So far, so good, in January

I think the poker lessons are really paying off and are definitely worth the money spent.

The two key things I've learned so far are:

• steal much more from the hijack, cutoff, button, and SB; (I've gone from an attempt to steal of 24% to 42% and am making a lot of money in stolen pots); and
• think before I act. And by that I mean really think about what I'm trying to accomplish and the best course of action to accomplish. Its pretty simple really. But before coaching, my thinking was super-simple. Caveman-like simple. See good hand. Bet good hand. See bad hand. Fold bad hand. I never really stopped to think how to extract value from my hands and I really played into my opponents hands - making it really easy to play optimally against me. Now, I've learned to think about the opponents range and what they might call with and what they might fold with and go from there. I haven't mastered the "how to accomplish" part yet, but at least by thinking about where I want to go in the hand, I have a much better chance of getting there.
  

Speaking of thinking before you act, I wrote a little article about it at PokerNewsPage.com. Check it out:

Think Before You Act

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