Hi all,
My goal for the next few months is to improve my overall understanding of NLHE. I've tried grinding 3-4 tables in the past thinking the more hands I grind=experience=me becoming a better player. However, what I've found is that I often fall into a robotic pattern with a mediocre strategy (e.g., always cbetting value hands, barreling scare cards) which causes me to both lose money and hinder my learning progress.

For this reason, I am setting a goal of playing 50K hands over the next 5 months (I have school and work so my time is VERY limited). Can I achieve this goal playing ONLY two tables? Approximately how many hours will it take?

I know the amount may sound ridiculously low for most of you, but I honestly think playing only two tables forces you to actually put some thought onto decisions, pay attention to what other players are doing, and be more focused(I could be wrong). What do you think? Should I strictly stick to two tables or crank up the number as I go? Again, my goal here is not monetary(although it'd be nice ending up with a profit) but rather increasing my skill and understanding of NL, all while breaking the bad habits of playing robotically, without thought.

I’d like to know what you guys think, any advice, anecdotes, suggestions are welcome!

Considering you'll typically see 60-75 hands per hour (this is a full ring table 6 max would be more) your looking at between 330-415 hours if you plan on 2 tabling.

^^I'll be playing 6-max, I wish I had my database to see the avg hands/table/hour, but I lost it all and on the site that I play every table seems to have a different rate. (60-110)

So that would come to be between 417 and 227 hours. Does that sound accurate?

Why not play 1 table of Zoom instead?

Yeah about that.. 110 hands per hour is possible.. If you need to have a good estimate I'd go with 250-300 hours playing 2 6 max tables

USA

Divide your daily poker time into 3 segments - studying, playing 2 tables, and playing 4 tables. For example, if you are a morning type of person, you can 4-table the morning session, then have a break and do some studies, review hands from the morning session, and then play 2 tables to work on your game and implement the concepts you studied that day. Go into that session with a specific game plan - you can post it next to your computer. Next day, you will see that the things you worked on in study and 2-tabling session will find their way nicely into your 4-tabling game.

4 tabling session: focus on best application of your current skills, quick decision-making and avoiding auto-piloting.
2 tabling session: focus on new skills and concepts, experiment with new lines, make in-depth reads on your opponents and relevant adjustments.

You mentioned you are busy with work and school, so perhaps this plan will not fit your schedule - Then you can just have two day cycles - first day play one session of 4 tables (2 hours), next day have a 1 hour study and 1 hour of 2-tabling. You can play 6 days a week and take one day off.

That's a superb idea
My schedule is very tight indeed, however, I think I can comfortably dedicate about 2-3 hours a day on poker( about 5-7 hours total on weekends) so your plan fits me perfect. I had not thought about splitting my sessions like this, Thanks a lot Tranqville!!

You are welcome. After you have tried this, please let me know if it worked for you.