Huh?

I've been meaning to write a certain series of blog posts recently and the topic got me thinking about what makes a winning player. It's also inspired by a recent thread called "moving up through UNL Krants?" There's obviously math, theory and such. In my opinion they're not the hardest parts of poker. And they're definitely not all there is to poker. In this post I will talk about 3 other major aspects of poker that might keep you(and me) from making (more) money. There are more of those but I chose those three because they are, in my opinion, the most important.

3 difficult aspects of poker(not in any particular order):

• Applying what you have learned
• Controlling your emotions
• Adjusting to other players

All of them are somewhat combined, just as everything else in poker. You're only as strong as is your weakest link. Failing in one could easily mean failing in being profitable. For example, no amount of strategy and theory knowledge will do you any good if you are not capable of controlling your emotions. You'll be break-even at best.

If you feel like you know enough to beat the limit but you don't then I'd bet that you are simply not good enough in one of those three things. And that is fine, in fact it is great! It's great because you know where you need to improve. To maybe help you in this process I'll quickly elaborate on how you should do it. Feel free to suggest other ideas in the comments, it'd be greatly appreciated.

If you need to improve on how to apply what you have learned then go through your notes, crack open one or two tables and concentrate. I think that this will lead to huge improvements in your game. Maybe the end result will be the same but you will get there in half the time. If you try to apply what you saw in a video 30 minutes ago while 8-tabling then you will most likely fail. This could lead to new leaks and so forth. It is definitely not profitable. It won't help a ton if you do it once though. This should be done on regular basis.

If you have trouble controlling your emotions then watch EFPTPE/meditate before sessions/play ONLY when you're at your best/read the countless number of tilt control articles out there. Distance yourself from the result etc. This is something that I don't have a ton of trouble with so I don't know what you should exactly do. There are a lot people who know a lot more about this.

If you have trouble adjusting to others players then go through your hand histories, analyse a player and see how to beat him. Study and experience are key for this.Go through different scenarios of one hand + all the other things that coaches constantly try to hammer into our heads.

Have a purpose for what you do, know why you're doing what you're doing. Having a goal is THE best motivation. Find out why you play poker, other than just money. What would you use that money for? KNOW WHY you are willing to go through thousands of hours of study and play. And it will probably take thousands of hours, there are no shortcuts. I found my reason a little while back while I was watching Balugawhales Blueprint, I definitely recommend watching it.

Everybody is capable of learning the math and theory of poker relatively quickly and effectively enough to be able to earn a decent amount of money. In my opinion these 3 things are holding back so many guys stuck in the micros. They determine if and how successful the player is.

The next part aka the first part will hopefully be finished pretty soon, probably in a week or so. Depends how busy school will be. Let me know what you thought and if you'd like to see more. I certainly have some interesting ideas taking shape in my head.

Thank you for reading!