Hey guys, I was just recently added as a pro on the roster and I wanted to share some thoughts as far as how to improve more so technically as a player away from the table. Some of these thoughts I guess could be technical and mental, but nevertheless I want to share them with you. It is much easier to improve at different variants of poker today with the abundance of literature online and the availability of software to help solve even the toughest of spots compared to even just ten years ago, but I think by sharing some of the concepts that I have shared with my students, I can help you guys out a little bit. This may run a little long, but I think and hope it will be worth it to most that read it.

Understand GTO so that you can exploit your opponents to the maximum without worrying about balancing your own lines so much
Of course, if you are playing against only tough opponents in certain players pools or at a specific table, then you need to be balanced with your strategies. However, from my experience it seems that many players worry too much about balancing their own strategies without spending enough time finding out where their opponents are out of line. In many of the games you play in, there is too much money being left on the table if you aren’t attacking your opponents in enough spots. Most opponents don’t seem to put in the time to know when to implement counter strategies and lines to protect themselves in certain spots. Other opponents may overplay certain spots assuming they have more of an advantage than they really do. The point is you should try to understand GTO on a more advanced level, not for the sake of protecting your own strats and lines (which is a nice bonus), but more for the sake of knowing when your opponents are out of line so that you can attack.

Do not assume any line or strategy is optimal without thinking about it on your own
If you are paying for subscriptions to training sites and/or coaches, then you are likely always receiving sound advice. However, assuming a line or strategy is the most profitable just because someone else says so is wrong. I can’t tell you how many times I honestly thought one line was the best and then I dug deep into some software or just thought about it a little deeper and came up with one better. Now, it doesn’t happen as often anymore as I am further along into my career, but I strongly suggest you listen to and absorb any advice you receive and then take a look at it yourselves to confirm those beliefs. It helps you become more of an independent thinker and really forces you to expand your thought process. Once I started making this part of my routine, I became a much more aggressive and creative player that my opponents loathed to face. Your goal in poker should often be to make your opponent’s uncomfortable and indifferent facing any line you take. It doesn’t mean just start playing fancy and getting cute or overly aggressive in spots just to do it, but start considering all options before just taking the “standard” line.

Put the ego aside and don’t be afraid to educate yourself
I have had students that have told me in the past they have felt afraid to ask questions in forums or within any kind of poker community due to fear of being made feel ignorant. They feel like they can’t seek answers within the community or they even assume sometimes that they can just do it all themselves. First of all, never be afraid to ask questions. Here’s a little secret that a lot of pros don’t ever want to admit; WE MAKE MISTAKES TOO! It happens. Nobody plays perfect each session and it is asinine to say that you have done so. Mistakes happen and yes, they may be very small mistakes that are still netting EV in theory, but mistakes happen every session. The point is, we are human and we should always be educating ourselves no matter what field we are involved in. One of the best ways I have found to improve as a player is to discuss hand histories with players that I trust. It helps to get the perspective of another player because you can suffer from serious tunnel vision if you try to do it all yourselves. I will say that you do want players that you can trust and if you post within forums on RIO or 2+2 or wherever, then that’s great! Just revert back to what I said before about not assuming any line or strategy is optimal without looking at it closely yourself and you should be okay. Bottom line, feel free to ask questions to the pros that create content on this very site and to other players within the very community you frequent whether that is a forum on RIO or a live poker room that you play in. Ask questions and question concepts yourself always.

Prep for the long game, but make sure to concentrate on the short game
What the hell do I mean by this? When learning any variant of poker, you should be studying and playing with the goal of being able to really sit in any game and be able to adjust accordingly. Now, of course if your only goal is to sit in a live 1/2 NL game and to do just enough to not lose money and socialize, then this advice may not be for you. However, if you are a RIO member, then I can likely assume you take the game of poker on a more serious level. You may not want to necessarily master the specific variant you prefer to play, but you would like to feel like you could sit down with most anyone and feel at least competent. Obtaining software and learning concepts such as GTO strategies is absolutely worthwhile and necessary in my opinion to becoming an elite player on the felt. This is all to me the “long game” and very important to understand, however concentrating on the “short game” is just as vital.

I can best describe the short game as simply as the current player pool you play in. Within that pool, you may have many players that you know very well and you may have many that you don’t. If you do know them, then obviously player dependent reads and strats/counter strats come into play, but where many players fail IMO is when they assume they know much more about their opponent than they really do. I have implemented general strats for a good amount of time now that best attack and counter players within pools based on what players do on average. I was happy to see that fellow RIO pro Nick Howard talks about this very concept often and I am surprised that many pros and other competent players don’t think about this on a deeper level. In fact, it’s not really that deep of a concept, but more so a very simplified process. Overly reverting back to GTO strats and lines or assuming that you know a player’s range much more specifically than you really do is going to result in a loss of EV when you can often just act based on what players in your pool do on average. If players never bluff the river or aren’t bluffing at a high enough frequency, then you don’t need to worry about defending optimally or if the specific unknown villain you are against may or may not have it. Save the mental energy and the dollars and make the fold. Do opponents over cbet flops from OOP within your pool? ATTACK THEM. Raise or float way more often than you should because on average they are far too often out of line in those specific spots. Who cares about GTO or assigning a specific range to that player? If most guys are out of line there, crush them and don’t worry about the small % that may exploit you in that spot. It’s not so much about being the most talented or most technically sound player in your pool. It’s about making money and making enough at a high enough clip to focus on moving up and improving all while doing so.

I hope you found these thoughts useful and I do apologize for the length of the post. I thoroughly enjoy helping other players improve, so take these concepts and remember to think about them yourselves before implementing them! Seriously though, I have received a lot of positive feedback when I have shared these thoughts with my students and other players, so I think they will be good building blocks for a lot of you that may be struggling or for those of you looking to expand your games. Feel free to ask questions or even disagree with any of this because that is healthy as well. Thanks for reading and I look forward to getting to know a lot of you through my videos and these forums.
-Nick