Introduction:Hello, my name is Nicholas E I am currently 20 years of age. I will be turning 21 this February on the 24th, and I live in Buffalo NY. I currently attend school for my undergrad for Business, and the reason for my late start is because I attempted to try being a professional in Dota 2, and e-sports game. I made it a lot farther than a lot of people who have all attempted to become professionals however it was not meant to be. I'm korean who was adopted at a couple months old and I live currently with my mother and father. I go to school full time, and have a job which is helping me start saving my bank roll for my future goals in poker.

Goals:My goals are the following in somewhat order listed but might not be exact.
1) Learn how to become a better poker player : I'm an average poker player at the moment, I refuse to start this journey off with a lie and say I'm an above average player because I am not.

2) Build a bankroll to start playing 1-2 games at my local casino, I've talked to a lot of players for suggestions on starting bank rolls some say 100 buy-ins say 200 buy-ins, some even say around $10,000.

3) Learn how to edit videos, for decent watchable vlogs. On-top of this journey I would like to vlog it, poker has grown my self confidence a lot. I've come to love the game with a passion. I also think it would be an amazing experience to share the experience of an average player who wants to do something with poker and my journey.

4) Progress more into the poker community and meet new people.

5) ????

__________________________________________________ _______________

Where am I at so far: Currently, I'm at the Alpha stage in all of this. I promise this is something that I will follow through on. I am brand-new to the forums, so I am unaware of how many people state what I just said that they are going to do.

I'm writing on this forums today to ask people on there opinions on the matter. Suggestions, comments, anything I will take into consideration.

At the moment, I have stopped playing at casinos ( kept going up to Canada ) and have began to save money and truly try to learn poker the proper way.

I am currently reading the following books:
Harrington on Cash Games Volume 1 & 2
Ed Miller How To Read Hands at No Limit Hold'em

I also try to watch youtube videos of cash games, and watch replays of hands by people such as:

Andrew Neeme
Doug Polk
Alec Torelli

So, basically this post is just an introduction. My goals and to be honest asking the biggest poker forums in the world for any tips or advice they might have.

Thanks for reading and any comments you may have

I will be active on the forums, and again this is all in the Alpha stages so this will take a lot of time.

Have you played online any? Seems like micros would be wayyy less risk for you rather than jumping right into 1/2nl live. And you could get in a lot more volume by eventually learning to multi-table to help compensate for the lower stakes...plus a much lower stress environment

Fwiw I could def see a former dota player having a decent advantage over the average joe when it comes in learning to be an efficient mass-tabler. But that's down the road kinda...gotta learn to walk before you can run and all that good stuff.

subbed.
i would recommend catching up on ButterFlySymmetry's PG&C thread. He has the best current PGC thread going, and its a lot 1-2nl.

I have tried BetOnline a while back I was debaiting ln doing it. What would you suggest on a deposit and what kind of tables?

Thanks for your suggestion! I will follow through on it!

WOW thank you so much for that good advice, I will do that tonight

I would just play online if I was you, to learn cheaply, then you can go start the live grind and it will feel like a piece of cake

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28.../index225.html

^^Tons of info there, kahn and others keep it pretty current.

Basically Ignition is generally regarded as a bit softer, also huds and such don't play well with it because its anonymous. WPN isn't as soft, but there is rakeback and freerolls. With enough time, you could grind your way up from $0 using the on-demand freerolls and occasional freebuy events as a starting point. They also give out free entries for some pretty decent mtts to top finishers on the freeroll leaderboard iirc.

You might want to consider tournaments if you have the time, since they are usually the softest. Grinding your way up from micro mtt/sng is probably one of the best ways to start out. $100-10k is a pretty common goal lately but don't feel rushed. Even just being breakeven in any format to start is pretty sweet, since you're getting to practice and learn for free. Get a foothold wherever you can in the micros and try to make the climb from there.

Also check out this collection of threads, many are a bit dated but still some very good free content.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/32...forum-1368796/

Wow, thats very helpful! I tried downloading the client for ignition, and its still not allowed in NY state. However I did download the Betonline client and I will take advantage of there free roles and start playing 2-4 cent games.

I will also take a look at those links and give them a read!

Thank you very much

My live 1/2 advice for a beginner:

Don't bluff. There's no point. You're learning and people can't help themselves but call at these stakes.

Play strong hands and bet them big. Big like 75%+ of the pot with hands like top pair top kicker and better. Bet nuts hard and lead out if out of position with nuts or near nuts. Fold to check raises unless you have the nuts in general. Big bets pre with big hands. $10 min, and add $2~ per limper. I don't like to raise less than $12 with JJ+/AK in live 1/2 preflop because it usually still gets us multiple callers. It's time to table change if pots aren't going multi way or lots of people are folding preflop.

This is a bit more advanced but the difference between the best 1/2 players is just not making mistakes. Ex. If you're deep in position, you bet twice and get check/raised on the turn... you're AA is not good vs 95% (est) of players at 1/2

In reference to above... learn the difference between very wet, wet, somewhat wet, and dry boards.

JT9ddd is a very wet board and very likely to hit everyone at the table. So if we have Ad3d for example, we can bet pot as it's unlikely to get folds.

K72 rainbow(no suits alike) is a very dry flop. Unlikely people connected too well with this flop.

Not sure who the Andrew guy is but the other two guys you mentioned play very high stakes so it's very hard for them to say what works in a live 1/2 game. Any advice can be good advice as well.

Pure Agression and Butterfly Symmetry seem to play lots of 1/2 and have fairly long threads in pg&c.

Nothing in poker is for sure.

Feel free to msg me if you have any questions. Have played quite a bit of 1/2 and 1/3 live with crushing results.

Wow, thank you for the insight!

Andrew is a big poker vlogger, and you're right Butterfly has an amazing insight into 1/2

You might also want to look into learning a side game or two before you get too old and set in your ways :P

Mix games can be pretty soft and if you can find a few juicy live plo games...there is def a wider skill gap to exploit rather than most holdem tables. Having more options is definitely an advantage, there are tons of holdem-only grinders passing up good value tables and they don't even realize it. Also more options for games = less chance of burnout, which can be just as bad as tilt if you try and force yourself into grinding the same format over and over when you just aren't feeling like it.

Just a little update, I started to play online poker on

GlobalPoker.com

I got a free 2$ when signing up at I turned it into $55.65 currently

On-top of that I bought into the weekly tournaments they have all from no deposit.

I am studying the hands I lost, and noticed sometimes I let the villain get to his hand by me not betting.

I've been only playing .1-.05 BB/SB games

Have a couple tournaments tonight will post my results

https://gyazo.com/e7e7c07149dbefb329bada997edeb743

All of FreeAsTheBird's advice is really solid. As far as books go, nothing will be as helpful as The Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler. A solid mental game is essential if this is something you want a future at. Coming from a competitive gaming background (looks like at a high level) you'll easily be able to learn all the fundamentals required to beat 1/2 live. By creating this thread you've already taken a step in the right direction. Best of luck!!

Even bird is grinding a side game lately instead.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...72/index3.html

I will look into the book thank you!

I did go far enough to travel some in Dota and have legitimate sponsorship's! However other things factored in that would not allow me to play, I miss that competitive field.


I'm sorry I didn't respond earlier, I enjoy Omaha and I have seen a lot of money in that game. So you're saying its worth it to learn a second game, sounds good!

Thing is my " journey " my start sooner than later!

However last night, I did not play in any of the tournaments, I got knocked out 17th when the money was 14th which was a mistake.

I was chip leader but the blinds ended up going to 300/600, I lost a pot and I dropped down a lot

I ended up getting QQ, first to act

I don't know a lot about tournaments still learning, however I know you're not suppose to all in first to act.

However I got one called who had pocket 7's

The flop ended up coming 7 K 4

Turn 10

river A

So we lost

However later that night I went to a house game my buddy holds and I bought in for 56$

Over about 6 hours I turned it into 449$ !

I made a lot of mistakes playing and I took some notes!

One hand specifically I mess up on was this

Blinds are .5/.25

I have Q10

I made it 3$ after two fold ( people have been raising 5-30 preflop all night, we had a lot of money in that game that night)

SB calls ( good player but, I noticed was bluffing a lot that night)

BB raises to 15$ ( Floater, worst guys at table by far)

I call, SB calls we go to the flop 3 ways

Flop- 10J9

I'm first to act, the pot is about 45$ and I bet 15$

SB- raises to 45$

BB- Pushes all in with 65$

I think, I talked to the SB because he has around 100 more behind him, I have around 300 at the time.

I called, and he pushed all in for about 80 more....

I dont know why.... But I called

Turn comes 2

River A

BB shows.... K8 ( BOTH MY OUTS FOR A STRAIGHT FLUSH)
SB shows.... A5
Lost with..... Q10

It was a big hand, I had horrible pot ods. I had to figure the guys had A/K and that was one of my outs

Anyways I was still up for the night.

sounds like the deck was rigged

I mean, we had some monster hands last night. At times it felt like it HAHA! We always changed decks every like 50 hands.

Anyways I was still up 400 for the night

Nice win man! Tournament play is completely normal, I read it as you went all in with QQ preflop? We don't usually have many big blinds in tournaments so going all in preflop is also pretty normal.

QT hand is tough because your hand looks very strong. It's strength is weakened quite a bit since two players went all in. Not a terrible hand heads up vs 1 player even getting it in. With action described, usually one player has a flush or straight and other has top pair w/nut flush draw or set/straight/two pair. It's possible in a crazy game like this that both players just have top pair but with better kickers and better flush draws.

Would typically fold QT offsuit pre but don't mind playing QT suited. Isn't connected enough to make straights and our top pairs never have the best or a good kicker. For example, QJ is a nice hand because it makes more straights, only makes nut straights. Still has some kicker problems sometimes but plays well in position when you flop top pair.

That games sounds incredible if you won 1800 big blinds haha.

Omaha typically plays much bigger than NL and can be hard to find an area that spreads it often. Smallest stakes in casinos typically have a $5 bring in (with 1/2 blinds) making them more comparable to 2/5 NL. It's probably much less confusing to learn one game at a time.

LLSNL has some pretty interesting posts in their collection called something like "best of llsnl" LLSNL = live low stakes no limit. I like the one where this guy talks about putting in either 1k hours or 10k hours playing 1/3 once a week. I've read them all and liked them all or at least parts of them.

Personally not a big fan of posting hands there as it feels like either many people troll or people that aren't sure what they're doing make up majority of responses.

Yeh, my tournament play is horrible. However the other group of friend I have we do 20$ buy in and we get 340 chips, and we get one rebuy. Usually we have around 5-8 people playing.

No lie I win around 75% if them and cash in 90% of them however they aren't very good.

But I've been reading your work and its amazing something I truely do admire!

Thanks for taking the time out of your day for your feedback.

Also yes posting on this forums I didnt know if this was a trolly kind of place but everyone has been so nice!

Wow, I don't know if this is a juicy game, or abunch of donks playing crazy, but .5/.25 blinds, and pfr's are 15x-20x. Insane

Update: Currently now 21 years of age and am playing more at my local casino " Seneca Falls" in Ny. I've become more knowledgeable of my play style, and how I react to the games and players.

I have some new goals I'm changing a bit from my original and some I'm keeping.

I have a FT job now working for an Internet company as a tec rep for business class which pays around 16/hr,

I'm not currently attending school anymore ATM

Moving into my own place in a months time

Goals: Save 20k in just bankroll, and travel down the east coast to FL -> TX -> CA -> NV and back to NY, trying all different types of casinos and how the games are.

Reason? I've been told that Seneca Falls is one of the harder casinos in the NE area, and I want to see if thats true along with meeting new people.

I want to try to living off poker starting in 1-3 years.

Goal also remains the same of video editing and sharing my experiences.

Hey I use to live in Buffalo area too (West Seneca). Went to school in SUNY Buffalo and grinded Seneca Niagara casino a bunch. I didn't think the games were that tough there but that was probably 3-4 years ago. I also did a road trip from East Coast to California stopping by a lot of casinos on the way. The games are pretty good most places, I'd think nowadays National Harbor in Washington might be really good.

I think the best way for you to learn though is getting a cheap Run It Once subscription (The $10/month version). Online play is a lot different than live play but you'll learn some pretty good concepts from watching those videos. Once you learn to think through the hands and reasonings behind the plays in the videos, you should be able to apply those concepts in any games.

Small world, yeh I play at a back door place that the owner goes by " Bill " you might know what place I'm talking about on Transit RD. He informed me about Senecas skill level compared to other areas

At Seneca I was told more of the day grinders are what makes Seneca tough but if you go from 10 pm and later the games are easy.

Also I want to learn more about 2-5 and @ seneca the 2-5 players are whales.

I will def subscribe to the RIO you talked about and give it a try!

You live in vegas now? Do you play poker there FT?

I played poker online professionally til Black Friday. Then I went back to school @ SUNY Buffalo. Ran a small business for a couple years and decided to go back to poker and moved to Vegas. So yea, I play poker pretty much full time.

Also, is there a guy named XYZ that still plays @ Seneca?

XYZ hmmm, I know all the regs besides the 2-5 regs. I don't think I've met or heard of him or even seen him on a list.

What does he looks like older/ younger ? ethnicity? FT grinder? I know like 95% of all the dealers, hosts and regs there so I might if he still goes, and I just haven't asked him his name