Don’t emulate what other players do at poker. Develop a strategy of your own!
The short and simple answer is practice. The more you play, the better you can get. This is not a guarantee though. If you do not learn from your mistakes and keep losing money or the games even when you are not betting any real cash, then you are unlikely to get very good at poker. Winning is not everything in gambling, especially poker. Winning constantly and with a certain degree of predictability is the real objective.
Understand the Nuances of Every Game
Poker is not a very complicated game. Pop culture is partly to blame for this perceived complex nature of poker. It is not even remotely as difficult as chess. Since poker can become a high stakes game and people can lose a lot of money, the gravity of the consequences makes it a daunting gaming experience. Then there are the typical and atypical bluffing exercises. Luck also plays a major role, at least till the cards are dealt.
Understanding poker and all the rules of a particular variant you are playing is a basic requirement. You must understand the nuances of every game. You might be playing the same version of poker but players keep changing, so do the bets and the cards. A good poker player does not approach every game or round in an identical manner. Your hand, the cards revealed on the table, the pot and the plays of the opponents should influence your decisions. There are times when you will have the absolute winner at hand and you can do anything you like as you stay put in the game. Such incidents are usually quite rare. When a win is certainly not guaranteed, you cannot have the same approach in every game.
Develop a Strategy that Works for You
Some players excel at bluffing. Many players take it easy and simply go by the rules, test their luck and remain reasonable with every bet. A few players tend to be restless and they may even win in many circumstances. The same approach does not work for everyone. You must figure out what works for you. This should be at the heart of any strategy you devise. Strategies should also change as you play different versions of poker at various settings with new gamblers. Play without betting money, hone your skills and stake real cash only after you have developed a winning strategy for yourself.