How to Improve Your Poker A-Game

A-Game represents a poker player's highest level of play. To achieve it, your mental state during your poker session must be perfect. Depending on your skill level, you'll have access to varying degrees of your abilities.

Visualizing Your Skills as a Caterpillar

We can visualize your skills as a moving caterpillar. The head represents your skills in development, the middle represents your mastered skills, and the tail represents your weaknesses.
Addressing weaknesses brings the tail closer to the body, while learning new skills moves the head forward and stretches the body again.

Learning a New Skill

There are 4 stages in skill acquisition.

• Unconscious incompetence: you're unaware the skill exists
• Conscious incompetence: you know you don't master the skill
• Conscious competence: you can perform the skill when focused
• Unconscious competence: you can perform the skill automatically without thinking

Unconscious Incompetence

In the unconscious incompetence stage, you don't know what you don't know. To move past this stage, you need to discover these skills through internet research, books, or discussions with other poker players. Curiosity and self-criticism help identify skills you weren't aware of.

Conscious Incompetence

After identifying the skill, you know you don't master it and that you make mistakes related to it. To progress to conscious competence, you need to study by researching information and concepts related to the skill, then learning and applying them.

Conscious Competence

When fully concentrated and specifically thinking about this skill, you can apply it correctly and master it. When you're not at your best (tilt, lack of focus, fatigue...), you can't apply what you've learned and fall back into old habits. By mindfully practicing this skill many times, through repetition, it will eventually become unconscious.

Unconscious Competence

When you automatically apply the skill without thinking and in all circumstances, you've reached unconscious competence. This is the ultimate goal you want to achieve for each of your skills!
To be certain a skill has reached unconscious competence, observe if you can apply it even when tilted.

The Difference Between A-Game and C-Game

When playing your A-Game, you're in a state where all your faculties are dedicated to Poker. All your conscious skills are applied correctly and without error, representing the best level of play you can achieve.

When playing your C-Game, you're in a state where very few of your faculties are engaged. You lose all conscious skills because you can't apply them in this state. Without conscious skills, you repeat old mistakes and your play is at its weakest.

How to Progress Quickly in Poker?

To progress quickly, you need to focus on a small number of skills at a time. The brain can't work on many skills simultaneously. During the conscious competence stage, you can't focus on 5 new skills simultaneously without running out of energy after 15 minutes. By working on one skill at a time, you'll integrate it faster.
Identify one of your weaknesses and work on it, moving it from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence. Once this weakness is resolved, the caterpillar's tail moves closer to the body center.
Then identify a new skill to explore and move it from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence. This advances the caterpillar's head and stretches it again.
This new skill improves your A-Game. Your old A-Game becomes your new B-Game, and your old B-Game becomes your new C-Game. Overall, you've become better at Poker.

Why Work on Weaknesses?

If you don't address your weaknesses and only seek to acquire new skills, you'll have an A-Game much better than your C-Game. By working on weaknesses, the gap between your C-Game and A-Game becomes smaller.

Why Work on New Skills?

If you don't work on new skills and only focus on fixing weaknesses, your A-Game won't evolve. By working on new skills, you allow your game to evolve and your A-Game to improve.

How to Use Tilt to Improve at Poker?

When tilted, strong emotions block your ability to think. With thinking blocked, all conscious skills disappear and old mistakes return. If an old mistake reappears, it hasn't yet reached unconscious competence. You need to keep applying it while focused until it becomes an unconscious skill.
Conversely, if you correctly apply a skill while tilted, it's well-integrated and has become an unconscious competence.

The Range Example

Here's an illustration of skill levels using poker ranges.

• Unconscious incompetence: You play poker without really knowing what you're doing. You play every hand preflop hoping to hit the flop.
• Conscious incompetence: You lose money opening 100% of hands. You research and discover ranges. You realize you have no opening ranges and that's what makes you a weak player.
• Conscious competence: You've studied opening ranges. For each hand, you consider whether to play it. If you shouldn't play it, you fold. Unfortunately, when tilted or unfocused, you sometimes play hands you should fold.
• Unconscious competence: Regardless of the situation and without thinking, you know what to do with each preflop hand (and execute it without any problem).

Analyzing Yourself from A-Game to C-Game

On Poker Toolkit, you can track your playing level from A-Game to C-Game and easily monitor its evolution over time.

To analyze and determine your C-Game, recall your worst sessions and ask yourself:

• What basic technical mistakes do you make that you shouldn't?
• How do you experience tilt? How does it manifest?
• What mental errors do you make? What beliefs do you know are false but still affect you?
• What's your playing style when your mental state is at its weakest?
• Do you play marginal hands when tilted? If so, which ones?
• If you've shared hands with others, their feedback can help.
• Are there actions you only take when the session is going badly?

To analyze and determine your A-Game, recall your best sessions and ask yourself:

• What techniques can you apply in your best moments?
• How do you handle bad beats in your best sessions? Do they affect your mental state?
• Do you feel like you can read your opponents' thoughts?
• How's your concentration? Can you follow hands across all your tables?
• What's your playing style when your mental state is strongest?
• Do you fold hands you might play in your B-Game/C-Game? If so, which ones?
• If you've shared hands with others, their feedback can help here too.
• Are there actions you only take when the session is going well?

Your B-Game logically falls between your A-Game and C-Game. It occurs most often. Sometimes it leans slightly more toward C-Game, sometimes toward A-Game.

Using Sessions to Improve

Each session is an opportunity to apply a conscious skill with concentration and reflection. By repeating this every session, the skill will become an unconscious competence.

Why is Concentration So Important in Poker?

When playing poker, staying focused is essential for making the best possible decisions. If you get distracted, you risk missing important information or making erroneous decisions that could cost you. Concentration also helps you stay more attentive to other players' actions and seize opportunities as they arise.

The Consequences of Distraction in Poker: The Risks of Losing Focus

Distractions can cause costly mistakes or prevent you from seizing opportunities. Lack of concentration can also lead to decisions based on emotions rather than reasoned analysis. Moreover, you risk missing key information that could help you make better decisions. Therefore, maintaining focus is fundamental for maximizing your chances of success.

How to Improve Concentration During a Poker Session: Our Top 10

1. Social Media and Instant Messages

We all know how easy it is to get distracted by social media and instant messages. While playing poker, you need to stay away from these as they'll break your focus and cause you to miss information necessary for making the best decisions. So, even if it's tempting, try to concentrate solely on your game to optimize your chances of winning. Remember that you probably spend enough time on these already, there's no need to check them during poker!

2. Entertainment Apps (Games, Videos, etc.)

Entertainment applications like games or videos are designed to capture your brain's attention. That's why it's important to close them before playing poker to avoid distraction and maintain focus. Close these applications to maximize your chances of winning!

3. Emails, News, Information

It's easy to feel bored during a poker game, especially when hands aren't going as hoped. That's when emails, news, and information can become tempting distractions. But it's important to address boredom by focusing on the current hands at the table, questioning the reasons for your decisions, and trying to understand other players' actions to identify good and bad poker players.

4. Off-Table Discussions

Conversations away from the table can be a significant distraction during a poker game. It's important to focus on your game and avoid unnecessary conversations with other players or people present during active hands. However, you can use tournament breaks or take breaks in cash games to chat if you wish.

5. Disruptive Environmental Elements (Noise, Light, etc.)

The presence of environmental disruptions like noise or light can be major distractions during a poker game. It's important to choose a quiet, well-lit playing area to minimize distractions and maximize your chances of winning. If playing online, you can also use headphones to block external noise and adjust your screen brightness according to your preferences.

6. Personal Problems or Concerns

Personal problems or worries can be significant distractions during a poker game. It's important to try to set these issues aside during play to focus on the game. If you find this difficult, it might be helpful to talk with a friend or professional to clear your mind. If these personal problems or concerns persist, it might be better to take a break and not play to avoid costly mistakes.

7. Compulsive Behaviors (Smoking, Snacking, etc.)

Compulsive behaviors like smoking or snacking can be major distractions during a poker game. It's important to know yourself and try to limit these compulsive behaviors while playing. You can replace these behaviors with healthier activities that could help you relax and stay focused, like drinking water, doing breathing exercises, taking short breaks... To limit snacking, one tip is to prepare your meal in advance so you can eat when hungry during your session without having to find lots of small things to eat.

8. Premature Thoughts of Victory or Defeat

Premature thoughts of victory or defeat can alter your emotions. It's important to maintain a positive mindset and not let these thoughts overwhelm you. Remember that short-term results don't necessarily determine long-term outcomes, and focus on the decision-making process rather than the final result.

9. Fatigue or Lack of Sleep

It's essential to ensure you get a good night's sleep before playing and take breaks to rest during long gaming sessions. It's also important to maintain a balanced diet and drink enough water to maintain good energy levels. Be careful, a heavy meal can cause decreased concentration during digestion, so it's better to eat a light meal before playing. Exercise is also beneficial for improving concentration.

10. Working on Your Poker During Your Session

Working on your poker game during an active session might seem like an efficient way to improve concentration, but it's actually not recommended. It's important to focus on the current game and not get distracted by tasks like reviewing past hands or modifying ranges. These tasks can be done outside of playing sessions to avoid disrupting your concentration during play.

Improve Your Poker Concentration with Poker Toolkit

Poker Toolkit can help you understand what helps you stay focused. The application can be used to identify factors that contribute to distraction and concentration. This allows players to understand their own strengths and weaknesses, and use this information to optimize their performance by minimizing distractions and maximizing concentration factors.