Studying Without Learning Too Much

Even though I can't handle learning a lot of new things, there are still things that I need to keep track of.  I need to follow the 2+2 poker forums, pokernews.com, and pokernewsdaily.com to keep track of what's happening in poker.  I started a thread on Michigan Charity Poker in the 2+2 Poker legislation forum, and I need to watch it for responses.  And I have to do try do this without putting any new poker strategies or ideas in my head.  That's tricky.

If I want to work on just one concept in one of my poker books, I have to use the table to contents to go straight where I need to start studying, and not look at anything else.

One thing that can be exempt from that is memorization.  If I want to learn, for example, what the top 15% of hands, playing all suited connectors and pair, looks like, I can memorize that without messing up my play.  It doesn't require that I watch other players, or do anything else that I have to think about at the table.  When I'm ready, I can apply that at the table.  Once I know what a lot of hand ranges look like then I can watch a player and see if he's playing more or less than that range.  And once I can do that, I can work on how to react to his range given the table and tournament situation.

I've always liked breaking problems into small pieces, and working on one piece at a time.  As a musician I would work on a difficult passage in the music just a few measures at a time, at a slow tempo, then either add more measures or a slight tempo increase, and do it again until I could easily play the section on which I was working.  I see no reason that I can't work on poker the same way.

That probably sounds like a slow, even ponderous way to do things, but if it worked for me in clarinet playing, I don't see why it can't work for poker If I approach each new problem that way, incorporating a new step during each tournament or study session, at the end of a year that's hundreds of small new pieces adding up to several things that I can do well, and that adds up to more money.