I really enjoy playing poker, but I cannot seem to get better. I believe I have a general sense of fundamentals, enough to "sound" knowledgeable but apparently am not able to translate any of that knowledge into winning poker. Online play really becomes monotonous when its not making me question why I even bother. I do not have the bankroll to properly play live stakes, and continually break even online. I want to get better at dealing with swings and variance, but it seems like I am unable to "improve" my game or deal with those factors better despite my efforts... (I'm not even confident my "efforts" qualify as attempts to get better considering I don't actually know any profitable card players)

I'm trying to establish if I have the abilities that are required to be a poker player, and keep running into the fact that ultimately I don't exactly know what is required to be a winner. What talents are required and am I wasting my time even desiring being a profitable, "capable" card player?! I have played the game for several years, but would only consider myself "serious" about it enough to read/forum for maybe a year. The only facet of the game I believe I have a solid grasp on is BR management and how imperative it is to long term success. (Which is ultimately why I have never jumped beyond 25NL considering I've never had a BR to support beyond that...) I grinded 40 bucks or so into 1k a few months back, and tracked it here (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...along-1407595/) Admittedly, a solid 20% of that money came from martingaling hyper turbo heads up

I had a pretty rough last few sessions, and despite a couple bad beats there were several poor decisions in there as well. If I get any serious interest in this post I will post a few hands, and the graph below only represents the 20k hands since I've bought HM2. Manager 2 has shown me that I have SEVERAL leaks and I feel under qualified and unable to properly adapt to the new information this program gives me.... Mostly I find myself logging in excited to play and logging off tired of the game anymore, and I know its NOT because I don't enjoy the game itself. I think it is because I don't have the proper mindset to react in the ways I know I'm supposed to, if that makes any sort of sense!


Please pick my brain or tell me how you guys review a session, and learn from your mistakes. How does a profitable poker player set his/her goals, and what do they do to improve with every day??? What questions should I be asking as a new player without a solid grasp on exactly what it takes to be a consistent winner. So many threads talk in retrospect about hands or preach ABC fundamentals, but how do players like myself actually apply ourselves and practice the discipline required to sustain "fundamentals" despite our result oriented brains watching the green line plummet?? I'm sure I will have many more questions once I learn what to ask...

Just trust that the fundamentals will work until you see them work, there's no way past the leap of faith.
You see what not applying the fundamentals did, so try applying them.



Zy

I am also a begginer (1 month+ of playing) . In my opinion the most important thing is to understand ranges. Other key cocepts would be:

- when to bet/when not to
- when to double barrel/when not to
- how to identify different types of players (that should have been nr. 1)
- identifying patterns of playing that your opponents use (cbet,double barrel,raising for flush draws , c/c c/c c/r on river, how much he raises pf with which hands etc)
- oh, and fold to raises more, not always !!! (this has cost me ALOT of money this month)
- forget about your hand for one second and think about the other players, about how, based on what you've seen , would they play that specific hand -> make decisions based on asumptions. If your assumptions are wrong then it must be that you aren't paying attention to what your dear beloved villain has been telling you all game long (take my money, take my money, take my money )

I would say, give yourself an absolute deadline. If in 30 days you do not show a BB/100 of 3 then quit the game for good.I personally find deadlines to be the best motivational tool that I posses.

Best of luck, best of skill,

Dan

I would definitly aggre to some points of your Post. But setting result orientied Goals is worse. You don't have control over it and putting pressure on yourself. Stop checking HEM all 3 Minutes it really won't EVER help ur game. Your 20k Graph propably don't say as much about ur WR as u may think.

Always set ur Goals on ur A GAME. Volume isn't lying, too (100K+).

Having a Roll for a limit makes u more confident u could propably imagine. And beeing confident and not money scared cause of underollment is pretty, pretty important.

Last but not least, show up w/ Spots in the Forums, read other Threads. But not only looking at them as u may look at ur Facebook Newsstream. Reflect tips or opinions on ur own game, debatte about it.

Lol. Obviously you've been running well your first month of poker... only a novice would give such poor advice.


Zy


Sent from my Galaxy S4 using 2+2 Forums

I've been running mediocre. My point is that given a sufficiently large sample if you are under 0 BB/100 then your game is flawed badly.

If you are on the positive side of things, given the sufficiently large sample, then you are getting better.

He was clearly playing well in the first 3/4 of the sample and then he started making poor decisions. IMO any poker pro can start playing dumb as f@&k with lighting speed if he gets tired just a bit. One mistake at high stakes doesn't cost you 5$, it costs you 500-5000$.

Basically what I am trying to say is that you have to play solid poker 100% of the time to be a winner. Making just one big mistake out of 200 decisions could cost you all that you have won with those 199 good decisions. (this is how I see things at this moment)

sure but you aint gonna make only solid decisions all the time, it is part of the learning process to loose stacks because of poor play. Then you try to learn from that and not repeat it. If you quit after some poor play because you think everybody else always are solid then I dont't know what to say.

DavidAdams: This entire thread can be considered a form of tilting. You are pissed at not getting the results you want; as for sucking at this game, I have no idea what you are talking about considering your thread and your results in there, as of Feb 4th. Your game does not have to change now that you bought HM2. Turn off your HUD and play the game you were playing in the first few days of February. Clearly you were a solid winner then; so do what works for you.

Play tight, play careful, and don't let marginal calls (preflop, flop turn OR river) suck stacks off you.

I've been in a similar situation several times. First of all you have to accept swings are part of the game. In the last 4000 hands you seem to have tightend up (overthinking after win?). In the last 400 hands you just seem to have lost nerves because of not winning money for a long time. Looks like you made the bad calls out of lack of confidence in your game to me.

1. Take a break
2. Take another one
3. Study your last 400 hands where you lost money in detail and improve your general strategy in this spots. Post the hands in this forum
4. Reflect on what made your game change 4000 hands ago and adopt winning parts of the strategy

Fact is, you have been playing profitable poker a while, this is not mediocre, this is good. Get back the profitable habbits. And learn not to spill money when you tilt. If you realize you aren't mentally up to the game at any point in any session quit it at the next BB. If you feel "mediocre" quit at once.
Always consider the grind as a slow and steady process and give yourself time to learn from mistakes and downswings. You got greedy and adopted a wrong mindset.

Try this first. Don't play again before you feel mentally capable.

Make your decision to quit poker or not dependent on how you handle the game mentally. Once you quit the tables you shall never be depressed about losses. It is a game only.

Yes but unless you are masstabling like 20+ tables getting that sufficient sample is going to take lot more than month.

How many hands you play? 6 hour a day 800 hands a hour 25 days a month? That's 120,000 hands. Okay that starts to be fairly good but then again I have suspicion OP isn't playing 25/6/800(which is about 8 tabling btw 6max) so obviously month is pretty lousy target.

Winning player can have losing monthS(note the plural) nevermind a losing month.

And just because game is flawed doesn't mean he should quit. You know there's this option called "improving your game" that's also available.

OK first off you don't know what running mediocre is. (You don't win 3bb/100 over a mediocre one month running sample- you lose)

Second, a world class player can lose over 100k hands a lot more frequently than you think. Depending on standard deviations it can be like 20% of the time.

While I agree mistakes have a large impact on a long term winrate I think it's clear you have an undeniably large misunderstanding of variance.



Zy


Sent from my Galaxy S4 using 2+2 Forums

HM is great for reviewing hands as we can just look at the active session and order based on money lost\won and quickly go over hands. I then just laugh at myself for poor decisions and try not to repeat. We can also check whether losses\wins are coolers\bad beats or just terrible play. Also look at small losses, hands where we cbet and give up and realise that we shouldve never cbet in the first place or could have double barreled or whatever. Hands that are marginal or we can't decide, post on here.

read george leonard's book "mastery". it indirectly deals with a lot of the issues you mention.

When I started playing poker I was a complete fish. I limped with any broadway or any suited cards. Then I evolved into a Tag, then a nit, then a LAG. I read so many poker books your head would spin (sometimes the wrong books) I learnt how to play position, read up on pot odds, implied odds, and equity. then I morphed back into a Tagfish. I would lose 100bb+ with TPTK to two pair or better againt guys running 76/36. I would fold too much. Then I tried to fix my redline, which made me more aggressive. Then I learnt to light 3bet, then learnt optimal 3bet, 4bet, 5bet, then about combos and constructing hand ranges.....etc. Then I learnt optimal post flop play and having an actual plan on every type of flop vs my range, instead of playing my hands by the seat of my pants. I sudied more on variance and bad beats. Oh for those that are reading this losing with AA againt AK is not a bad beat! Its variance, losing with JJ on a 4h,6s,Jd flop against A6o is a bad beat! runner, runner Aces. For all you math wizzards out there that's a 99.6% favorite.

You always need to evolve. I dont know how you are playing, you never really showed your stats. The graph you provided only shows me that your all-in equity is above your green line, which would suggest that you were running a bit hot and now its equilizing, that or you are tilting and making poor all-in choices. Secondly your redline needs work, it should be running break even or sloping upwards along with your blue line. If your blue line and red line are moving upwards your green line will be above both, instead of sadly running in the middle.