Rule 20: Concentrate on how you are playing, not on whether you are winning.

I he idea of winning money, as we have seen, is a false goal. You can
actually be playing quite poorly and be winning quite handily. This is not the
victory it feels like, however, for eventually this bad play will catch up to
you. And while it might be momentarily pleasing to win money, it is
disastrous if you are achieving this by playing wrong. (Probably the thing we
should hope for is to lose when we are playing wrong, for this will steer us
toward the correct path.)
Money, as a measure of poker expertise, is quite unreliable. Here is an
example. Suppose you are winning $200 in a poker game. Going by this
measure alone, this would mean you've been playing very good poker
indeed. But suppose a better player, dealt the same cards as you've been
getting, would be up $600? Now a different picture emerges. We see by this
example that money alone is not a good measure of poker play.
You should go home from a poker game on some nights losing $250
and be proud of the way you played. And you should go home on other
nights a $300 winner and be disgusted at the way you played.
Be as proud of yourself for playing well with bad cards as you are for
playing well and winning. Achieve your sense of satisfaction by this path
also. Actually he proud of yourself for doing this.
The process must always be kept uppermost, because it is what will
win you money over the long run. Give yourself a pat on the back every time
you make a correct play, not every time you rake in a pot.

Rule 19: The goal of poker is not to win money, it is to play your

Many players believe that the goal in poker is to win money. Actually, the goal is to make a series of correct decisions. This is the real goal. Keep your focus on (his and the rest will follow naturally. Correct play on each card and each hand is your real goal as a poker player.
«Winning isn't your job. Making good decisions is your job».

– Mike Caro

Rule 18: Take the long view.

While you'd like to win in the short term in poker (in other words, today), what you really want is to win over the long term. Ideally, you want to end up with a poker history that includes both wins and losses, with the wins dominating. The worst thing that can befall you in poker is to be winning in today's game using a strategy that fails over the long-term.
«You are rewarded for correct play in the long run; in the short run, anything can happen».

– Tom McEvoy, champion poker player

Rule 17: Navigate around in the game.

Good players may look like confrontational types to the casual observer – they may give this outward appearance – but in fact, if you watch them for any length of time, you discover that the thing they are really good at is navigating around problems instead of confronting them. «Navigating around» goes with «pick your spots» in the conceptual galaxy of poker ideas – these two are very near one another.

And the player should think in these terms too. You should navigate around in the game (especially around dangerous opponents) rather than thinking in terms of going «up against» them. It's not a «battle of the gladiators» when you sit down at a poker table – a better image is of a boat trying to navigate the shoals carefully in shallow water. Changing your thinking to this approach will put you closer to the true reality of the situation. Here's another way of phrasing this: One of the great secrets to poker is staying out of trouble.

And this is a secret the pros use. They navigate around the obstacles in the game.

«I view each tournament as a gigantic minefield that I must navigate my way through without getting blown up. I'm likely to be wounded several times along the way, but as long as none are fatal, I'll get to the other side». Richard Tatalovich (States Poker Championship winner)

Rule 16: Poker is a tango.

Poker is a tango. The good player pushes right up as the other backpedals, and he does so perfectly as the other moves forward or backward. Perfectly done, there is no light in between, no space. This is the mark of the great players – there is no space in between. They are pushed and push absolutely as far as they can go forward in each instance, each case. This is probably true at the top level of all sports and games.

Rule 15: Grab the momentum.

In a game between highly skilled poker players, there is a certain «momentum» aspect to the game – and an alternating attempt to take control of this momentum. From hand to hand as the game progresses, this momentum is often up for grabs. It's a little like tennis, where one player charges the net while the other is forced to back up. Or perhaps you could compare it to a football team that starts «deep in its own territory» and never seems to get out of this spot, constantly backed up to its own goal line by the opponent.

Such use of momentum by skilled players is used to get (and keep) other players down. This grabbing of the momentum is sometimes called «taking control of the game». (This can happen over longer time spans, too. Player A may grab the momentum for hours, days, perhaps even weeks, then something will change and Player В will take control for a period of time.) To survive in this type of game, if the chance to grab this momentum offers itself, you must take it.

Rule 14: Don't pick the best hands to play – pick your spots.

Look for the right combination of probability, weakness, hesitation (by opponents), body language, position, past tendencies, who is «short- stacked», and your hand's value in the overall scheme of things. Look for all of these things, and then play. This is called «picking your spots». Less skilled players simply «wait for a good hand». This is something quite different. The picking-your-spots approach considers ail things before making a play. It is the one used by successful top players.

Rule 13: Think of your poker game like driving a car.

Driving a car produces a similar «flow» of events as the game of poker, in which you have to find a way to merge with the flow. You've noticed those signs on the highway that say «Speed Limit 65». But do you also notice those other signs, the ones that say: «Minimum Speed 45?» This tells us that there is a «flow» – and that «in between» is a pretty good place to be. It's a rhythm – where things operate at their best.

And poker is similar to driving in traffic. You see other cars move over, so you move over; you notice a certain lane is open, you take it; a bunch of cars move one way as a group, you move the other; a major tangle appears to be forming, you look for a way to navigate around it. You try to pass someone in traffic, they speed up, you back off. A parking spot appears, you move toward it, someone gets there ahead of you, you back off. And so on. It is the drivers who refuse to merge with the flow – who try to «go outside the lines» – who usually have the bad things happen to them.

Rule 12: If you find that playing poker is thrilling, adventurous, and exciting, there's a good chance you may be playing it wrong.

One little-mentioned aspect of poker is that, when played correctly, it can be slightly boring. Not boring in the usual sense of the word, but in the choice of one's responses. These responses are pretty scripted. You get a certain hand, you do a certain thing. Stray too far outside this predictable «script» and the odds will turn against you. For this reason, if the game is adventurous, chancy, and exciting, you may be playing it wrong. It's when the game has a certain dreary predictability that you are beginning to play it correctly. Poker is fun; winning at poker can sometimes be rather tedious.

"Everything the middle course is best; all things in excess bring trouble". – Platus