Poker News

Lou Krieger

One of my favorite expressions is the oftquoted: “Ninety percent of success is just showing up.” In its broadest context, this statement is applicable to much of life, including poker.

Do you want to guarantee that you’ll succeed in life? Just show up. There’s no guarantee that you’ll become rich, famous, or noteworthy in your field, but it pretty much ensures that you’ll be able to live reasonably well, and if you came from less-than-middle-class circumstances, it’s certainly a step up the ladder from where you started out.

I showed up every day so I could get out of the neighborhood where I grew up. I knew the American Dream was out there somewhere and I was determined to find it. My roadmap was the subway. A short ride from Brooklyn to Manhattan showed me they were two different worlds, and I wanted a ticket to the other one.

I had only trick in my bag but it worked. I went to school, studied hard, and kept at it until I earned a graduate degree that was my entr?e into a very different reality than the one I knew growing up.

Just showing up works in poker too. If you want to ensure that you become a winning player ? and that’s nothing to sneeze at, because even if you never go on to be a tournament legend or a TV star, you’ll be better by far than the estimated ninety percent of poker players who are lifelong losing players ? you have to keep working on your game.

You might play everyday, but if you don’t work at upgrading your poker skills, your opponents will catch up with you. In poker, everything is relative. If your opponents are getting better, you have to work at getting better too. Improvement won’t happen by accident. You have to outwork and outrun the competition.

Here are some things you can do to raise your game. ?Read Books: Read everything. The cost of a book is an investment in your future. Even if one book covers the same ground as another, it may present an idea in way that makes it clearer to you.

?Study Group: Join a study group. I make it a point to attend the Wednesday afternoon Poker Discussion Group in Las Vegas whenever I’m there. It’s a big help. If you can’t find enough poker players where you live, try to make contact with online players whose game you respect, and build a group that’s supportive, helpful, and discusses poker on a regular basis.

?Use the Internet: There is no shortage of poker forums and web-based sites where poker tips abound. It’s easy to pick up on them. You don’t have to agree with all the ideas presented there. Just think about them, and review your own playing style in light of some of the posts made by other skilled and knowledgeable players and you’re off and running.

?Think about the game: If you don’t analyze your opponents’ play you are allowing useful information to pass you by without availing yourself of any of it. An opponent’s action can also provide insight into your own game; all you have to do is take the time to consider his play and think it through.

Keep your antenna up, keep your batteries charged, and keep yourself plugged into the game at a deeper and more analytical level than simply sitting down and playing poker on autopilot. That’s what showing up is all about. And if you show up today and everyday, success will find you simply because you’re working longer and harder than the vast majority of people you run into at the poker table. That’s what showing up is all about.

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