What will not improve your poker game is holding on to that arrogant attitude and trust in luck. Nor will you gain anything at the table by sticking to the small set of rules you learned from a book and never venture beyond them for fear of your safety. First, you must realize that no matter how many hands you win, there is still room for improvement.. Poker is not just a game of luck, skill or mindreading, a good player has learned the art of introspection. You must be very candid with yourself and define your strength and weaknesses as accurately as possible.

There are also talented players out there who do not project arrogance and do not play by a few rules they learned either from the literature or at the table. Their roadblock to improvement is to rest on their laurels and never grow. No inspiration here, these lazy players rely on rare strokes of brilliance to win a couple of hands..

Neglecting weaknesses and relying on a few strong points is perilous behavior for a poker player. Opponents aren’t all nitwits and can zero in on the fact that you constantly make the same moves, although successfully, and can figure out a way to get around them. They will eventually surprise you with one large move against you. Such players have paid attention to more facets of the game and have improved their skills. They have confidence in the variety of moves they make.

There are no successful one-armed boxers. There are no successful poker players with just one or two moves. A good player is at work to constantly sharpen all his poker skills. At the same time he recognizes his weak points and works at overcoming them, no matter difficult that may be.

To learn this takes two basic things: to realize that a game isn’t worth it unless you intend to win and to acquire a disciplined habit of doing things you dislike. The first may be a subtle point. Some people mechanically try to acquire a habit without know why they are doing it and they eventually give up or don’t get far. You must see that to blindly follow a routine or to rely on a single great skill in the blind hope that you will not have to deal with the rest of the game is not engaging the game for real.

The thing to do is to imagine as well as you can what it would be like to be a fully competent player, imagine the rush of inspiration which leads to success and hard-won triumph, and decide for yourself whether the possibility pleases you or not. If you can’t imagine the triumph and glowing detail of the struggle than be frank with yourself and admit that you have no real idea how to succeed in the field. But if imagining this makes you passionate, start working hard and you will definitely see results, and the effort to work at things you don’t like (perhaps you are an introvert technician who might benefit from better communication skills and face-reading abilities, etc) is guaranteed to be rewarding.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Aced Rakeback and Doyles Room Rakeback.

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