Top 10 New Year's resolutions for poker players

Many of you will be making a list of New Year's resolutions in the coming days, so why not try to make some poker promises as well? Below are some of the most important things you can do in 2018 to improve your game and win more often at the poker table.

Happy New Year!

10. Make realistic goals
The main reason many ideas fail is that most people make unrealistic goals that are just impossible to keep, or they simply forget why they made a resolution in the first place.

Try to create concrete, measurable and, most importantly, realistic goals for poker. I highly recommend leaving such nonsense as "winning X amount of money" aside, because you cannot control the variance in this game. No one can.

Instead, concentrate on things you can influence. Decide how many hours per month you are going to study, or how much and when you are planning to play. These types of goals will yield you much better results because they are the only things you can control.

If you start the year strong, knowing how you are planning to improve and how much you will play — and even write it down on paper — you will have a much higher chance of success.

9. Play more live tournaments
If you are playing most of your volume online, you should make a promise to visit at least one live event and play a tournament to feel the rush of adrenaline.

Learning to crush live poker games could take some time, but you will surely enjoy live events a lot if you rarely attend them. Thus, give yourself a chance to feel that poker rush from the inside and visit at least one big tournament this year.

These 10 tips will help you in the New Year.

8. Don't play if you are unprepared
Not being able to deal with emotions at the poker table will cost a lot of money. Therefore, make yourself a promise never start playing if you are in a bad mood or feel tired or angry, and most importantly, never play after having few drinks or coming back from a party.

If you can join the games only when you feel great, it will surely help you make better decisions and keep your concentration longer, which will skyrocket your results.

7. Manage your money
Pay more attention to bankroll management in 2018. Many players end up playing higher games than they should and fail to reach optimal results because of a lack of discipline. If you will be risking a big chunk of your bankroll in one game, you will always feel pressure, and it will prevent you from making right decisions most of the time.

6. Track your progress
It is crucial to know how you are actually doing in the games in order to make educated decisions about when to move up in stakes, or to know how much money you can invest in live games.

Obviously, it is quite easy to do that with a number of different poker tools and software if you are playing online, but even in live games, you should keep track of your results. You can simply use any note-taking app on your phone, and every time you attend a tournament or cash game, just list the buy-in amount and how much you cash out at the end of the session.

This way, you can easily track your progress over the years and make even better decisions.

5. Work on your game
Beating the game of poker gets more difficult every year because it is easier than ever to access information and learn the right strategy with one of many advanced poker training options.

Therefore, continuing to improve and tweak your game should be one of your priorities in 2018, and it is the only way to gain an edge over your competition and stay ahead of other players.

4. Take your time
The vast majority of players are making decisions too fast without taking into consideration crucial information, such as ranges and bet sizing.

Even without changing anything else in your game, you can instantly have better results by giving yourself more time. Try reducing the number of tables you are playing online, or simply take time to weigh all your options in every hand that you play. This will undoubtedly give you a better chance of making the right decision more often.

3. Study poker tells
Obviously, there are way more tells for live games, but if you are not playing live very often, studying poker tells can help you a lot as well. Even in the online poker world, you can gain a lot of information from bet sizing or the time your opponent takes to make a decision.

Studying poker tells can also be a lot of fun, and may give you new insight into your game.

As always, have fun.

2. Learn a new poker format
There is so much more to poker than just Texas Hold’em, so you should make yourself a promise to learn at least one of many different poker games online.

These games can bring a lot of challenges and excitement to you. Moreover, by learning different formats, you are very likely to improve your main game as well just because of the broader understanding of various topics. On top of that, it will help you have some fun, which is my last point!

1. Have fun!
Apparently, it is much easier to have fun when you are beating the games, so as I mentioned before, you should keep learning new strategies and improving all the time. Nevertheless, if you visit a few live tournaments or even learn new format, you can enjoy the game much more.

All in all, you should learn to have some fun at the tables and keep it that way in 2018!