The Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSA) of the Winning Poker Player, v1.0

I came across this post on 2+2 today about the knowledge, skills and abilities that make you into a good poker player.  I think this is a good general checklist to have and review before each session.  It gives you skills to work on and always have in the back of your mind when you are playing, so that you continue to play to the best of your ability.  I suggest you print this out an post it somewhere near your computer so you can always reference it and continue to improve your game! :)

The Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSA) of the Winning Poker Player


Hand-to-Hand/Technical KSA

• Starting hand selection
  
• Reading the board and adjusting to it
  
• Adjusting correctly to stack sizes and ante structure (and prize structure/equity if tournament)
  
• Appropriate betting lines
  
• Appropriate bet-sizing; pot-size manipulation
  
• Hand-reading
  
• Adjusting to playing styles and table images
  
• Changing gears and setting up future plays
  
• Basic math: understanding EV, estimating implied odds, calculating pot odds, etc.
  
• Adjusting correctly to position
  
• Being tell-less and/or effectively using false tells; detecting and adjusting to tells of others
  

Other Table KSA

• Focus/Concentration, paying attention
  
• General memory; memorizing betting patterns, playing styles, eccentricities, etc.
  
• Knowing when to quit and take breaks
  
• Remaining calm, logical, objective, disciplined; avoiding tilt
  
• Being ruthlessly competitive
  
• Tilting and manipulating others
  
• If cash game, optimal buy-in for skill-level and playing style
  
• Willingness to experiment to learn
  

Beyond The Table

• Self-criticism and objectivity in session analysis
  
• Discipline to actually do the session analysis
  
• Obtaining and internalizing useful feedback (self-correction)
  
• Research and other active learning, e.g. online forums, books, magazines, training websites, etc.
  
• Table selection - day, time, stakes, type of poker, room, table
  
• Seat selection
  
• Deciding whether to play or not
  
• Bankroll management
  
• Online: Obtaining optimal rakeback and bonus deals
  
• Online: Exploiting add-on software (e.g. Poker Tracker, PokerAce HUD) to analyze play, close leaks, exploit opponents, etc.
  
• Online: Multi-tabling; optimizing # of tables; increasing the # of tables one can play
  
• Online: Taking good notes