I played 1000s of hours of poker, studied 1000s of hours, got coached and coached many players myself.
Here are my top 10 takeaways to become very good at poker:
1. Don’t just have dreams , set specific, time-bound, optimistically realistic goals:
“Get better at poker” is not a plan. Define exactly where you want to be and by when. Vague ambition produces vague results.
2. Ego is the enemy, assume you know nothing:
The moment you think you’ve figured it out, you stop improving. The best players in the world are still students. Stay humble, stay curious.
3. Treat your time as your most valuable currency.
Protect your study time, your play time, and your recovery time like it’s your bankroll. We have limited time, use yours effectively.
4. Build a consistent routine:
The players who improve fastest aren’t often the most talented, they’re the most consistent. Build up a strong routine and implement good habits, this is your foundation.
5. Don’t wait for opportunities, create your own:
Nobody is coming to hand you a study group, a coach, or a shot at higher stakes. Go find them. Go build them.
Take on responsibility.
6. Master your mental game:
Learn to manage variance, detach from results, deal with emotions in a healthy way and perform under pressure. This alone separates good players from great ones.
7. Find like-minded people:
Your environment shapes more than you think. Surround yourself with people who take the game seriously, challenge your thinking and push you forward. Energy is contagious. This helped me a lot on my journey.
8. Implement a healthy lifestyle:
You perform at the table the way you treat yourself off it. Sleep, diet, exercise and time away from poker are not optional extras, without them you can’t perform even close to your A game.
9. Learn how to learn:
Putting in hours is not enough if the hours are inefficient. Understand how to break down spots, use solvers correctly and build knowledge that actually transfers to the table.
10. Obsess over your leaks, not what you already know:
Studying your strengths feels good. Studying your weaknesses makes you money. The fastest path to improvement is finding what’s costing you the most and fixing it relentlessly.
Poker rewards those who take action, you got this champ ❤️