7 Lessons I Learned From Losing at the Poker Table

I spent too many years trying to learn how to be a better poker player using trial and error. Once I started trying to learn from other poker players I started playing better.

This is why I’ve put together this list of 7 lessons I’ve learned from losing at the poker table. It took many years of losing play, but now I’m winning more than I lose when I play poker. And you can benefit from my experience and mistakes.

Use these 7 poker lessons to jump start your education. It’s going to cost you a lot less than it cost me to learn the same lessons.

1 – Opponents Are More Important Than Skills

This is a lesson that took me a long time to learn, but once I learned it my profits immediately improved. I used to play in any poker game I could find. If a seat was available I’d jump in and start playing.

But this is a hard way to make money as a poker player, especially when your skills aren’t as good as they can be. On the other hand, if you can play against poker players who aren’t as good as you, it’s easier to make money.

When you think this through it makes perfect sense. But most poker players never even think about their opponents, much less use this simple strategy. If you’re playing against opponents who are better poker players than you are, it’s no wonder that you’re losing.

What if you only played against poker players who aren’t as good as you? If you could do this every time you play, it wouldn’t take long to start making money. This is why your opponents are more important than your skills.

You should build your poker skills, but you should also learn how to find opponents who aren’t good poker players.

2 – Tight Is Profitable

I’ve read many times that tight aggressive play is the best way to win when you play poker. If you’ve done much reading about poker you’ve probably read the same thing. But what exactly does this mean and why is it true? Is it even true?

In this section I’m going to share the lesson about playing tight poker with you, and in the next section I’m going to cover aggressive poker play.

The mistake that many poker players make is that they believe that if they just play tight and aggressive that they’re going to start winning. While being tight and aggressive is an important part of winning poker play, the truth is that they’re just a part. You still have to do other things well to win.

Another mistake that many poker players make is what they think tight play means. Tight play is relative to how the other players at the table are playing. If everyone else is seeing 35 to 40% of the flops, tight play is only seeing 30% of the flops.

But seeing 30% of the flops isn’t a winning strategy at poker. Just because you’re playing tighter than the other players doesn’t mean you’re going to be profitable. Instead, focus on the fact that if you’re losing it means that you’re playing too many hands.

Shoot for playing around 20% of the flops, including the blinds. If you get to this point and still aren’t winning, shoot for 15 to 17%.


The reason why tighter play is more profitable is because when you play tight you’re not playing weak hands. You’re only entering the pot with your top hands, so you have a better chance to win.

3 – Aggressiveness Matters

Aggressive poker play is important, but you have to use aggression in the right places and for the right reasons.

The reason why aggressive poker play is important is because it forces your opponents to make extra decisions. It also gives you an extra way to win hands.

When you bet and raise, it forces your opponents to decide if they should call, raise, or fold. You can also win when your opponent folds or when you have the best hand.

On the other hand, when you check and call it doesn’t force your opponent to make an extra decision. And the only way you can win is with the best hand.

But there are times when it’s more profitable to check and call. The good news is that you can learn how to determine when it’s more profitable to call and check. You’re going to learn more about this in the next section.

4 – Use Odds or Perish

When you’re playing poker online or in a casino you need to use some simple mathematical principles to have the best chance to win. Just about everything you need to use can be looked at from an odds perspective.

You need to learn the odds of things happening when you play poker, like the odds of completing a flush on the river, and how to use the numbers in pot odds to determine the best play.

Using odds and pot odds is what winning poker players do, so you need to learn how to use them also. Odds are fairly simple, but pot odds require a little more work. I don’t have room in this section to give you a complete lesson on poker odds and pot odds. But you do need to spend however long it requires mastering them.

Odds are basically how many chances out of the 52 card deck you have of doing something. Pot odds use the odds of something happening in combination with the amount of money n the pot to determine what the most profitable play is.

5 – Strategy Layers

I’ve covered some of the most important strategies in poker so far. But poker strategy is deep and has many layers. Winning poker requires using the proper strategy with dozens of different things. You need to master as many strategies as possible.

The best poker players never stop learning and improving their strategies. This is what you have to do if you want to win. Learn every strategy that you can, and keep trying to improve. This is the only way to become a profitable player.

Poker strategy starts before you even sit down to play, and goes all the way to the end of each hand. Every single thing you do when you play poker is strategy and can be improved.

6 – Specialists Win

I used to play every type of poker and every variation available. I played Texas hold’em, Omaha high, Omaha 8, and 7 card stud. I played cash games, single table tournaments, and big tournaments. I played limit, no limit, and pot limit.

It’s no wonder it took me so long to learn how to win. I was trying to master far too many combinations.

Now I play Omaha high pot limit cash games almost exclusively. I play a few no limit Texas hold’em cash games, but only when I find games filled with terrible players.

The lesson I’m trying to teach you is that you’re going to start winning faster once you decide to specialize. Start with 1 area and master it before you do anything else. If you want to be the best Texas hold’em player you can be, pick a format and limit and attack it. Don’t stop until you’re winning on a consistent basis.

7 – You Can Win but It Takes Forever

You can learn how to be a profitable poker player, but it takes a lot of time. This isn’t always bad, but you do need to understand what you’re signing up for.

The lessons in this article give you a solid base of information. And the truth is that if you master these 7 lessons you can make a profit playing poker. But you’re still going to have a great deal to learn.

Are you willing to invest enough time and work into playing winning poker? If you are and never give up, it’s just a matter of time before you’re making money at the poker table.

Conclusion

I spent decades losing at the poker tables. But I eventually learned some important lesson and now I’m a winning poker player. You can learn many things from the poker lessons that I’ve learned.

This doesn’t mean that you’re going to instantly start winning, but it’s going to make your learning curve shorter. You’re still going to have to invest a great deal of time into winning.

Use these 7 poker lessons as a starting point instead of looking at them as the end. The truth is that you need to master these 7 lessons and many other strategies if you truly want to win in the long run.