I've been helping people with poker for several years, and after trying a lot of different things with hundreds of people, I've found that there are three things that give results more than just about anything else. These can be thought of as three steps that you can follow to get better at poker relatively quickly, and these steps allow you to continue to improve over time.

1. Make an Operation Thread

Start by checking out the blogs and operations forum and make a thread for yourself. There are three major benefits to doing this:

  1. You get to keep your goals, ideas and progress organized in a single place
  2. Other players will comment on your ideas giving you an outlet to talk about and think about poker
  3. In six months you get to look back and be like, "Holy shit, look how far I've come"

There's probably a success rate increase of about 300-400 percent between people who make an operation thread and those who don't, so that should be a good enough reason to get on it.

2. Take Advantage of Free Coaching Opportunities

There's a thread here for free coaching. Post in that thread, and myself or someone else who helps me with coaching new players will contact you by PM. I'm actually working with someone in another window right now while I'm typing this while he works on a problem I gave him. This type of coaching is one of the single biggest things you can do to advance your game.

3. Post Batches of Hands


In either this forum or the SSNL forum, post some hands that you have questions about. Better players will comment on those hands, and you'll start a feedback loop of learning that will help you to avoid key mistakes and start building towards forming a solid foundation for poker.