Hello dear 2+2ers, this is my first thread here. I would need some advice as to what would be the best way to proceed when it comes to studying. I'm currently in a situation where I have read most basic to intermediate strategy content.

Recently I'm feeling lost since I want to start studying the game myself (getting spoonfed with strategy doesn't help with understanding), but I'm lacking a -strong- theoretical foundation. I noticed that when I bought flopzilla and started studying flops range vs range. I'm getting stuck very quickly when trying to build my strategy. Where should I start, so I can use flopzilla to build a strategy and study away from the tables confidently? (I don't own a solver FYI)

About me:
I'm currently playing NL5 regular tables on stars EU and planning to move up ASAP. I have played a total of ~500k hands over the last 2 years, but did a long break since I started playing.

Feel free to ask me anything, so you have a more complete image of me.
Thank you in advance

Welcome .. There are lots of previous threads to 'search' for and look through the posts to get a feel for what others are thinking. Your post is a bit back and forth, which may lend itself to fewer responses.

1) You want to start studying, but have already read 'lots' of content (that's studying)
2) You seem to be slower at grasping the concepts presented. That's actually good to admit as a weakness to your development.

3) You don't really need to 'build' a strategy, try to keep things as simple as possible. If you try to force a 'game plan' your opponents will generally pick up on it and turn it against you. One strategy may work when an opponent is on your right, but fail miserably when they are on your left.
4) Many a Player have stated the 'move up ASAP' phrase and flamed out. You move up when your 'ready' to move up. This will come when you feel 'comfortable' mentally, your BR can sustain a few hits .. and more importantly your stats back up your 'readiness'. YOU MAY NEVER MOVE UP! Is that an issue? Only if you make it one. The worst thing you can do is mess up your mental approach, which in turn will damage your love of the game, by telling yourself that you're 'off schedule' .. then you start to force the issue and make larger mistakes, which puts you in a downward spiral.

Certainly the game evolved over the past 2 years. Were you a winning Player?

Where to start? You need to start in an area that most bugs you while you're playing. Are you OOP too much? Are you constantly folding when you miss the Flop? Are you surprised at what your opponents get to Showdown holding?

You may be a Player that needs to reverse engineer hands rather than start PF. Take a few hands you won or lost and see if they fit into 'the charts'. When you start to recognize who (you or opponent) is making the mistakes then you will be able to mentally let the outliers go and know in the long run you either played in a better way but just didn't get the result you wanted at Showdown or if you need to watch out for these spots and minimize your involvement.

This very well could be a disappointing post for you to see. There is no 'one' magic way to study/learn and it's up to you to figure out what works best for you. Search the content here and post some specific hands. There are probably 100s of threads the same as this already stored on this site. Ask something specific, show you are serious, and this community will come out to help you. Come looking for the rabbit in the hat and you will be left at the bus stop. GL

It's normal to be confused when studying poker.
There's just so much stuff out there and a lot of it is very complicated.


I found Red Chip Poker CORE to be extremely well structured to build a strong basic strategy.
You do all the lessons in order and learn all the basics.
Pretty much everything, starting from the most basic concepts is covered.

After that you just keep improving on the stuff you feel you need to work on.

There are other similar courses out there, like Run It Once From the Ground Up, which skips most of the basics and is perfect for 6-max online.


SplitSuit also has some free YT content on how to use FlopZilla.


Getting some private coaching will give you a quick boost, since a coach can easily tell you what to work on and how to work on it.
There's a coaching subforum here on 2+2, if you post there and describe what you're looking for you should get some replies rather quickly.


If you have a decent hand sample size, at least 10k+, you could post your stats in the correct thread here or in the correct subforum and get your stats analyzed there.
Sometimes it's rather easy to point out some common mistakes just from looking at the basic stats.


Your objective when studying poker shouldn't be to become a perfect player or build a perfect understanding of something.
Just study and improve, aim to improve a little bit every day and eventually you will become a very strong player.

Thank you for your very thoughtful answers both of you. Especially yeodan, very helpful advice

If you feel you lack a theoretical foundation, I've heard RIO's From the Ground Up series is great value for $50(?). ToP is also a tried and true resource even though it's decrepit in terms of poker content.

Thanks, I already own FTGO but I find it hasn't got as much detail as I'd like..
But still I can say it's a pretty good course!