You no longer consider yourself a beginner at poker. You have played several games of the several varieties of poker available and have learned much from this. You have read beaucoup online articles and books both general and specific written by world master poker players. But still you feel something is missing. You understand the complexity of the games and win more than you lose. How do you take the next step to true glory?

The obvious answer: read more, play more, observe yourself and others as much as you can. Diligence alone, however, is not enough. Countless aspirants compile encyclopedic knowledge of other people’s discoveries and yet cannot play much better than the average amateur.

The above mentioned answer omits the issue of intuition. It is not enough only to learn from the best; the shoulders of the tallest giants will only take that high if you do not stretch out to your fullest height. The most talented players were always the ones who knew which part of the science of poker to ignore, the ones with enough independence to follow their intuition.

Intellectuals cram their minds with the thoughts of great thinkers. Poets’ minds are crammed with their own thoughts. The poetic player will be an independent thinker and draw his own conclusions from experience and yes, intuition. The talented players compile from their observations and experience a creative method of play that is unique to them. This drives their opponents’ wild.

This is the reason why memorizing rules and playing many hands is simply not enough to make a true player, and why this ilk will forever remain shrouded in mystery. The true player’s strategy is impossible to uncover at its core because he or she formulated it alone. Even the most diligent of amateurs will never solve the puzzle.

There is only one solution to this problem and one which talented players independently intuit: one has to commit not merely to intense mechanical practice but to intense re-imagining of mechanically acquired knowledge. One must develop not only observational but also imaginative skill in order to prevent amateurs from predicting your decisions. Independence and intuition, in fact, imply a certain degree of ignorance. There is, however, a crucial difference between common ignorance and imaginative independence: common ignorance is complacent and not meant as a means of self improvement; but when you rely on your personal intuition, you know precisely what you ignore and why and you are always working to improve in a specific known direction.

No one has the time to read everyone’s insight into the game. The intuitive player will make his own choices on issues that he has specifically targeted. He knows when to stop reading and start playing. Scholars will boast that they have read every book written on the subject, and probably have. But the intuitive poker poet plays better.

The author is a full time online poker player and makes the majority of his income from his online play and rakeback at Players Only. To sign up for a Rakeback account of your own visit Rakeback Solution.