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Success stories after reading a book? Success stories after reading a book?

07-07-2009 , 06:44 AM
is there anyone who genuinely went from losing poker to big profit winning poker after reading and implementing a book's advice?
If so which book?
what specific advice changed your game?

Would be interesting to see if there are some people on here making a killing thanks to some info!

Cheers guys
Success stories after reading a book? Quote
07-07-2009 , 07:04 AM
I went from losing to breakeven player after reading Harrington on Cash,but that was about the 30th poker book I'd read and that book just seemed to make things click.
I still go back and read the section on turn play when I'm on a downswing/playing poorly but I can't see 1 book doing it for anyone you have to put in a lot of work on your own too.
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07-07-2009 , 07:06 AM
Most of the stuff I've read has been more like building blocks that make me less of a donkey or a bigger winner than before I read it (not necessarily a book, also includes articles, videos, etc).

The one exception might be Poker Tournament Formula, which brought home the value of position better than anything else I'd read and did immediately have a positive impact.
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07-07-2009 , 07:49 AM
In my opinion poker is a game where you have to train many different areas of knowledge and increase small edges gradually. Let me give an example.

Say poker is 30% luck in say.. 100k hands and 70% skill. So in 100k hands your profit will be 30% due to luck, 70% skill

That 70% skill is composed of different elements where you compare to an opponent.

Let's say three of those elements are: Ability to read, ablity to play OOP and ability to calculate math.

Your edge may be 0.4%,0.5%,0.1% respectively, but together they comprise 1% advantage.

When you read a chapter in harringtons book about how to play OOP perhaps your OOP edge increases to 0.6-0.7%, increasing your total edge to 1.1-1.2%

This is just an example and there are many more components, but basically this is my theory on how a player gains a skill edge over opponents.

So the effect of reading a book may be that you increase a bunch of small edges, which in the end will increase the total edge you have, and in the end may turn around a losing player to a winning player.

Personally, I have found "that one book" that has really increased my skill, and I feel I play much better now due to that book.
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07-07-2009 , 08:26 AM
Care to share what that book is ?
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07-07-2009 , 09:07 AM
FWIW-I read Moshman's SNG book before a trip to Vegas. When I got there I played one SNG and finished in the money.

Don't get me wrong, I think experience is much more important than book learning. But books can often help explain concepts that then have to be witnessed or experienced at a table. This book helped me with the idea of pushing with almost any two cards when your chips get low relative to the blinds. I had read this concept in other books, but for some reason it took the best when I read his book.

There was a period where I read HOH 1 or 2 for second time and then won two home tournaments back to back. Granted that's not a huge accomplishment but I felt like a stud. Winning the home games and the pride is a good feeling. I think reading the HOH book at that time helped me focus my play to do well.

As many have said, don't overdo it with number of books. Find a few poker books you like then study ONE of them for some time and try to grasp its contents while playing lots of poker.

My 2 cents
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07-07-2009 , 09:16 AM
Poker books just help a little at a time. The better ones focus on concepts, and leave you to connect those concepts to real-life play. That doesn't happen right away, it takes a little time to stew and to recognize the concepts for what they are at the table.

And beware the advice of anyone who says, "I read so-and-so book, and the next day I won _____!!!" A more realisitic and helpful thing is something like, "I read so-and-so book, and it helped with balancing my range here, or my bet sizing there."
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07-07-2009 , 09:45 AM
I started poker after reading a book I picked up in the airport by Phil Helmuth (something like the pros). Not a great book but it was enough for me to sit at a live 2/4 LHE table without making a complete idiot of myself. A month or two later I read SSHE and that was another leap forward.

But I think once you get past beginners' level the effect of specific books will be hard to detect.
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07-07-2009 , 10:34 AM
I can thank SSHE for some very nice live winnings.
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07-07-2009 , 11:15 AM
I was a break even player in LHE and used to read articles on various poker websites. I use to sign up on various websites to receive the no deposit bonus, would play fine for some days and then I would go broke as I tried to progress through the limits. Then one day I received a complimentary $2 credit from stars (Although there was no such offer when I signed up on their site). Then I decide to take up a book and felt that SSHE was the best book to read going by the talk about that book on various forums. Now after a couple of months of grinding through the limits today I have turned the measly $2 credit to over $400. And there is still a lot that I have to learn.
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07-07-2009 , 10:23 PM
WLLH won me money back in the limit days. HOH2 improved my MTT results tremendously.
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07-07-2009 , 11:50 PM
i went on a huge HEATER after reading HOH1 and to lesser extent HOH2 (probably HOH2, it just seems like such obvious stuff now).

i look back and i wonder how much was luck vs. HOH1/2 learning. i've never been able to get it back. i think alot was luck.
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07-08-2009 , 12:11 AM
I went on a 30 BI upswing at 10 man SNG's after reading SNG Strategy by moshman. I then went on a massive downswing but the book is excellent.
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07-08-2009 , 03:42 AM
Winning Poker Systems won me a lot of money in 5-card stud and 5-card draw against players who obviously hadn't read anything about those games. That really taught me the advantage that reading certain books can give you.
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07-08-2009 , 04:55 AM
I agree with Gonso, poker books add a little at each time.
But I found Colin Moshman's SNG Strat book very applicable as soon as I started the STT. I started playing with this book and I at once became a winnig STT player. Of course we can have variance but I had really a liner results curve on my firts 2k µSTT built on this book.
Success stories after reading a book? Quote
07-08-2009 , 04:56 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bojangles90
In my opinion poker is a game where you have to train many different areas of knowledge and increase small edges gradually. Let me give an example.

Say poker is 30% luck in say.. 100k hands and 70% skill. So in 100k hands your profit will be 30% due to luck, 70% skill

That 70% skill is composed of different elements where you compare to an opponent.

Let's say three of those elements are: Ability to read, ablity to play OOP and ability to calculate math.

Your edge may be 0.4%,0.5%,0.1% respectively, but together they comprise 1% advantage.

When you read a chapter in harringtons book about how to play OOP perhaps your OOP edge increases to 0.6-0.7%, increasing your total edge to 1.1-1.2%

This is just an example and there are many more components, but basically this is my theory on how a player gains a skill edge over opponents.

So the effect of reading a book may be that you increase a bunch of small edges, which in the end will increase the total edge you have, and in the end may turn around a losing player to a winning player.

Personally, I have found "that one book" that has really increased my skill, and I feel I play much better now due to that book.
It was mathematically proven that poker is 12% luck and 88% skill.
Success stories after reading a book? Quote
07-08-2009 , 03:48 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by JuniorMontana01
It was mathematically proven that poker is 12% luck and 88% skill.
How?

The way I figure, the longer you play the more skill. So if you play an infinited amount of hands then its 100% skill.

But over a reasonably large sample, 10k hands, there has to be at least 30-ish % luck
Success stories after reading a book? Quote
07-08-2009 , 04:28 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bojangles90
How?

The way I figure, the longer you play the more skill. So if you play an infinited amount of hands then its 100% skill.

But over a reasonably large sample, 10k hands, there has to be at least 30-ish % luck
30% of what?
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07-09-2009 , 05:46 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by JuniorMontana01
It was mathematically proven that poker is 12% luck and 88% skill.
Interesting do you have any articles or anything to back it up? I'd be interested in reading about this subject.
Success stories after reading a book? Quote
07-10-2009 , 03:18 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bojangles90
How?
Quote:
Originally Posted by UltraGmax
Interesting do you have any articles or anything to back it up? I'd be interested in reading about this subject.
You were both leveled. But Bojangles figured it out:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bojangles90
So if you play an infinited amount of hands then its 100% skill.
Success stories after reading a book? Quote
07-10-2009 , 08:52 PM
I've had direct help from a book before. Two books, actually. Caro's book of tells and NAvarro's Read em and Reap
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