I have always been fascinated about NL Texas Hold Em but was never good at it (but never put in the effort either). After depositing $80 dollars at Full Tilt playing $50 NL (go ahead and laugh) and $6.50 SNGs, I lost all of my money. I had no idea about poker strategy past basic odds, position, hand strength, and tight aggressive play (and I deviated from it quite often, getting impatient and playing weaker hands aka gambling).
After realizing I was doing it all wrong, I'm now attempting to play correctly and have high ambitions. After reading up more about Position, Odds, Bankroll, Variance, etc, I realized that I have the potential to be a good poker player. Bankroll management really turned my outlook on NL Holdem upside down, that poker can be profitable through grind rather than gamble (I knew it was a skill game but put too much emphasis on bluffing/reads rather than disciplined play at beginner levels), I'm ready to actually start playing good poker.
My plan is to turn my initial $100 deposit into $1000 using beginner tight aggressive strategy and then relearn the game once I hit $1000.
I'm going to start this weekend, with this goal in mind:
$5 NL until my bankroll turns $200.
$10 NL until my bankroll turns to $500
$25 NL until my bankroll turns to $600
$50 NL until my bankroll turns to $1000
For the first $1000 dollars, I will be playing a mix of traditional tight aggressive and the "Set or Above/No Mistakes" strategy found here:
http://www.poker-strategy.org/default.aspx?tabid=187. I'm going to follow it pretty religiously until I start developing a higher understanding of poker and can start playing at a more advanced level. Gotta start somewhere right?
My main questions are:
If it okay to play predictably at low stakes NL poker?
I figure it'd be more beneficial for me to be predictable and win at a slow steady rate by only playing strong hands, than it is for me to mix it up. I'm guessing that people playing at that limit won't be able to come up with accurate reads anyways right?
When will I know if I'm ready to play two tables at once?
I'm willing to grind it out with one table at first but I know my profit will be extremely slow until I get into the higher NL tables. I figure at such a low level, I could pretty comfortably play two tables at once (especially if I'm playing tight aggressive and only go in on certain hands). How will I know if I'm good enough to play two tables at once?
I now know about PokerTracker and am going to use it to help me improve my game, but how do I do so? How can I see where my leaks are, how can I see where my strengths are? Basically, what's the best beginners approach to taking advantage of PokerTracker?
What exactly is EV?
What is range, how do I calculate it and how do I use it to my advantage?
What should I start out playing? 6 max or Full Ring? What about HU?
Also: any basic tips or stories similar to mine that could encourage/help me out would be greatly appreciated. I'll be keeping records and blogging about my progress on a private site until I hit $1000 and will post the results here.
Last edited by owtuw; 11-18-2009 at 05:00 PM.