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genjix China. Oct 06 2009 13:07. Posts 2677 | | |
Is there anything cooler than being a professional poker player? You play a psychological game where you must keep your emotions in balance otherwise if they're not in check... then a bad month means money lost. The only job, where doing bad means losing money.
I want to define a few things that have worked for me. Not for anyone else, but for me.
1) Having a good dose of skepticism when reading advice is paramount. Everything you will read will be contradictory and a wave of popular opinion will be against your own. Taking what you read and being _able_ to apply it based on your own experiences will allow you, like a scientist, to see what works and what doesn't.
As a teenage boxer at competitive level I had to travel to surrounding towns because my own town was too small. New clubs and new trainers, each teaching a different style and a new technique. A few times a trainer might say that *something* you did was wrong and this is the right way. Usually they were right, having more experience. But often enough there was no right or wrong and it was just a matter of style.
Being able to improve as a poker player means being able to take a new piece of advice and see how it works. Is this bad advice? What can I learn from this? Maybe it tells me more other regs and what they might do. Even great players I respect, say things that make me shake my head in disbelief. There's a lot of noise out there and diamonds among the ruff.
2) Imagining scenarios is a nice way to streamline your play. This other move may have caused a cascading alternate reality and have faarrr off consequences. The ability to make abstract reasoning and future predictions is what makes us so intelligent as humans. You using these tools better than your opponents is what makes you the better poker player.
The most elementary mathematics- use of weighted averages and probabilities is another tool.
You can use to formalise your thoughts into a solid representation. Having the solid form of your thoughts down allows you to move them, manipulate them and come up with new exciting possibilities. Not essential but a *powerful* tool in the poker players toolkit.
3) This last concept is the most useful IMO. Playing lower limits time to time. A lot of the guys here make fun of playing micro limits... somehow they're above small money (?).
If you're tilted and losing money, why not play a lower limit and lose *less* money? Or you're playing too loose bcos of that HU session you had earlier- a 5nl session will screw you in tight tight! You'll recede away from bad bluffs like a slug being burnt as you get called by Ace-hi.
Even trying out new moves- players are still trying to win at 10nl+ but they're just so bad that they can't! Players range from super nits playing JJ+ AK to super stations playing 75% hands  A gold mine of player types to test against.
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| If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. | |
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requiem United States. Oct 06 2009 13:20. Posts 148 | | |
kind of disagree with playing lower limits to "try out new moves" or to enforce playing tighter. I sat at some of my friend's NL5 tables and I just couldn't play seriously because of the monetary value, I was running like 40/30 with double digit 3bet %. but! I will say it was quite good for de-tilting purposes.
agree entirely with the taking advice w/ a grain of salt mentality. |
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| | Last edit: 06/10/2009 13:42 |
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fenner Australia. Oct 06 2009 13:40. Posts 2188 | | |
Great read thanks a lot for spending your time writing this up A++ |
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RICHI8 United States. Oct 06 2009 13:58. Posts 1341 | | |
Good post but don't you play NL25? I think there is still a lot for you to learn in regards to emotion and skill level when it comes to this game. Not trying to talk you down as I'm no where near being a pro at this game but one of the most important things to understand in this game is you never have nearly as good of a grasp as you think you do. |
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genjix China. Oct 06 2009 14:02. Posts 2677 | | | |
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| If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. | |
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Zalfor United States. Oct 06 2009 14:20. Posts 2236 | | |
dont give advice when u aren't in a position to give it. |
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joLin United States. Oct 06 2009 15:40. Posts 3818 | | |
| | On October 06 2009 12:07 genjix wrote:
Even great players I respect, say things that make me shake my head in disbelief. |
coming from you this is lol. |
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| YoUr_KiLLeR @ TL | Last edit: 06/10/2009 15:40 |
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Zep United States. Oct 06 2009 16:07. Posts 2292 | | |
| | On October 06 2009 13:20 Zalfor wrote:
dont give advice when u aren't in a position to give it. |
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| NeillyJQ: I really wanted to prove to myself I could beat NL200, I did over a small sample, and believe Ill be crushing there in the future. | |
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Sanai United States. Oct 06 2009 16:12. Posts 643 | | |
Poker is definitely not the only job where doing badly results in you directly losing money...
However, some decent points in the rest of the post. I do think though that your first point is the most useful rather than your third. Playing micro stakes in order to test out "moves" for higher stakes is not really optimal imo. Yes, you see a wide variety of playing styles at NL10 (from laggrotard to 8/6 supernits to sickening callstations), but the variety is one of extremes - players usually have glaring weaknesses from being TOO tight or TOO stationy or TOO loose and don't really think things through before clicking. In higher stakes, you play opponents who are much more well-rounded, who have perfected the standard TAG style and who use their image for specific and advantageous purposes. It's just not the same. |
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Steal City United States. Oct 06 2009 16:13. Posts 2537 | | |
ur trying to sound like carl sagan ;p
ur right about everything i think though. And if you can't play micro stakes because u can't take the money seriously they you obviously should be playing low stakes because one of the biggest causes of prolonged tilt is widely believed to be trying to make too much money too fast.
Also, i think people underestimate you because 99% of 50nl regs can't actually live off 50nl like you can. Most havent made 5k+ off 25nl and lower and have the discipline to move up as slow and focused as you have. From watching you play, I know your skill level is at least equal to the average 200nl grinder in only a year's play but yea, there's no reason to rush. You actually might be making a better hourly than a huge chunck of 200nl regs already at 50nl.
Stay focused :D |
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| Intersango.com intersango.com | |
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| You see...whenever I start feeling sick...I just stop being sick...and be awesome instead...true story... | |
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LiLZhiMiNG Australia. Oct 17 2009 12:08. Posts 637 | | |
| | On October 06 2009 15:13 Steal City wrote:
ur trying to sound like carl sagan ;p
ur right about everything i think though. And if you can't play micro stakes because u can't take the money seriously they you obviously should be playing low stakes because one of the biggest causes of prolonged tilt is widely believed to be trying to make too much money too fast.
Also, i think people underestimate you because 99% of 50nl regs can't actually live off 50nl like you can. Most havent made 5k+ off 25nl and lower and have the discipline to move up as slow and focused as you have. From watching you play, I know your skill level is at least equal to the average 200nl grinder in only a year's play but yea, there's no reason to rush. You actually might be making a better hourly than a huge chunck of 200nl regs already at 50nl.
Stay focused :D |
aren't you his friend? way to back him up and help him feel good about himself!! |
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LiLZhiMiNG Australia. Oct 17 2009 12:10. Posts 637 | | |
then again genjix if you have made 5k+ on micros and are on a better hourly rate than a huge chunk of 200nl regs on 50nl...good work... |
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