There is no magic formula, but if you establish a learning routine it will help you make good decisions at the tables. Poker cannot be mastered in a short timeframe, it is a process of continuous gradual improvement, developing your skills and using them to establish a long term positive win rate. Where do you start as a new player, or someone who has been playing for some time but has no structure to learning?

We look at the hands where our money is at risk – in the blinds and also open play where we decide to spend money; our goal is to play these hands well every time and we must establish a learning routine to achieve it.

The aim is to learn a little more every day, focus on understanding how your opening ranges by position play in different situations (attack and defence).

Plan ahead when you play poker home games, make a general list of topics you need to know (it will be a long list at the start) select 20 things you want to know at the start of the month, split it down into 5 for each week and pick a topic for the day. If you have a book(s) read it, or watch a short video, or read about it online and in the forums. Make notes and add key points to your pre-session reminder list.

Play your session and focus on decisions not results, using software to gather information on opponents. A session should not last any longer than 2 hours. Mark any key hands you had difficulty with for review later.

After the session, review your key hands and difficult decisions, adding any topics you need to learn to your general list.

Repeat this process the next day you are going to play.

The learn-play-review-repeat process is your cycle on the days you are going to play poker – never just ‘play’ – even if the ‘learn’ part is going over your pre session reminder list because you have no time to learn a new topic that day.

You should always take a break between the initial learning for the day and the pokerstar net session, even if you just go and make a cup of coffee and relax for half an hour. Clear the mind, sit down at the table, go through the reminder notes and start the table selection process to find a table with 1 or 2 players who are not as good as you and off you go.

When you are learning and the general list is long, allocate 50% to learning and 50% to playing on a 1hour/2hour/1hour basis for learn-review-repeat. When you gain more experience allocate more time to playing but always keep 25% of your time for learning and preparation no matter how good you are – because it helps to focus and we can all improve a little every day we intend to play.

Poker is something you learn over time, improving your skills gradually. There is no ‘quick fix’ for long term consistent profit.