McBain74 said:

The best way to become a better poker player in my opinion is  by practice.  Everyone wants a quick and easy way to become good at poker.  Books and training sites can only teach you so much.  If you really want to become better, then you have to put in the time.  There is and always will be a minority who will find success early, but for the majority of us, you have to put in your time.  If you have read multiple books, watched poker on TV, and have subsciribed to one or two poker sites in the past and still don't have the results you desire, then perhaps you need to step back and re-evaluate your strategy for becoming profitable at poker.  The theory portion of poker is important but its the practical part where you truly learn the game.  Play within your bankroll and put in the volume…gl at the tables.

Well put sir. Also, stick to the low limits if that is what your roll affords. Don't let pride/arrogance force you into playing higher stakes.

lespaulgman said:

I agree that practice is incredibly important for building the experience to play with, but I think personally the right practice is the most important thing. Blindly loading tables and playing hand after hand and hour after hour is only going to get you so far, you need to take the time to review your hand histories, look at the spots you took and didn't take, understand why things may have worked and more importantly why they didn't. I think losing sessions are the greatest source of learning early and it can be frustrating while you are working your way toward becoming profitable, but a strong work ethic and good habits will make the path a lot easier.

+1

I have been playing poker for 6+ years and have improved a lot from when I first started playing but a few months back it seemed as if I had hit a plateau and was no longer learning as much as I could be, or as a “serious” player, should be. It was not because I was crushing the game and had nothing else to improve on, far from it actually, but rather I think it was a result of how I was practicing my game.

When I first started out I learned from just playing the game. Soon I got into the books and eventually the training sites and forums. It was here where my game really improved after watching videos and learning the fundamental strategies. Although once in a while I would read over HH posts, I would never really get involved or post any of my own HH, or even post period, I guess just out of laziness. My game was way better than it was before that I felt that my basic knowledge was enough to win and I never needed anyone to go over HH with me. I figured I would just keep playing and improve naturally as I played more. Eventually, I stopped visiting the forums and watching videos. This complacency without studying/reviewing destroyed the growth of my game. Over the past couple of years I have been multitabling cash games pretty much on autopilot mainly focusing on playing more hands and chasing rake, rather than playing them the best way possible and improving. I was a break-even/losing player at best. I knew I was at least supposed to review my own HH to try to find leaks but I convinced myself that if I kept playing then eventually I would get it right without needing to study/review.

I finally said that things needed to change if I'm going to keep playing poker seriously, so I changed it up to tournaments and decided to take my game more seriously this time. I guess you can say that I started my poker education all over, except this time with more motivation/dedication and geared towards tournaments. I have only been at it for a few months so far but I feel that I have improved a lot from just reading books/articles and watching videos. I'll admit that I still haven't reviewed my HH as much as I should be but honestly I don't really know exactly how to or what to look for. But now that I've joined TPE, I can start posting some and hopefully get better at reviewing them.

It may be possible to learn by just playing, but it will cost you way more time and money than is necessary with all the tools out there to help you. So while it's absolutely mandatory to put in the time at the felt, I feel from personal experience that it is just as important to consistently review your game and stay current with forums/videos to keep up with the competition before you get left behind like I did.