[Fletch46]

There's not too much to add to what others have suggested but here's two more.

1. Reading is very important but don't treat your poker books like novels. Read and reread them. After you've played for a bit, go back and read your books again. You'll understand the concepts better and things you hardly noticed the first time through will start to make sense. The first time I read Theory of Poker, most of it went right over my head. Six months later I started to understand it and a year after that, I got even more out of it. Small Stakes Hold'em by Ed Miller, David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth is a great book to start with. Whenever I hit a bad streak, I go back to my books and usually I realize I've picked up some bad habit.

2. If you're like most people you'll start playing tournaments but even before you're ready for that, there is a great resource you could look at. Go to the MTT Strategy under Tournament Poker and open the first thread. It is a list of about 60 tournaments that have been played (and in many cases, won) by 2+2'ers. You can click on a tournament in the thread and watch every hand being played, sometimes with comments from the 2+2'er who posted the tournament. These guys are very good and I've learned a lot just watching them play. The tournament links take you to pokerxfactor.com. You may have to sign up on that site but you don't have to subscribe to watch the tournaments. Just give them your email address.

Tournament play is much different than cash game play and I'm not saying you should play your cash game like they play the tournaments except in one area. We tell all beginners to fold more hands and I think if you can see top players folding huge numbers of hands, it will really emphasize how important it is. When you see them folding bad Aces, small suited cards and small pairs out of position, you'll start to appreciate that these hands are not as good as they first look but they are cards all beginners play. Later, you'll learn when to play them but avoid them for now.