There is a lot that goes into being a good poker player. You need to work on your game, study and practice all aspects of it. You need to learn strategies, how to read players and bet sizes. You also need to improve your physical game. You need to be able to play long poker sessions without becoming too tired or losing focus.

It is important to remember that poker is a game of averages. It doesn’t matter how good you are, it is important to be better than half of the players at your table if you want a positive win rate. You should always place yourself in positions where your chances of winning are the highest.

One of the most important aspects of poker is position. It gives you bluff equity, which is important for making profitable calls. It also allows you to put pressure on players with weaker hands. For example, if you are in late position and bet aggressively when you have a high hand like AK, it will force other players out of the pot, or at least make them fold.

It is also important to understand ranges. This is where you take an opponent’s current hand and figure out what range of hands he can have that beats it. A more experienced player will take this a step further and work out the full selection of hands that his opponent could have, and then calculate the odds of beating them.