Of every lesson in poker, every skill, every betting strategy, nothing will work without discipline. What makes poker a tough game isn’t knowing what to do. It is doing it over, and over, and over again without fail.

And here is why discipline is so important. Over the long run, a good poker player can expect to bring in 3 big bets per 100 hands when playing online. That isn’t a whole lot, and it doesn’t leave a lot of room for error.

Make one loose call, or one loose raise every 100 hands, and that’s all it takes to go from winning to losing in the long run.

So have the discipline to wait for good starting hands. Then have the discipline to play it well, and lay it down if you think your beat.

Discipline also waits for the right position to make a play from. An unprofitable bluff from first position may become quite profitable from late position. Knowing this is one thing, but having the discipline to only play the correct opportunity will make the difference between profit, and loss.

Have the discipline to try to pick your fights in position only. Playing out of position is very expensive.

Discipline plays a huge role in staying off tilt. It’s hard to take a bad beat, especially a couple in a row, and keep playing solid, good poker. Bad beats happen. Everyone gets them. The problem is that tilt is a HUGE leak! Discipline prevents losing money to tilt. This is crucial to being profitable.

Discipline also plays a role in hand reading. Once you have put your opponent on a range of hands, having the discipline to make the right play, be it calling, raising, or folding, is absolutely crucial! Whats the point of making a perfect read, if you ignore it. Have the discipline to pull the trigger on your read, no matter what the decision is.

Also, discipline plays a massive role in bankroll management. Don’t play in games above your skill level if your risking more than 3% of your bankroll on a single buy in.

So, to summerize, here is when discipline will be needed to have a successful poker game.

• Patience for the right starting hand
  
• Waiting for the right position to fight for a hand
  
• Waiting for a monster to stack off with
  
• Waiting for a weak player to commit his chipstack with a weak hand
  
• Laying down a good hand when it’s likely to be second best
  
• Proper bankroll management, to not play outside of the bankroll, lest variance take its toll and run your roll down to zero
  
• Staying off tilt, no matter how many bad beats in a row you get
  
• Metagame discipline. To know when not to play at a certain table, or against certain opponents. We play to profit. There is no profit if everyone is better than you at the table.
  
• Not playing when emotional, or otherwise not able to focus

These are a few basics that proper discipline will enable you to get control of. In other words. No discipline, no profit. Period.