The Kunta Kinte of Poker Skills by Steve Badger Playing winning poker is a bit like a tree, everything begins at the roots and branches out from there. Unfortunately few players realize this, so when a person identifies a problem, too often they hack away at the branches, instead of going to the roots. Driving on the Los Angeles freeways, you sometimes run into a traffic jam.
Poker is very much the same.
Force yourself someday to listen to some bad beat stories. Listen when someone discusses a flaw in his or her game. If you analyze the flaw objectively, the person's problem is almost always not the apparent, surface flaw. The true problem exists one or two or ten steps earlier in the player's overall game. One great thing about poker is there are so many variables, so many skills and tactics we can tinker with to attempt to get a better result.