Most important poker skills?

Mental game is by fair the most important skill in poker. The mental game can turn a huge winning player in the biggest fish at the table. The mental game is also by fair the hardest skill to learn. Years of core beliefs are all wrapped up in the mental game. How is your mental game? Do you find your self upset at the tables? Self awareness is going to be very important to determine this. What is causing this massive down swing? In order to remedy the problem, you first have to determine what the problem is. If you are splashing chip around the poker table because you are tilted, learning more poker fundamentals is not going to help you out. The opposite is also true. If you have a great mental game but lack the skill required to win, then focusing on poker fundamentals would be the correct course of action for your poker game

What games are you playing? Do you have tracking software? If so some stats could shine some light on the situation

I forgot to mention bankroll management. This probably is the most important thing. You can be Daniel Negreanu and go broke with out proper bankroll management. If you go broke you can not play. Does not matter how good you are.

Have to agree with hopell.
Once you have the fundamentals down and know what your doing, obviously improving your mechanics is a big part of it, but to me personally mental game has been the toughest.
This isn't just being ok after you get sucked out on. This is having trust in the process you put into place despite the outcome, time and time again. I've had such bad issues, I've grinded for weeks not knowing if I'm making progress. You can get into a bad mental routine. Make sure your always using your own thinking about hands. Ration and reason with yourself and not what you've heard. It's good to take information in but don't solely rely upon it. Always try and create your own understanding.

I'm not by far a "great" player, but I've recently become a winner at NL10 zoom, and it's taken a looong time. So I talk from experience. (250k+ hands).

Best of luck.

Agree completely with the previous two posters.
The most important skills in poker
 1.   Faith This is the root of the mental game. You must believe that if you play each hand correctly, in the long term you will win. This faith is at the root of what we call "the mental game", and includes not getting excited and over-confident when you win just as much as not getting upset when you lose. Over the long term, constantly losing can cause you to lose confidence -- just read some of the blogs here. Keep the Faith
 2.   Bankroll management. You cannot be afraid to lose. You must want to win, but losing shouldn't hurt you, mentally or financially. "Correct" BRM varies with each player's circumstances.
 3.   Understanding the math. No, you don't need a degree in statistics, but you need to know when you don't really have a chance to out-draw your opponent. "May the odds be ever in your favour"
 4.   Understanding the players.This is an old article, but it still is worth reading: The 8 player types - how to get their money. This was written when Fixed Limit Hold'em was still a thing. Later, it was revised down to "The 5 Player Types"

After those come all the actual poker skills, like starting hand selection, understanding flop textures and hand reading.

I strongly suggest "The Mental Game of Poker" by Jared Tendler and Barry Carter. The first part of my blog is about my excursion through that book.

All the best,
VS

While I generally agree with what you guys are saying, I'm not sure if that's the kind of advice OP is looking for, judging by this last paragraph:

Originally posted by ilehelander
What do you think about which are the most important poker skills to win besides of hand reading? And I mean strategic skills excluding mental game, patience, discipline, bankroll management, etc.

And yet, almost all of the advice so far has been about exactly what we were supposed to exclude...

So, when it comes to "actual" poker strategy, I guess hand reading is indeed a pretty big part of it. There is an Overview of NL Hold'em Lessons over here, which I like to link to because of its structured approach. As you can see, hand reading is a big part of the more advanced strategies in there as well, with another important part being "exploits", which is also a pretty broad subject. Maybe that's something you could look into if you're looking for skills beside hand reading.

I assume, of course, that you already got the basics down at this point, like pot odds etc.

That being said, I do agree with my previous posters that the mental game really should not be underestimated. And considering that hand reading is such a big part of "actual" poker strategy, I believe that the things you mentioned that you're already familiar with should serve you pretty well once you have mastered them.

No fair Harrier88 you must have read the entire article carefully.

oops
VS

mental and faith in yourself

I wouldn't say faith is the correct terminology. Faith is having trust in some higher process in place without knowing how its executed. Essentially believing in something bigger and more intelligent than yourself.
I'd say trust is more important (in the poker world). We have to understand what we're doing and why. Even if you make the right play, but don't have trust, this can cause issues. it causes us to doubt the process we put into place. the +EV decision doesn't always show immediately and we can begin to undermine our own ability.
I've struggled countless times with this, and still do. It's one thing to conceptually understand this, but another to implement the knowledge while playing. It's not something you can just think you know. You have to continually expose yourself to this in order to truly understand.
As I said, I'm no where near the level most are, but I am true to what I experience and try to give you an accurate representation of what I've learnt.

Not saying im right your wrong or anything to Vorpal or alex, I understand what they're pointing too. but it's nice to be as clear as possible.

Originally posted by DecMate
I wouldn't say faith is the correct terminology. Faith is having trust in some higher process in place without knowing how its executed. Essentially believing in something bigger and more intelligent than yourself.

Not true, the word has multiple meanings.

Have to agree the basic of the game is a big part but mental strategy is as important as knowing the game.

The meanings of "Faith", "trust" and "belief" overlap and reinforce each other.
I used it in its sense of "unwavering trust in the absence of proof"

Cheers,
VS

I came to give my opinión but instead I just learned more and have to agreed with those great answers whoa!

Thank you for the answers, unfortunately, I see there were some misunderstandings.

I am a profitable player, so, obviously, I know at least some math, bankroll management and other basic level stuff, that's why I asked not to mention the mental game, bankroll management etc.

I overcame my downswing by studying hand reading (reading tells) and probably the most important thing after that - patience. Last one was probably my biggest issue, I didn't have a "time" waiting for a good spot to hit, and my ego didn't allow any fish to steal my blinds.

Originally posted by ilehelander
Thank you for the answers, unfortunately, I see there were some misunderstandings.

I am a profitable player, so, obviously, I know at least some math, bankroll management and other basic level stuff, that's why I asked not to mention the mental game, bankroll management etc.

My bad. I quite often skim over the posts before writing the answer. I'll make the excuse that I read a lot of posts, and sometimes I get hurried.

Lack of patience is a form of tilt, so it's good that you got a handle on that.

Other suggestions:
 Learning to read players' tendencies and reacting to them properly
 Knowing the "standard" ranges for most openings -- not for opening yourself, but for accurately gauging what opponents have opened
 Post-draw bluffing (or post-flop bluffing) for flop games
 Delayed CBetting -- when it's appropriate and how
 ICM for tournament players
 Note-taking

I think others mentioned most of those

Best Regards,
VS

I heard once that poker is about finding a game that you could beat consistently (*) and play it a lot.

Sometimes I forgot that and continue to play in a bad table (or from a bad absolute position) or I keep trying to prove myself playing against players that have an edge over me (even when it is a small one).

So, I would add room/table selection and seat selection to the list above. And humbleness. There is no place for ego, in this game.

(*) the guy meant a particular room/limit or wherever the average player is worst than you

nice chat

"And I mean strategic skills excluding mental game, patience, discipline, bankroll management, etc." - OP

The problem with that thinking is you fail to recognize that skills are intertwined. Once you have have the basics (position, opening ranges, odds, etc.) hand reading is a critical skill. You can't become good at hand reading until you become proficient in profiling the opponents. You can't be good at profiling without patience and discipline.

Knowing your opponents' frequencies is a key. The online guys have the advantage of playing with a HUD that does all the work. Live guys like me? I have to pay attention to EVERY hand. That takes patience and discipline. Preflop I want to know how often you get in the pot and how (limp, raise, calling a raise, 3bet, calling a 3bet). On the Flop how often do you cbet/call a cbet IP/OOP, raise, or check raise? Does my opponent play his draws aggressively? That's just to give you an idea of some of the information you need to accurately range your opponent.

It can be tedious. But you will never maximize your EV without patience and discipline. While you are checking out the sexy waitress, did you notice that the guy on your left has no clue about playing small pairs and implied odds. That the lady on your right is a suspicious player that thinks every small bet is a value bet and every big bet is a bluff!

The "mental game", patience, and discipline have to be the foundation on which good strategy and tactics are built. 1st post, sorry for rambling.

You could say that the most important thing to learn is how to read the villains range, which is Level Two logic. To read the villains range at Level Two you use the villains past history. For instance, if he 3bets 2% of the time, you can guess he only does it with the nuts.

To be capable of reading the villains range, you need to first learn the math in the game. You need to understand the percentage of the time you will see AA. Which is Level One.

You need to learn Level One before Level Two... I'm sure you can guess what comes after Level Two...

At Level Three you realize that the villain designs his range based on the range he perceives for you. You can then consider your perceived range to give you a more accurate understanding of the villains range. It also enables you an element of control over his reaction to your plays.

After learning Level Three, you need to learn Level Four. Again, this gives you a more clear understanding of the villains range.

The Levels of Thought are known to describe a players advancement. They give us a specific order in which we need to learn each of the factors involved in a poker decision. There is also a specific order we need to consider each of those factors when making a decision. It is that which I believe is the most important thing for anyone to learn. How to think through a poker decision.

In my book, "The Levels", I mapped out a poker decision. I mapped out exactly how to consider all the different factors involved in a poker decision. I also gave step by step instructions on how to learn all those factors. If you look at my posting history it should be easy for you to find a link to a free Ecopy of that book.

Good enough

This is a good answer: Professional Attitude