Poker Systems via ebooks, To buy or not?

Hellow everyone, I just start playing a few months back and have so far read a hardcover book and a lot of free material over the web to get the basics down. I play a lot of free rolls and do pretty well, top 10 or top 20 usually though I haven't won one yet. I feel like I've hit a plateau in my progression and do not want to move into cash games just yet because I still encounter to many "what do I do now" situations.

I am wondering if a solid and proven system that I can follow would help me develop my skills and break me out of this rut, allowing me to move into low lvl cash games with confidence?

I see there's a good amount of them out there on the web with all their flashy advertising and am curious if any of them are recommended, which ones to stay away from, or what you guys think?

Welcome to CC!

There aren't any magic bullets out there - I'd suggest sticking to the free web material out there, there's a ton of good stuff. Personally, I'd recommend surfing the Golden Archives subforum here and the Strategy Articles tab (upper right corner of screen). Pick out some things that make sense, start incorporating them into the way you think about the game, and start practicing.

There's really a ton of good stuff here throughout the subforums, browsing may give you some ideas. The first post I read on this forum was this, which I highly recommend: 10k post: micro stakes full ring guide [long]

gl!

Thanx for the advice. I guess I should clarify a bit more. I'm not looking for any magic bullets or get rich quick with my system type of junk..

I think it may be better stated if I said I feel like I've exhausted all of the free resources of knowledge I've been able to find( save for forum interaction ) and wondered if its worth to money to pay for a devised system, or a membership to some of the more advanced training sites that offer videos and more content above the and beyond the free stuff out there.

Also, I wonder if it's a good idea I still stick to the free rolls? or might it be better for my learning( and hopefully not bad for my bankroll ) to move into the very low lvl cash games such as .25/.50 ?

Just imo responses:

If the free stuff seems to have exhausted themselves, I do like the training sites. Sign up for a short term (1 month), see if you like it, stick w it if you do, dump it if you don't - I think most of the sites are around $30/month give or take. Most sites offer a trial membership for a week that allows you access to their content. So not a huge investment to try it out.

I have no opinion on freerolls, so I'll skip that one.

Did want to comment specifically on playing cash games though. 50nl (common abbreviation for $0.25/$0.50 no limit holdem) is the highest of the microstakes levels - if you're coming from a live play background (I did), you might think this is ultra low level, but the skill level at 50nl online is better than the general skill level you see at a live 200nl game. I'd suggest starting at 25nl instead of 50nl, assuming you have at least a $500 bankroll - if you have a smaller bankroll, you could start at 10nl w a $200 bankroll and work your way up to 25nl when you build it up to $500.

If you have a $1250 bankroll, you could try 50nl - but seriously you may be surprised by the skill level. No shame in starting lower than 50nl, and no shame in trying it out and then dropping a limit to 25nl if you find the skill level better than you're expecting (just don't burn through too much money trying out 50nl if you do - set aside $200 or whatever as dedicated to trying it out, then decide what limit you should play).

Oh, and if you meant limit holdem or some other game, the bankroll numbers above are incorrect, but the general theme about skill probably isn't.

I am speaking of No Limit and I'm not coming from a background of live play, I'm completely new lol which is why I'm taking things slow and would probably then start out at the 25NL or maybe even 10 if they have?

My line of thinking in regards to the free rolls is that while there are a few serious players which you can definitely tell by their style, most people are wreckless and don't play seriously. I think it's probably a lot different when you're playing with real money and much more true to strategy and systemic decisions..Is that an accurate assumption?

I'd suggest trying 10nl for a while and then move up to 25nl once you feel comfortable. Not sure what kind of bankroll you have, but generally you want to have twenty times 100 big blinds at the limit you want to play if you're an ok microstakes player - the higher you go, the bigger the cushion you want to maintain, that's why I was suggesting a higher number for 50nl.

For freerolls, yeah, alot of the play is less serious than in cash MTT's - after all, no investment means that shoving any two cards for fold equity isn't the worst idea in the world (not that most players in freerolls are thinking at that level, many are playing bingo rather than poker). If you can keep your focus on whether you're making correct plays, I think that freerolls are a great (and free) tool for learning - you just have to not get tilted when you make the right play and lose when a hand w poor equity makes a poor play and wins - recognize that you're making the right play and pat yourself on the back for it.

So, if you treat it as exercise, learn to not tilt when you're making good plays and still losing, and don't develop bad habits due to playing bad players, freerolls are great imo.

One last suggestion - decide on a format and stick to it for a while (someone posted a very good thread on this recently, can't remember who?). Let's say you spend the next month or two kinda bouncing back and forth between, say, freerolls and microstakes MTT's on the one hand, and 10nl full ring games on the other. After that month or two, decide to focus on one or the other and spend at least a month or two ONLY playing that format. There are differences in the formats that you'll learn faster if you focus on a single format.

If you want to make a jump from freerolls to micro stake games I suggest putting 10 bucks (or whatever the min deposit is) to either Pokerstars and or Ultimate Bet. On both of these sites they have micro SnGs and MTTs. At PS you have 360 man 10 cent MTTs that pay the top 36 playes. At UB you have 20 and 50 cent SnG that pay top three.

I do fairly well at these and I have even been able to build my BR to allow for the occasional $1 games.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the tips, I'll go ahead and give that a try. I tried playing sng's last night for the first time ( with play money ) and to my surprise majority of people that I played against, played rather normal it seemed.
I know it's only play money and the caliber of play is probably much lower then real money games, but I did win every table I played at.

What else should I look at besides the promotions and limits available when choosing which site to play at?
I've read a lot of material that say the casino based sites and less known poker sites are better to play on (to make money) because the quality of players is much lower than places like ub, ft, pp, and ps...
Is there any truth behind this? Is this any reason to consider these places over the well-knowns? Or are the promotions, number of players and games available on the bigger sites just too good to pass up?

recently I had a talk with Poker Pro Thomas Bihl, and I ask him what would you say to a beginner starting out... His responds was "Practice,Practice,Practice, and read lots of books"