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3 Things Professional Poker Players Do Better
 
 
 
Lady Poker Player with Cigar
 
Image source: Freepik
 
Not everyone can become a big winner at poker, that’s just a fact, but that doesn’t mean you can’t close the gap and increase your own earnings. By replicating some of the simple things that professionals do, you can make playing poker online and in casinos more lucrative for you. In this article, we’re going to share three simple but effective things that professional poker players do that you can too.

Spreadsheets to track ROI

Professionals have an excellent idea of how well they are doing, what games are good and where their weaknesses are. This is not the case for a recreational social player who just plays on a whim. They don’t know how much they make per hour or what they won or lost last month without doing lots of work.

How does a professional know the stats easily? They use a poker spreadsheet to track and monitor their performance. They’re a great resource for simple and advanced Excel users to input session results and gain insights into how they’re doing.

By making use of spreadsheets, you can see where you make money and lose it, you can therefore pick and choose areas that are clearly better for you. For instance, it might show that weekends you win but weekdays you lose, this might mean dedicating yourself to weekends and easing up on weekdays.

Study away from the table

This might be painful for social players who don’t enjoy study but it’s necessary to accelerate your ability. A professional dedicates time every week to self-improvement. The method of study changes from person to person but the theme is the same, spend time studying and your game and bankroll will reap benefits. It doesn’t need to be countless hours reading books, even 2 hours a week will give benefits in the long run.

In the modern era, there are countless ways of studying too. Study can come in the form of forums, books, magazine, blog posts, online courses and even watching content on YouTube.

Implement stop loss limits

The short-term fluctuations of luck mean that even professionals have losing sessions. Some even have losing weeks or a month without generating profits. That’s part and parcel of poker. What a pro gambler does better than most though is they set limits on how many buy-ins they are prepared to lose in a session. This is a nifty way of protecting one from harming their bankroll and also preventing the dreaded “tilt” from happening.

Tilt is a major problem for players, particularly beginners. Tilt is the mental state players might get when they get unlucky or misplay a hand. It affects them in a bad way and makes them play worse. Setting a stop loss limit is an effective deterrent of tilt because if you aren’t playing, you can’t tilt. We recommend setting a stop loss limit of 3 to 5 buy-ins in any session. This means quitting if you lose this amount. No excuses, quit the table and do something else for the day.
 
 
 
 
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