Inconsistent..

I've been playing both play money, real money, and cash games and I'm terribly inconsistent. What advice would you all have to growing more consistent in my play?

read the articles and the blog. also couldn't hurt to buy a few books. you have realzed your inconsistency, that is half the battle

let me guess you are winning play money and losing real money or what?

If you can be a little more specific im sure someone will have some advice.

All I can really say is play more and read the blogs. I still occasionally have nights where my play is awful, but the best thing is just to play more. If you just do that you can usually work out more of the chinks in your game including inconsistency.

I try to read just about anything that I can about poker. Everything written by Sklansky and Harrington is very good for giving you some ammo for your game and just in understanding the game of poker a lot more.

I'm a student for one -- so I go to school all day, do homework all night, and play into the wee hours of the morning. So I think I'm playing when I'm tired. I did great in play money -- lost all my real money, and haven't gotten remotely close to placing in freerolls. I've got books and it seems the more I read and the more I study the worse I do. These strategies are hard to use for the newbies that go all in every two seconds...

Read the books but don't play by them. Incorporate them into your own game until you finally create your own (hopefully profitable) style.

post some HH in analysis thread from your real money play and will find what you're doing wrong

A big mistake is likely playing when you are really tired. There are always a lot of tough decisions to be made playing poker and if you are playing tired then you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.

Also, not that it is any of my buisness.... but is staying up all night playing poker may not be the best for your eduacation

also...dont even try to compare play money to real money poker. imagine play money isnt even a number. completely useless. i have almost 1M in play money at bodog and you start with 1000. Play money is only a good way to learn the betting structures and rules of any given game, not as a means to determine your skill.

Funny thing is i used to play tighter with play money than with real money because with real money i was protecting my bets too much where in play money i would just let them go.

First off, I'm a 3.5 engineering student -- so I'm not really too worried. I've managed this far. But I appreciate the advice...

Okay, well, my next bad beat, I'll post it.. See what I'm doing wrong.

Yeh, I learned that play money was worthless.. Im more concerned about the real money cases...

Glad to hear school is going good for you.

Posting bad beats is not necissarily a good way to improve your game. a bad beat would indicate that you played properly and the other person got lucky. Basically these happen, they suck, but they will continue to happen.
It would help you more to post hand histories where you didn't know what to do. That would be of more help IMO.

K, sounds good

I started playing poker heavily online about 3 months ago and I was horribly inconsistent at the beginning. I knew the basic rules of the game and my friend taught me some basic strategy (which starting hands to call with, raise, etc) and I lost 100 dollars fairly quickly. I took some time reading articles online and decided to give it another shot. I deposited 25 dollars and cashed out 150 about 2 weeks later. I was up to 225 but went on tilt and donked off 75. Atleast I had the smarts to cash out after this. Then I deposited another 50 and lost that. I currently have turned 1.50 into 120 at Tropical poker in 4 days. I am now using excel to document my losses/winnings and make notes on how I thought I played and I plan on picking up a book soon. The best advice I can give you is to just keep playing and make sure you are not playing too high limits for your bankroll (this was my problem when I lost my first 100 quickly). You also probably want to read some articles online and pick up a book or two. Hope this helps

OK, here is my advice, you can use it at your own risk.

Every book you can get your hands on, use it and read it.
Almost all of them apply only to B&M game, which is brick and mortar casino where you can get in, seat down and play poker, they are not ment for online game.
Those books don't always apply to online gaming. It's a whole diferent animal online.
You will see a bunch of calls that you will not see at real table, you will play a lot more hands that you will play at real table and you will see more hands, so, all in all, you will see more bad beats online that anywhere else in real casino.

Online, you have to have patience and fold, fold, fold and learn to fold, especially when you play at Bodog and get QQ, you will be beaten by 66 or 77, almost 85% of the time, so never go all in with QQ until you can see that you have a trips or full house on table.

Good luck and let have a good flop with you.

I'm sorry, no offense or anything but 66 or 77 do not beat QQ 85% of the time. Where did you come by this number?

If you have QQ and someone has a lower pocket pair you are a winner ~80% of the time.

If you have QQ, someone else has 6,6 and someone else has 7,7 you are a winner ~67% of the time.

If you get dealt high pocket pairs and you refuse to play them until you have trips or a full house then you are missing out on a lot of winning hands. You are correct about one thing though, one of the best lessons that a new player can learn is to fold more.

I believe he was referring to the card generator and not real deck odds.. but I appreciate both of your advice..

Yep, in real casino and table, but like I said " on Bodog", take a look and start counting, you will see that it's close to that #, not always bullet proof, but....

I have won with QQ's bunch of times, also have lost and have friends who have lost with QQ to 66 and of course river 6 almost always on Bodog.

I have won with QQ's bunch of times, also have lost and have friends who have lost with QQ to 66 and of course river 6 almost always on Bodog.[/quote]

and pokerstars and tilt and Ultimatebet and titan and party..................

lol

let's be good flooooooop with you

Ahhh my mistake, I thought you were talking about odds.

It turns out you were talking about conspiracy theory nonsense and how online poker is rigged.

just wanted to say thank you all so far -- i've received a lot of encouragement and a lot of advice in a short period of time. i've already noticed a small change in my place.. I made it to the top 100 on a 3500 person freeroll... Something I've never done. I also almost moneyed in one but I made the mistake of letting someone taunt me in the chatbox and I called him when I thought he was bluffing -- he got away with a flush. A lesson to just turn the chatbox on mute.

But thank you all! I look forward to hearing more from you...

congrats on the win may you have many more

Shock, horror, Bodog is rigged !!

That must be why I`m up so much there, they obviously like me.




Don`t fall into paranoia. There are only two reasons you lose at poker:

1) The fish got lucky that time.
2) You are the fish.

The first evens out, don`t let it worry you. The second is the one to worry about. Study to improve your game and never play tired. Think of it like driving a car. If you feel tired, take a break, walk around, drink some coffee. Don`t keep pushing on until you crash and burn.

I would suggest to you not to turn the chat box off but to learn how to use the info that people are typing in there against them. Remember poker is very much a game of information. Any information you can gain on a player can be helpful to you. If they are chatting it up after winning and losing pots it can help you to determine what kind of mind frame they're in.

The best thing would be not to turn the chatbox off but to try and learn what works against the different frames of mind that you see people in.

I do agree with that, don't turn it off, keep it on and watch it like a hawk, lol

Hmmm, with 3.5 in engineering you must of had at least ONE stat class and my guess is you pulled AT LEAST a B

take a minute and review this:

http://www.cardschat.com/odds-for-dummies.php

with a 3.5 GPA, the math should be a piece of cake to do quick mental calc and decide if the odds favor a call or a fold....

When you take away the odds, good players fold and fish call...sure they win what seems like a painfully high amount of the time (I don't believe the really do...you just remeber them more!) and your left with that feeling of "HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU DARE CALL THAT????"
(And that's what the "bad Beat" forum is all about)

stick around and chat withg these guys and gals here... they've helped me beyond belief... I STILL donk out on MTTs....it just takes me HOURS to do so now

Thanks for the help! Nah, I haven't taken a statistics class.. I APed out of it in HS so it didn't affect my gpa.

But thanks for the link... Will look into it. Thanks all.