Improving in Multiple Directions

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The title of this article might seem confusing at first. But I want to outline why most people think about learning in an unhelpful way, and this seemed like the best way to do that. The reason ‘multiple directions’ is applicable here is because most people think about learning in a linear fashion – you learn one thing, then another, then another, and then eventually you know everything there is to know about a particular topic. This, however, is a reductive and overly simplistic way of looking at the issue.

People talk about a ‘learning curve’ as if it’s only ever possible to learn about a straight line, but that assumes it’s possible to lay out all the things one can known about a particular topic (or all the skills one can possess in a particular field) in a specific order from most basic to most complex. That’s not the case with most things, and it’s definitely not the case from poker. Poker is a fluid game, where it’s possible to be really good at some things and really bad at others, and still have your overall skill level average out at ‘pretty decent’. The best example of this would be certain old-school live pros, who are very good at understanding gameflow and metagame concepts but often have weak fundamentals.

What we need to do as learners, therefore, is to focus not on simply progressing along our ‘learning curve’, but accepting that there are actually multiple learning curves for each concept we might be learning about, or each skill we might be able to develop. In reality, we’re talking about learning as a three-dimensional space – a sphere, or (more accurately, since different parts of our learning develop at different speeds) a sort of amorphous blob that can take on a variety of shapes.

There are a lot of ways we can expand our learning sphere. Here are a few to get you started:

Maximising the utility of your learning

Many people study and learn in incredibly inefficient ways. They spend an hour reviewing a tournament hand history without looking at anything in-depth, because it makes them feel good to be able to say they did some studying that day. It may have reassured them that they played well in that tournament (by the standards of their own existing level of knowledge), but it didn’t help push any part of their game forward.
This person may actually have benefited more significantly from a ten-minute study session that covered topics they were not already familiar with. Even running one hand through a GTO calculator or looking at a few Flopzilla statistics might have helped that player bring their thought processes forward to a new level, or perhaps a ten-minute meditation session before playing could have helped them play 10% better that day. Learn hard, but learn smart as well. Don’t waste your time.

Working on both your A-game and your C-game, and your performance

Jared Tendler and Tommy Angelo have both talked about this concept in a lot of their work on the mental game. When most people study, they only work on things that are going to improve their overall conceptual understanding of poker – they don’t always work on implementing processes that will improve their ability to access all of their knowledge, and they very rarely work on identifying potential leaks that might bring the back end of their game forward.

Even if we’re not able to even out the balance between these three strategies, we can implement them in a rotation – spend one month bringing the front end (your A-game) forward, one month bring the back end (your C-game) forward, and then one month focusing on putting this knowledge into practice and achieving peak performance. Either by rotating your learning, or by balancing out your learning so that you’re focusing on all three aspects of your game – A-game, C-game, and performance – you’ll be able to ensure you don’t neglect learning styles that could be beneficial.

Attacking leaks from both angles

Once you do find a leak, it’s important to know how to tackle it. Many people approach leaks simply by saying something like, “I do X too much, this is a leak, so next session I’m not going to do X so often” – this ignores the fundamental reasons for the leak. If you’re check-raising too many flops, then try to evaluate what it is that makes you feel like check-raising flops is a good play in the moment of playing the hand. If you’re losing money calling 3-bets, try to figure out why you’re losing money – is it on the flop, is it in all-in pots, or something else? These efforts tackle fixing the leak itself and ensuring you don’t continue to lose money in these spots.

The other way to tackle a leak is to ensure you don’t have to confront it so often in the first place. This is a good short-term fix – if you know you play poorly postflop in 3-bet pots, for example, then folding to 3-bets more often (and probably 4-betting more often) would be a good way to compensate for this. If you then discover you have a leak in 4-betting, or you’re leaking money by folding too much, then you know you’re over-compensating – but this gives you space to fix the original leak, and you can subsequently return to your previous playing style (and take advantage of your newly-fixed leak) while working to fix the second leak you just discovered.

Measuring your improvements

Finally, improvement is significantly less useful if it’s not measured. If you’re using a HUD (and you really should be) then you’ll have access to an HM2 or PT4 database, most likely. If you have access to a database of your hands and you’re not using it to analyse your play on a regular basis, you’re leaving a ton of money on the table.

The most important number in nearly every circumstance is your EVbb/100 number. If this number is high, you’re likely playing well. If it’s low, or below zero, you’re likely making mistakes. Of course there’s some accounting for sample sizes, since getting dealt AA every hand will increase your EVbb/100 even if you make mistakes, but generally your EVbb/100 should be your gospel. If it says you’re playing badly over a sample of 10,000 hands or more, you’re probably playing badly, at least to some extent. Remember this, and remember to test every improvement you think you’ve made in your game. If it doesn’t improve your EVbb/100, it’s not really much of an improvement at all.