There are many skills that go into your development as a winning poker player. Two of these attributes that make a good poker player is the ability to “read” your opponent(s) and giving yourself a statistical edge by developing the math skills needed to know what cards have been played and which remain to be played. Depending on your poker aspirations, you may want to attend a poker school or just hone your skills by playing poker tournaments at online poker web sites or playing other online casino games like Texas Hold’em Bonus Poker, CyberStud Poker and all the variants of Video Poker.

Poker school allows you the opportunity to learn from master poker players. These poker instructors will teach you ways to read your opponents effectively, giving you an edge beyond the cards you hold in your hand. Reading your opponent and recognizing nuances that help you determine the hand they hold, allows you an edge when it comes to playing your hand or laying the cards down when you are beat. Another critical component that is taught is the ability to employ math in your poker skills set by counting both cards that have already been played as well as those that remain in the deck. Knowing the card values both in and out of play give you a tremendous edge when the play gets fierce.

Even after you have been exposed to both the math and people skills needed to be a successful poker player, you need to gain experience in utilizing your newly learned abilities. To learn poker is one thing but to become a master at it requires you to enter many poker tournaments and online poker, which for the most part is free, offers you the ability to employ your skills in a poker tournament setting. Although it is difficult to “read” your opponent while playing online poker, you can still hone your math skills and learn opponent tendencies that make up the people skills that are so valuable in poker.

The question of whether you should learn math or people skills is misleading. The fact of the matter is that you need to learn both of these vital skills to be successful. The player that can read their opponent and have the ability to anticipate the cards the deck has to offer is the player that will find success more often than not.