Becoming a better poker player is more than just memorizing solver outputs. But how can making mistakes at the poker table improve your poker play?

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Every poker player makes mistakes when they play.

The absolute best poker players in the world have leaks (poker strategy or otherwise) that other high stakes poker pros take advantage of, because all people are fallible.

Accepting that you make mistakes and having a reasonable relationship with the process can accelerate your growth as a poker player.

Defining Mistakes

The first important concept explored in today’s video has to do with correctly defining mistakes at the poker table.

It’s important to remember that you are (hopefully) not playing against poker solvers when you sit down at the poker table.

‘Mistakes’ like not betting the exact solver size can look like game-ending problems outside of the context of your local live game.

Ego is Your Enemy

One of the keys to making better poker plays is to make sure to evaluate your ‘mistakes’ with the same yardstick.

With the proliferation of solvers it’s very easy to justify a bad poker play by plugging it into the machine and either getting a good result and a pat on the back or disagreeing with the solver because of a read before giving yourself a pat on the back.

Mistakes Are Your Friend

Every mistake you make at the poker table (or off the poker table) is an opportunity to improve.

Going from the poker strategy you explored when you first started playing to the poker strategy you play today has been a series of mistakes with corrections to follow.

“Mistakes are the best possible clues on your path to improvement, but you have to be willing and able to use them.”

Using Mistakes to Improve

“To really improve from the mistake, you need to examine it. Like almost everything in poker, it all starts with the why.”

Making a call and realizing it was a mistake shortly after may help you improve, in the short term.

True improvement comes from realizing that the mistake you made is a symptom of another problem you have to correct, that starts with identifying the problem.

What Went Wrong?

If you had the knowledge somewhere in your head to make the good fold but didn’t, there could be a whole host of reasons.

You need to start by identifying if this is a poker strategy leak or a leak of another kind like being tired, getting a distracting text, or playing too fast.

Reduce – Don’t Eliminate

A black-and-white view of mistakes can lead you to focus on the wrong things.

Don’t try to eradicate your mistakes at the poker table, reduce the frequency and magnitude of them.

You can’t study every poker spot in depth, but you can study many spots so that your average mistake is not as big.

Winning

You don’t need to go to extremes to see growth in your poker game.

Phil isn’t suggesting that you need to work out every day, study preflop play, study flop strategies across every board, meditate, warm up pre-session, cool down post-session etc etc.

But if you pick one thing to focus on that you think will reduce the frequency or magnitude of your mistakes, you can start making more money than you are now.

Are you a new poker player or a poker beginner?

Do you just need the best Texas Hold'em poker strategy and best Pot Limit Omaha poker tips, or do you have a high stakes poker related question you’d like a poker professional’s advice on?

Leave a comment and your question might end up in the next one of Phil’s quick poker tips videos!

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Timestamps:
0:00 Mistakes Are Not Your Enemy
02:00 Using Mistakes to Improve
03:40 What Went Wrong?
07:07 Reduce - Don't Eliminate
08:14 Lop Off Your C-game
09:09 Accepting Reality
11:07 FREE Mindset Hacks E-book