To win at poker, you need to be able to multitask effectively. Out of the many hands you play, you will find yourself losing a number of them. However, it goes that way in cards. It is when you find yourself losing more hands that you think, when you’re playing with gut instinct that you should start worrying. Your emotions are in charge, and you are making mistakes. The obvious mistakes, are not really the root of the problem. That lies elsewhere.
If you listen to any poker star player telling the story of a hand of cards in which they got a bad beat, hear them out, thinking about it objectively and nine times out of ten, you can probably find out that they mistake was (normally) that they checked the flop when trying to check raise. That is the obvious mistake, the surface mistake if you will. They made the real mistake, long ago. You need to analyze your game objectively to find out what you do well, what you only do adequately and what you do poorly and then find ways to improve on every facet of your game. The great thing about poker is that there are so many variables, which means numerous tactics and skills to build on to improve your game. However, all of this assumes that you have one thing every poker player needs: Self-control
Self Control is not about math, reading tells, making bluffs, calling bluffs; it is not about pot odds or card odds. It is all about self-control. It is no good knowing what you should or should not do, if you then go ahead and do it anyway. Why are you playing above you bankroll? Why are you playing the hand with 2-7 non-suites in Texas Hold’Em? Knowing is half the card game and the other half is about having the self-control to NOT do the things that literally kill your game.
Poker is not a game of the moment, especially when you have regular opponents or a regular weekly pokerstar.net game. Self-control must be a part of the foundation upon which you will build a strategy and every tactic to support and achieve it. Just by having a cool head on your shoulders, you have improved your game before you even get to the card table. This improved self-control will prevent you from making game killing, suicidal mistakes that include playing above your bankroll, and playing with junk hole cards, killing your game.
The foundation of any solid poker strategy or tactics is self-control. Everything must stem from self-control that will drive your strategy in to a winning strategy. No knowledge in the world, even if you have memorized the card odds, the pot odds, with the finest in tactics to support a strategy will help make your game better without disciplined self-control. Work on self-control, every day, nothing compares to bringing a calm, cool head to the card table, making you a more dangerous opponent to every other player.