Learning Poker from the Masters

If your ultimate aim at the poker tables is to simply be the best, then it's worth noting that the best players are all worth learning from. It's all too easy to argue that everyone has their own strategies, but the difference between yours and theirs is that theirs have been proven to work. So let's take a look at the best ways to gain tips from the pros.

TV as a research tool

This sounds like the best research you've ever heard of, right? Sure enough, watching television is not how someone generally thinks of fact-finding, but with poker, it's probably one of the best sources short of having a poker pro open up to you on retirement. The reason for this is there are a lot of poker tournaments being shown on television, and the advantage of watching them with a notebook and pen in hand is that you can begin to spot their body language, bluffing strategy and technique without having them say it out loud.

When watching, focus on a single player, and attempt to picture yourself as this player. Look at their behaviour and the moves they make, and compare them to your own. If you find that a winning move from them was something you hadn't considered, make a note of it. Once you've got a considerable log of this particular pro's poker plays, it's a wise idea to log on or go find your friends, use some play money and have a go at putting these tricks to the test. If they work for you, you may find that studying and learning from a lot of pros can significantly improve your win-loss ratio by combining the best approaches of all of them.

Think like a pro

When playing, it's worth realising that although you may find the idea of throwing down $50 on a small blind a little tense, this isn't something a professional poker player thinks about, as it's simply their admission into this particular game, knowing that they'll most likely walk away with enough to cover their investment if they play well. There's nothing wrong with playing conservatively, but in the early stages of a tournament this may not win you any friends at the table, though if they don't notice, roll with it - watching them knock each other out certainly makes for entertaining viewing!

Lastly, consider the fact that most poker pros are not going to give away their secrets, and for this reason, watching them and reading up on some of the plays in historic games is going to give you a better insight as opposed to pestering them online or in person, as they're likely to be inundated with emails of this variety. For now, grab some popcorn, your note-making materials, and get studying.