How to Improve as a Player (1 Viewer)

mnebesny

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So, I love playing poker, but I'll admit that I'm a big noob. I know how to use some of the basic principles like ranges and outs, and I've read a couple of books like Hold'em Wisdom for All Players by Daniel Negreanu, but I know that most of the stuff I read is going in one ear and out the other.

Unfortunately with the pandemic still being pretty bad where I am in Ontario, I haven't been to an in person game in a year and a half. None of my buddies are really interested in playing online so I haven't played in a while, and either way, none of them know much about strategy either so playing with them probably isn't going to help my game too much.

I want to put the time in to get better at poker, but I don't really know where to start. Is it best to just play online a lot and slowly improve over time? I've also seen various options/sites/training programs online. Are there any that are worth the money or that anyone here would recommend? Any sage advice is appreciated. Thanks for the help.
 
Personally I think online poker is a joke! Your best bet if you want to really improve, download a software like upswings “the lab” for example. Plenty of programs out there, although some can be pretty expensive.
 
If the strategies you are reading are “going in one ear and out the other” that means you’re not playing enough to understand the situations being described. There is no substitute for playing when it comes to learning. You need to get a ton of hands under your belt to appreciate all the possibilities that can and do happen.

Reading and studying hands and asking questions of players you trust to give real feedback (or post here) after a game will grow your knowledge even faster.
 
Read a lot, watch hands and tutorials, make notes and draw conclusions.
Excercise, stop smoking and drinking, meditate.
Have a goodnight sleep and get lay before sessions (helps a lot).
 
Learn to read the players, it's ok to bluff and get caught. You're at the mercy of the poker gods. Above all else, just have fun : )
 
I really like the Crush Live Poker hand breakdowns. They’re great for challenging and expanding the way I think about poker. I can only imagine how bad I’d be without them.
 
As @Rhodeman77 said, you can't assimilate whatever "course" you read or watch, if you 're not playing a lot at the same time.

Playing a lot can hardly be done with true old friends 'cause usually they 're just not interested (unless you are able to recruit a crew of nice and honest, like-minded poker buddies), so you have to resort to online micro-stakes poker, which, mind you, is pretty competitive and shark-infested (many pros with HUDs and solvers coming out to the shallows, [meaning as low as 1/2c or 2/5c] to mass-devour small fry).
You should get a HUD software too in that case, to at least evaluate your own game.

Never play poker if you 're stressed or upset, to let the steam off.
The steam has to be let off in another way, and you must be in a good mood anyway, before you sit at a table.
Never play with money you can't afford to lose.
Never play if winning at poker could be your only reward in everyday life. You 'll be abysmally prone to tilting and you 'll loose.
 
Read a lot, watch hands and tutorials, make notes and draw conclusions.
Excercise, stop smoking and drinking, meditate.
Have a goodnight sleep and get lay before sessions (helps a lot).

I find the opposite is true. Getting laid after a session helps a lot.

As @Rhodeman77 said, you can't assimilate whatever "course" you read or watch, if you 're not playing a lot at the same time.

Never play with money you can't afford are afraid to lose.
Never play if winning at poker could be your only reward in everyday life. You 'll be abysmally prone to tilting and you 'll loose.
 
Personally I think online poker is a joke! Your best bet if you want to really improve, download a software like upswings “the lab” for example. Plenty of programs out there, although some can be pretty expensive.
I play both online and live. I'm not sure what you mean by online being a joke. It is certainly different than live.

Upswing poker is good, but it might be too expensive for the OP idk...

Even though I haven't spent much time there in ages www.twoplustwo.com still has a lot of great content and most everything is free.

Others have already said, but lots of poker concepts do not come easily without BOTH play and study. I know from personal experience that some concepts took me years to fully comprehend.

Don't get too carried away with trying to understand gto right away. In the early stages of learning, trying to understand gto is probably more harmful than helpful. Stick to a small live game, play very tight out of position any try not to get too carried away when in position.
 
I’m a fan of Andrew Brokos podcast thinking poker as well as his books play optimal poker and play more optimal 2 “play more optimaler”. Red chip poker is decent. Run it once training site is well regarded.

you also have to play a lot of hands. I enjoy online but an inexperienced player is likely to get slayed. Getting slayed is how most people learn. Play really small and don’t move up until you start winning.
 
@mnebesny also make sure to read Harrington on Cash (two volumes) over and over again, especially after loosing sessions.
Then, the "how the hell didn't I remember this" or the "aaah, that's what the author meant" lines come to your lips :)
 
By the way, has anybody tried this guy's three books? (Nathan Williams or "blackrain79")
They 're supposed to be tailored to today's very aggressive micro online games. He considers online games to play as tough as live games of 100x or 50x the stakes.
https://www.blackrain79.com/p/videos.html
 
i would approach the game starting with a short stack. experiment with a 5 bb stack, 10 bb stack, 20 bb stack and so forth. then ask yourself if there is any difference in the way you should play.

i think it is better to come to your own initial conclusions before reading anything on the subject.
 
By the way, has anybody tried this guy's three books? (Nathan Williams or "blackrain79")
They 're supposed to be tailored to today's very aggressive micro online games. He considers online games to play as tough as live games of 100x or 50x the stakes.
https://www.blackrain79.com/p/videos.html
I have. It's all good, but nothing unique or original. If you are new to the game then you would get a lot out of his books
 
When lockdowns over if we play together (also in toronto) I could give some constructive criticism.

I've coached about a dozen people from 2+2 for pay several years ago so i'm not new to it. i stopped playing seriously after black friday so i'm definitely not someone to ask advice on how to beat modern midstakes cash games but if you're just looking to play moderately profitably at a local casino i'm pretty sure i could get you to that level pretty fast.

and tbh i wouldn't recommend bothering with online poker (or at least cash games). it's stupidly competitive and the hourly earn rates for all but a tiny tiny number of elite players is very low, or at least if you're playing on international servers. it's also not a great way to learn if you intend to play low stakes live.
 
I have. It's all good, but nothing unique or original. If you are new to the game then you would get a lot out of his books
If you had to buy either his (Nathan Williams') "Modern Small Stakes" (published 2015) or Harrington's "Harrington on Online Cash games" (published 2010), which would you choose? (question to everybody).
 
It depends on what your goals are. The idea that Harrington wrote a book on online cash seems a bit
Laughable as I highly doubt he’s put any serious work at it. Books for online poker are just generally prone to becoming obsolete though because it changes so fast.

I’d recommend content by Jonathan little. He has a ton of free stuff on YouTube, membership is not expensive and it has a lot of interactive stuff.
 
If you are starting I would strongly recommend "The Grinder's Manual" by Peter Clarke. I would also recommend "From the Ground Up" video course by Pete Clarke on Run It Up. I used both and they are very good IMHO. Then I would suggest playing low staked online (like $0.01/$0.02 or $0.02/$0.05) and use software like PokerTracker 4 to capture the hands so that you can look at the biggest losing hands after the session and figure out what to stop doing (mostly calling large bets on the river). I also like "The Course" by Ed Miller which provides guidance on key focus areas at each (live) stake - these are still relevant to online. I play on Ignition and after 24 hours you can download opponent hole cards for every hand that you sat in which adds a greater dimension to the post play analysis and allows you to get a better understanding of how the player pool is playing at your stakes. GL!
 
Red chip poker has a step by step online course that will get you leaning in the right direction. It's well laid out in building block style, and it's a mix of a little reading and videos. It's $5/week for as much or as little as you want to work thru. Also, there are message boards and a discord channel, plus youtube videos and a podcast. Seriously, for $20/month you can go thru this and it won't cost you a buy in to a 1/2 game. Highly recommend.
 
Whatever method you use going forward, make sure you have some way of visually tracking your progress. From my end, best advice I can give you is,

1) Watch a lot of hands on YouTube and some other direct sources. You'll be surprised how much you'll find yourself analyzing why they did what they did at different stages in the hand.

2) Play as often as you can without it having an effect on your lifestyle and most importantly, your wallet. Mix it up as well between home games and casinos. I say that for a couple reasons. I've seen guys play extremely well at home games and get crushed almost all the time in a casino. They tend to be softer when facing random people and have a higher tendency of laying down hands that have great showdown value when they shouldn't be. Something about the casino/cardroom scene completely changes the way they play. The other reason is because of a simple rule that applies to getting better at anything; you're not going to get better until you fall on your face, fail multiple times, AKA get slapped around. Creates a drive to become better as well as resilience while playing the game. One day you'll find yourself folding to a river bet while holding mid pair, and suddenly you'll have analyzed that your hand may in fact be the best hand in that specific situation and call your opponent off.

3) Try not to stick to a specific strategy from any source, be it a book or YouTube tutorials. I find that once you narrow your playing down to a few things you just read about, it tends to get in the way of properly assessing everything else and in turn you've put on blinders to some things that you should be aware of while playing a hand.

4) Once you've seen your hand prior to the flop, try to look at it as little as you can. Why? You already know what hole cards you have and the more you look at them or think about them, the more focused you will be on how it relates to the board. What you hit, what you're chasing, the chances of you hitting your draw, etc... You're better off giving more thought into trying to figure out what your opponent might have. It doesn't have to be precise, but try to gauge what your opponent might be holding by how much he's betting and/or calling, betting patterns, how loose or tight the player is, etc... You'll be surprised what you can learn about players by being really attentive in hands you're not involved in. A lot of players like to boast about how unpredictable they are, or how they don't have tells when they don't realize that it doesn't have to be body language or a specific tick. Sometimes they give it away simply with the amount they bet, especially how it correlates with the pot and how much they've invested already.

it's ok to bluff and get caught.

5) Assuming the stakes you're playing aren't massive, like @RiverKingCali said, it's totally ok to get caught in a bluff. Too many times I see players building up a pot then check it down on the river only to get beat by the lowest pair or a high card. Use both the board and position to your advantage. Position is VERY crucial to the game and outsmarting your opponents. Use it. Say you're holding :jd::tc:, and the flop comes :qs::9d::7s:. Let's assume the turn and the river are :ac: and :2h:. You've more than likely bet this hand until the river in the hopes that you hit your open-ended straight. Doesn't really matter that you've missed your straight at this point. What matters now are the two cards your opponent has across from you. We'll assume that your opponent is first to act and checks to you on the river. You then have to assemble all the information you've collected about that hand to help you determine what you're up against. Don't let the Q on the board scare you into checking back. Your opponent might have been looking to hit a flush but another spade never came. If you sense weakness and you've somehow surmised that your opponent didn't get what he wanted, would make sense to make a bet that isn't necessarily easy for your opponent to call nor would it set off alarms of you trying to steal the pot. If you give your opponent incredible pot odds, like betting $20 into a $120 pot, there's a good chance he might call you off with a mediocre pair. However for the sake of this example, you look down at your stack and gauge how much you're willing to lose, key words, willing to lose. You have about $300 in your stack and you decide to fire off a bet of $65, just slightly above half and not great pot odds for your opponent. Just so its a happy ending example, your opponent flips over one card exposing his:7c: says "nice A or Q you got there, my seven no good." You've just duped your opponent into forfeiting a $185 pot while representing one of the cards on the board and portraying strength by use of your position and your own analysis of what he might have. At this point, you're asking me, "ya this sounds awesome but what if he called that bet?" My best answer to that is, that's poker and it's going to happen. You're going to get caught bluffing from time to time but imagine if you had just checked back to your opponent who had already made his mind on being beat. He's probably going to use that information against you in later hands and try to bully you out of some pots. In summary, you can't be afraid to lose bets that you make. It hinders you from trying to outplay your opponent, representing what's on the board, and other things that help give you an advantage.

Have fun. You're not going to get better if you're not having fun along the way. You're going to win hands and lose hands but if you're not enjoying the process and the game, slim chance you'll accomplish any of the above.

Hope the stuff I mentioned helps a bit. Go get 'em!
 
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So, I love playing poker, but I'll admit that I'm a big noob. I know how to use some of the basic principles like ranges and outs, and I've read a couple of books like Hold'em Wisdom for All Players by Daniel Negreanu, but I know that most of the stuff I read is going in one ear and out the other.

Unfortunately with the pandemic still being pretty bad where I am in Ontario, I haven't been to an in person game in a year and a half. None of my buddies are really interested in playing online so I haven't played in a while, and either way, none of them know much about strategy either so playing with them probably isn't going to help my game too much.

I want to put the time in to get better at poker, but I don't really know where to start. Is it best to just play online a lot and slowly improve over time? I've also seen various options/sites/training programs online. Are there any that are worth the money or that anyone here would recommend? Any sage advice is appreciated. Thanks for the help.
I, unfortunately, can't offer advice on how to improve your game, but I can tell you how to have a GREAT time while sucking at poker!!

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Whatever method you use going forward, make sure you have some way of visually tracking your progress. From my end, best advice I can give you is,

1) Watch a lot of hands on YouTube and some other direct sources. You'll be surprised how much you'll find yourself analyzing why they did what they did at different stages in the hand.

2) Play as often as you can without it having an effect on your lifestyle and most importantly, your wallet. Mix it up as well between home games and casinos. I say that for a couple reasons. I've seen guys play extremely well at home games and get crushed almost all the time in a casino. They tend to be softer when facing random people and have a higher tendency of laying down hands that have great showdown value when they shouldn't be. Something about the casino/cardroom scene completely changes the way they play. The other reason is because of a simple rule that applies to getting better at anything; you're not going to get better until you fall on your face, fail multiple times, AKA get slapped around. Creates a drive to become better as well as resilience while playing the game. One day you'll find yourself folding to a river bet while holding mid pair, and suddenly you'll have analyzed that your hand may in fact be the best hand in that specific situation and call your opponent off.

3) Try not to stick to a specific strategy from any source, be it a book or YouTube tutorials. I find that once you narrow your playing down to a few things you just read about, it tends to get in the way of properly assessing everything else and in turn you've put on blinders to some things that you should be aware of while playing a hand.

4) Once you've seen your hand prior to the flop, try to look at it as little as you can. Why? You already know what hole cards you have and the more you look at them or think about them, the more focused you will be on how it relates to the board. What you hit, what you're chasing, the chances of you hitting your draw, etc... You're better off giving more thought into trying to figure out what your opponent might have. It doesn't have to be precise, but try to gauge what your opponent might be holding by how much he's betting and/or calling, betting patterns, how loose or tight the player is, etc... You'll be surprised what you can learn about players by being really attentive in hands you're not involved in. A lot of players like to boast about how unpredictable they are, or how they don't have tells when they don't realize that it doesn't have to be body language or a specific tick. Sometimes they give it away simply with the amount they bet, especially how to correlates with the pot and how much they've invested already.



5) Assuming the stakes you're playing aren't massive, like @RiverKingCali said, it's totally ok to get caught in a bluff. Too many times I see players building up a pot then check it down on the river only to get beat by the lowest pair or a high card that isn't even 10 or above. Use both the board and position to your advantage. Position is VERY crucial to the game and outsmarting your opponents. Use it. Say you're holding :jd::tc:, and the flop comes :qs::9d::7s:. Let's assume the turn and the river are :ac: and :2h:. You've more than likely bet this hand until the river in the hopes that you hit your open-ended straight. Doesn't really matter that you've missed your straight at this point. What matters now are the two cards your opponent has across from you. We'll assume that your opponent is first to act and checks to you on the river. You then have to assemble all the information you've collected about that hand to help you determine what you're up against. Don't let the Q on the board scare you into checking back. Your opponent might have been looking to hit a flush but another spade never came. If you sense weakness and you've somehow surmised that your opponent didn't get what he wanted, would make sense to make a bet that isn't necessarily easy for your opponent to call nor would it set off alarms of you trying to steal the pot. If you give your opponent incredible pot odds, like betting $20 into a $120 pot, there's a good chance he might call you off with a mediocre pair. However for the sake of this example, you look down at your stack and gauge how much you're willing to lose, key words, willing to lose. You have about $300 in your stack and you decide to fire off a bet of $65, just slightly above half and not great pot odds for your opponent. Just so its a happy ending example, your opponent flips over one card exposing his:7c: says "nice A or Q you got there, my seven no good." You've just duped your opponent into forfeiting a $185 pot while representing one of the cards on the board and portraying strength by use of your position and your own analysis of what he might have. At this point, you're asking me, "ya this sounds awesome but what if he called that bet?" My best answer to that is, that's poker and it's going to happen. You're going to get caught bluffing from time to time but imagine if you had just checked back to your opponent who had already made his mind on being beat. He's probably going to use that information against you in later hands and try to bully you out of some pots. In summary, you can't be afraid to lose bets that you make. It hinders you from trying to outplay your opponent, representing what's on the board, and other things that help give you an advantage.

Have fun. You're not going to get better if you're not having fun along the way. You're going to win hands and lose hands but if you're not enjoying the process and the game, slim chance you'll accomplish any of the above.

Hope the stuff I mentioned helps a bit. Go get 'em!
Fantastic write-up! Really appreciate the effort you have put into this. This has opened my mind to different avenues and ways to look at the game, and hopefully, it does the same to others who stumble across this thread. Great stuff! o_O:cool
 

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