The next topic is learning. We all have a white sheet in our heads when we first start playing poker. No one was born knowing how to identify a SA/WB, read a preflop or spot a cooler. We learn these things over time, as we get deeper into the game. And while poker gives us all feedback, not all players become professionals. One of the most important factors in determining how good a player a beginner will become is the quality of learning.
So how can we improve the quality of learning?
At first glance, this question may seem strange. Learning defines how we, as human beings, interact with the world. It may be unusual to put everything aside and start listening to the world, but if you are a poker player, learning is a key part of your profession. To become a good player it is essential to make the most of the learning process.
As a poker player, you have all sorts of resources to learn as much as possible. These include videos, forums, books, etc. However, no amount of videos watched or forums read will, in itself, make you better. Why? Isn't poker, after all, purely a mind game? After all, it's not football or basketball, in poker all you have to do is know what the right action is and then do it. But why is this not absolutely true?
While we can learn by playing games, watching videos or reading forums, the actual ways of learning are fundamentally different in each of these options. Let's briefly review them.
First there is poker theory or knowledge. This can be called propositional learning. That's what you usually get when you watch a video. It's your ability to talk about poker, all your ideas about exploiting, combinatorics, game theory, etc.
Then there is your know-how or procedural learning - the ability to play subconsciously. It's your ability to spend two hours pressing buttons in immediate response to the situation at hand, that's where your true poker intuition lies.
And the third is emotional learning - often described as mind games. This is your ability to accept losses, to play steadily, to play by the rules you make up and to observe your own state of mind. While all three are important and interact with each other, it is important to stress that they are very different. If you want to develop your own know-how, you certainly won't be able to do so by engaging in activities that develop poker theory or emotional skills (although they do enhance the overall style of play). All of these techniques are compartmentalised in our brains. While each of these networks contributes to the overall result of playing poker well, they remain separate. Each grows and is strengthened in different ways, stimulated by different styles and trained by different exercises.
Let's consider a similar example. If you are a boxer, to be a good player in this sport, you need to develop your stamina, your jab and your footwork. Although all these skills together can be called boxing, they are separate qualities that are developed differently, but none of them individually will be called boxing.
The skill set we need to develop to become a poker player is poker theory, our poker intuition and emotional skills. How can we develop them? What is the best way to learn them? To answer these questions, we will have to dig deeper into the whole learning process. We will talk about this in the following articles.
Haseeb Qureshi
EN 
LT 
DE 
FR 
SV 
ES 
IT 
FI 
LV 
SK 
SL 
TR 