the game to get involved with tournament play much earlier than they would otherwise be able to. By playing in tournaments, you’ll learn some key skills and traits that can add long-term benefit to your overall play, such as the importance of discipline and how to play against different kinds of players.
Get Involved in the Culture
You don’t necessarily need to become a poker aficionado to become a great player — but it does help. The poker world is bigger than it’s ever been right now, and that means that there’s a ton of content, conversations, and valuable advice out there. Visiting poker forums and listening to podcasts allows you to have your finger on the pulse of everything that’s happening within the poker world. Plus, you’ll learn a lot — and there’s really no better way to become a great poker player than by learning a little bit as often as you can.
Mastering Your Emotions
There are some things that experience will teach you. The importance of mastering your emotions is one of them. It’s easy to get carried away in poker, but that rarely improves the quality of your play. If anything, the opposite is true. You’ll find it much easier to get ahead if you take a proactive approach to this side of the game, rather than simply waiting until the lesson becomes too obvious to ignore. Meditation, breathwork, and yoga can all help you to get a better grip on your emotions — and when that happens, it’ll be your mind that’s in the driving seat, and that’s exactly what you need if you’re going to become a great player!
