To play winning poker, you must begin by believing in the power of your game:

Church of Texas Holdem Psalm #2:
Winning poker always begins with a winning attitude.

Surely there's more to poker strategies than waking up on the right side of the bed and smiling as you play? Well, of course there is. Duh! But in order to understand what I'm talking about, you first must know what you're up against in the world of Internet poker.

Your average online Texas Holdem player is a loser. (In the traditional, "losing money", rather than slang, "person you don't want to associate with", sense of the word.) He or she will consistently play poker, because it's fun. Occasionally, that person will win a little. Very rarely, they will win a chunk.

Most of the time, they will lose. Let's say they lose $50 on average. Multiply that person by several million, and you understand how positive, solid players make their living playing winning poker online.

If you ask these losing players what they are doing wrong, they will answer: "I'm just unlucky." Or, "Everybody knows that Internet poker is fixed." It has never occured to them to research how to win at poker for themselves. Poker strategies are a foreign language.

Look deep inside these unfortunates and you will find a war between hope and experience. Hope is getting its butt kicked by experience. Oh boy, and how. One day, they will wake up and say either: "Screw this, I'm going to waste my money doing something else," or, "Screw this, I need to find out how to play better poker."

They will learn the truth about poker. It's impossible to stop being a loser unless you think like a winner.

You must convince yourself that you are a winner. (Proof helps! You need concrete evidence of past performance too. Just wishing to be better is no good at all on its own.) Set yourself simple, easily achievable targets, hit them and then stop for the day.

Why stop? Because you will have ended on a high note and so will find it much easier to start in a positive frame of mind tomorrow. Had a losing session? Never mind. It happens to everybody! Put it out of your mind and start afresh tomorrow with (you guessed it) a winning mindset.

Once you are used to beginning with a winning attitude, you will find yourself winning a whole lot more. Just don't forget to thank me for it when you do!

Here endeth the lesson.