Yeah I remember when ESPN would play poker non-stop for several years. I would sit there and watch for a couple hours at time, which blows my mind today as I would never sit and waste time watching poker for hours on end these days lol. It's funny you brining up bluffing your friends and showing them your shitty hand..I still have several times that comes to mind where I did that..good times
I know what you mean, back in the days there were so many different poker formats on TV, not only the big tournaments but also cash games tables. Especially shows like Poker After Dark or High Stakes Poker were awesome to watch. Mixing the old guys who have been around for years like Doyle Brunson and Barry Greenstein with the younger generations like Phil Ivey or Tom Dwan was just genious. I am really glad that they tried to revive the old formats but somehow it doesn't feel the same anymore. Most of top cash game players these days are just so focused at the game, there isn't much table banter going these days. But if we looking for ways to improve our own poker game than watching the professionals play live again is a good training. We can always ask ourself, why is he raising or calling at this spot now and try to analyse their range by watching them for hours and hours play.
Observing how those professionals behave and understand the patterns that they are using, usually those players have their own ways of calling either they are holding good cards or they are just bluffing, timing and the way they made the call is part of the skills that they've learned thru time. It's not easy, but you will be able to catch it up when you are practicing the game.
If you want to improve, aside from watching every available strategy that being shared all over the internet, playing and trying the actual process will help to build your confidence up.
It takes time for those experienced gamblers to achieve whatever skills they've got. You can't cheat your way up by just watching them play
Well I think there are many people who have great talent, and for poker there are people who have that already developed, people who with little information do a lot, I have a friend who always plays online in tournaments, especially those who were Of betcoinpoker, he always secured the top 3 positions, I don't really know how he has such skill, and in real life he is very good when it comes to playing pool, and I think poker is a talent that he has for that.
Well to tell the truth, I have been studying poker a lot, from guides, from when pokerstarts.net came out, I have always liked the theory that develops under the game, but I have not yet reached that level of winning tournaments.