THE EVOLUTION OF A POKER PLAYER

I was wondering if anyone else has progressed similar with their poker game as I have.

PHASE 1: Clueless. Not knowing what cards to play and thinking it all depended on the flop. Probably lasted approximately six months while consistently losing and replacing my minor bankroll.

PHASE 2: Study. Tired of losing and actually start to buy some books and look into strategies and card selection. I play less hands and cut down on chasing rivers. Actually begin to see a turn and begin to win a little money. This usually falls around year one to two.

PHASE 3: Over confident. Start thinking I'm better than Iam and start to try to put people on hands and get cute with some of my marginal hands. Bankroll on the decline again. I blame this on too much TV. WPT and the WSOP makes 5 6 suited look like aces.

PHASE 4: Getting Real. Starting to understand this evolving takes time and Im going back to playing Tight with good starting hand selection. Starting to study "Real BankRoll Managment" and approach this game more cautiously and understand my strengths and limitations. Bankroll beginning to inch back up.

PHASE 5: The future???

Let me know what you think or if youve found similarities or your experiences are much different. Thanks

nice post. Pretty much sums up my experience so far. I hope I am in Phase 4. New Players would do well to skip to phase 4 right off the bat and avoid the mistakes we have made, if that's possible.

Kinda the same--'cept switch phase 3 with phase 1--I was WAY over confident in the begining 'cuz I thought I knew the game like a pro 'cuz I watched the pros on TV! And in my phase 2, I not only did the reading thing, but I stopped playing for real money and just practiced what I had learned from reading and asking for advice for around 6 months or so--and Have just recently begain playing with real cash again--only now I USE all that I've learned about BRM--and stay within my limits and am doing a hell of alot better now than ever before! I'll never me a Chris Ferguson (or any pro fer that matter) but at least now it's alot more fun now than then!!

This is how it started for me....and what I will suggest...

Phase 3(at first I was getting lucky, thought I was good)

Phase 1(started losing and thought wtf!?)

Phase 2(started learning from books and CC)

Phase 4(got down and dirty and grinded the right way with coreect brm and good solid strategy...)

Phase 5(the future is now, I have become a profitable player)

Basically just read a lot of strategy posts and HA threads and post....you WILL learn a lot from them...also books won't hurt, but the best is experience so keep playing!

This is me except I am in between 2 and 4 somewhere....still learning but doing decent enough at the tables to not blow my wad being a dumbass.

Iwould say now a days with all the TV coverage and stuff of tht sort most people start off with #3 and get their butts handed to em on a platter.

Added above.

Yeah, thats pretty much how it is for me, I skipped Phase 2, maybe i should do that, and the forums i have been reading have got me in phase 4, maybe if i do phase 2 i'll make phase 5

I think that TV shows have made a lot of damage to many new players' bankrolls.
As for me, I'd switch phase 2 with phase 1.. And I've not reached phase 4, yet... I'm still a"novice".

very nice post nc.

I'm pretty much working on my phase 4, and hopefully everything works out for the better, and everything up to that is about spot on EXACT. lol Good luck everyone and have fun!

not sure where i am,,,,wish had the bankroll to find out.... people tell me i'm pretty good ,,,but being on social security i have to stay at low stakes where all the idiots are,,,hell i might be one of them...

ahah that's actually pretty accurate, but i missed step 2, my study was on youtube and earing the commentarys, it actually helped me allot to understand why pro's made all those sweet moves and calls. And yes then i started to think i knew allot more then the other players, but then i got down to reality and started playing with more respect for other. It really helped my game 8)

i think i just passed phase three (got too confident and then lost a lot).
but now iv been trying to tighten up - i know exactly what you mean

Great post, and while i would have liked to think i was at Phase 4, in reality phase 3 is raping me at the moment.
I do think my attempt at using advanced skills/moves are killing me cos at the lower stakes it just simply does not work.