kirchhausen
Flush
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What helped you become a better player? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Enigma
- Start date
kirchhausen
Flush
In all honestly, I think playing with better players helps a LOT. Especially certain players who like to twll you how awful you are, and why cough @Chippy McChiperson cough.
Also losing. I think the pain of losing, and going back in and doing hand analysis of especially painful hands or sessions, helps a lot. Sometimes you lose, and you have played well. Sometimes you lose, and you have played some hands horribly. When I study those sessions it does more to re-enforce good play/bad play (for me) than just about anything else.
Also losing. I think the pain of losing, and going back in and doing hand analysis of especially painful hands or sessions, helps a lot. Sometimes you lose, and you have played well. Sometimes you lose, and you have played some hands horribly. When I study those sessions it does more to re-enforce good play/bad play (for me) than just about anything else.
Rhodeman77
Straight Flush
Before I ever played poker I played a lot of other strategy card & board games like Chess, spades, Risk, and most importantly Magic the Gathering.
These games gave me so much of the foundation needed to be a great poker player. Skills like hand reading, bluffing, playing heads up. Thinking about how your opponent is trying to beat you, etc.
Much like athletes that play other sports or dance ballet playing other games besides poker is great for sharpening your mind and the will improve your poker game as well.
These games gave me so much of the foundation needed to be a great poker player. Skills like hand reading, bluffing, playing heads up. Thinking about how your opponent is trying to beat you, etc.
Much like athletes that play other sports or dance ballet playing other games besides poker is great for sharpening your mind and the will improve your poker game as well.
Lot of good suggestions here in case you don’t live near games where @Cliff plays I also look at painful (and lucky) hands after the fact from an equity perspective. A little bit of game theory understanding can help a lot with being balanced.
If you're really serious consider a training site like red chip poker or upswing.
If you're really serious consider a training site like red chip poker or upswing.
detroitdad
Royal Flush
I have @ChaosRock to thank for turning things around for me on my approach to dealers choice games. We drove to the ATL meet up together awhile back. On the way home we had a 4 hour conversation. It completely turned my game around.
JustinInMN
4 of a Kind
I think it's worth it for kids and noobs. It's sound on the mechaics and includes draw and stud forms as well if I remember right. I am sure it's out of print so who knows if you can even get it anymore.
Simply not playing. The longer I go without playing, the better I was.
Mainly just playing lots of hands with a variety of players, both stronger and weaker than me.
Mostly live, but during the pandemic I played a zillion hands in private online games. That was great to get so much volume, though I think most people play more carefully live than online as a general rule.
I think I learned faster than I would have from both my live and online volume because I was also studying — reading books, watching videos, listening to podcasts.
And thinking a lot about hands I’d played, rather than just forgetting sessions after leaving the table.
Last thing — and this may seem excessive to some — for about a year I kept notes on the two main games I played in, including results and short profiles on the regs in each.
I found this valuable in many ways, such as observing general habits and specific leaks I’d spotted in each person’s play. I’d also note questions I wanted answered. (Ex: What does it mean when this player bets big on the river? Do they always have it? Or do they sometimes bluff missed draws etc.?) So in future games I’d keep an eye out for those specific situations so I could better understand how they played.
It might seem silly, but forcing yourself to write down things you’ve seen (or think you know) makes it harder to bullshit yourself. I think Jim limps too many hands preflop, and Bill bets smaller when he’s bluffing… Do they really? If I write it down, I remember it more, and as more likely to actually watch for and test my theories than if I just kind of think them in passing.
After a while I’d pretty thoroughly profiled the key players and there wasn’t much more to track. It was in my head and I’d notice if my profiles were accurate, or if someone seemed to have altered their play. Not a perfect science, but a valuable exercise.
Now when I play against strangers in a new private game, or a casino, I have a couple dozen player archetypes to work from rather than just assuming everyone is an “average” unknown. If I see someone doing certain things in the first few orbits, I might say, “Oh, this guy’s play reminds me of Brian from my Monday game,” or whoever. Then use that as a baseline assumption and adjust as you get more info.
I can’t say I’m a crusher as a result, but definitely a much better player than I was.
Right now I’m just getting back into the game — I’ve only played three times in six months — but I need to get back into studying.
Mostly live, but during the pandemic I played a zillion hands in private online games. That was great to get so much volume, though I think most people play more carefully live than online as a general rule.
I think I learned faster than I would have from both my live and online volume because I was also studying — reading books, watching videos, listening to podcasts.
And thinking a lot about hands I’d played, rather than just forgetting sessions after leaving the table.
Last thing — and this may seem excessive to some — for about a year I kept notes on the two main games I played in, including results and short profiles on the regs in each.
I found this valuable in many ways, such as observing general habits and specific leaks I’d spotted in each person’s play. I’d also note questions I wanted answered. (Ex: What does it mean when this player bets big on the river? Do they always have it? Or do they sometimes bluff missed draws etc.?) So in future games I’d keep an eye out for those specific situations so I could better understand how they played.
It might seem silly, but forcing yourself to write down things you’ve seen (or think you know) makes it harder to bullshit yourself. I think Jim limps too many hands preflop, and Bill bets smaller when he’s bluffing… Do they really? If I write it down, I remember it more, and as more likely to actually watch for and test my theories than if I just kind of think them in passing.
After a while I’d pretty thoroughly profiled the key players and there wasn’t much more to track. It was in my head and I’d notice if my profiles were accurate, or if someone seemed to have altered their play. Not a perfect science, but a valuable exercise.
Now when I play against strangers in a new private game, or a casino, I have a couple dozen player archetypes to work from rather than just assuming everyone is an “average” unknown. If I see someone doing certain things in the first few orbits, I might say, “Oh, this guy’s play reminds me of Brian from my Monday game,” or whoever. Then use that as a baseline assumption and adjust as you get more info.
I can’t say I’m a crusher as a result, but definitely a much better player than I was.
Right now I’m just getting back into the game — I’ve only played three times in six months — but I need to get back into studying.
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chipchipchip
Pair
I haven’t read every post here so maybe it was said already, but by far the best way to get better fast is to pay as much attention to every detail of every hand you are *not* involved with. So once you fold preflop (~75% off the time), watch everyone and everything.
Keep track of the pot size, everyone’s bet sizes, people’s timing, who’s paying attention and when. Try to put people on ranges of hands, adjust the range as the hand progresses.
It won’t be long before you put some rough patterns together for individual players. Soon you’ll notice “why is Bob so much more focused than normal?” or “Jim never bets that much…” Those patterns will start to become obvious with new players the more you practice this. Then it’s just a matter of quietly adjusting your hand to fit the table, position, situation as it fits. It’ll become obvious in so many spots at small stakes.
Keep track of the pot size, everyone’s bet sizes, people’s timing, who’s paying attention and when. Try to put people on ranges of hands, adjust the range as the hand progresses.
It won’t be long before you put some rough patterns together for individual players. Soon you’ll notice “why is Bob so much more focused than normal?” or “Jim never bets that much…” Those patterns will start to become obvious with new players the more you practice this. Then it’s just a matter of quietly adjusting your hand to fit the table, position, situation as it fits. It’ll become obvious in so many spots at small stakes.
JustinInMN
4 of a Kind
This is very underrated advice. It's almost second nature to me to play back every hand I am not in to figure this out. And I also see many players get so self-focused, the don't do it. They just hope the cards hit.
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