Hey,

If the info/answers to these questions are already posted somewhere else please direct me to the thread. I read the FAQ for new users and got some info I needed but I'm new to forums and prefer a lil more "hands on" for these Q's.

1 - How important do you find poker progs like Pokeroffice - And do they (or some of them) instantly provide players statistics like say sites like sharkscope / topshark do without having to go and type each users name in.

2 - Linked to # 1 - Is it not kind of unfair to have access to everyone's stats like that? I can see how it "evens things out" and I'm not sure if I'm for or against it haha - But I'm still asking your opinion.

3 - Some people have rediculous stats like http://www.pokerprolabs.com/topshark...rnamenttype=pi . . . And much much worse. It's as if they have spent 20 g's and lost? Are they bad players? Gamblers ? I presume some are cash game winners but...?

4 - What is a good book to read for low stakes (6-10$) online sit and go strategy. Someone from here wrote one I believe and I'm thinking of picking that and kill everyone up.

I will leave it at those 4 for now. If anyone wants to hit me back via pm please feel free...I'd love to chat poker with someone as I don't have anyone to do so with...Cept total donks. I'm only partially a donk...Maybe.

Thanks in Advance.


H

1- PO is pretty obsolete compared to Hold'Em Manager and PokerTracker. But they are very useful.

2- No, not really, it only takes from hands you've witnessed.

3- Variance, bad play, tilt, gambling, playing above skill level, all attribute to people losing large sums of money.

4- iunno.

CTB

I have a question: Do poker books actually teach you anything?

Maybe if durrrr/krantz/PA or the like wrote a book I'd read it but I'm not going to learn from Harrington or Skalansky.

There are probably hundreds of thousands of people who would disagree with you.

If you don't learn from them, no sense in reading from them, but I wouldn't infer from your particular experience that poker books don't teach you anything--especially since you suggest that whether a book teaches you anything depends on who its author is.

My point is: what can you learn from a book?

Every situation you play will be unique with its own game flow and table dynamic. The only thing in common will be the pre-flop ranges that you can assign to villains based on their stats. But even with this, how they will respond with those ranges on further streets is different (vastly or subtly).

My point is that books will probably teach you the basics but too often you see people who think that reading them makes them a good player. Everywhere you look you see "I've read lots of books and I still can't win" or "I've read books and I've done what they tell me to do but these donkeys just don't understand what I'm doing and I keep losing"

I have read a couple of books already. Any extra knowledge is good...But I think after getting the basics down...Experience is prob more valuable + now there is so much info to absorb that u sometimes forget to use ur gut feeling which can often be right. IE 2 much information can sometimes "cloud you" in certain spots both in poker and in life.

I'm sure arguments can be made though.

So poker office / tracker etc etc do not provide full stats like sharkscope n co - Only hands you have played against Villains?

H

Anyone who thinks that books are the only way to learn would be making a mistake. But I think it's likewise silly to suggest that you don't learn anything from a book. But if you personally don't, that's fine. Everyone learns differently.

If you already know all the concepts and theories of poker then books can't teach you anything. You're already a pretty good poker player and you'll just need experience to make you better.

For beginners like me though, books teach tons. Anything that you didn't know before that you gained from a book makes reading the book worth it.

But if someone read tons of books and incorporated it into their play, would they really be a losing player?