Where to go from here

As I mentioned in my introduction I feel I got to a crossroad of some sort with my poker. I would really appreciate your opinions.

Where am I?

I currently play in play-money no-limit hold'em SNGs. I play in 9, 27 and 45 men SNGs and usually get in the top places. If I had a graphic of daily average position in SNGs I would be seeing a clear climb lately. I feel extremely confortable in SNGs and I have this kind of guilty pleasure of looking at the current standings after the very rare hands I play because I get from low to high positions with just a couple of hands.

What I think I do well

I believe I read the table well. I get a good sense of how people are playing and why quite fast. I take notes, not too many, just the ones that pinpoint specific actions of players. Due to the way I choose the hands to play I present myself as a very thight player and as soon as that happens I get very aggressive and take short stacked players out with some ease (notes help!).

One thing I believe I do well is to determine odds but lately I feel that on SNGs it is not as relevant as in ring games. I have some split feelings about it. For instance I have Ah and the flop shows 3 hearts. Someone immediately raises and I believe that he has a flush. The raise is not high enough so the odds are on me and I call because the Ah flush will win me the hand. Although statisticaly I would be making money if the odds are right, it is obvious that I loose valuable chips on many hands. If it was a ring game, I'd be right, on SNGs I'm not sure.

Just because I think I do this well, doesn't mean I am IN FACT doing it well, please criticize.

What I think I do wrong

Too many things really...

I just cannot handle the end players. I know what they are doing and if one or two of them have more chips than me, I'm usually doomed because they steal blinds up to the point I make a mistake and it's game over.

I'm a terrible reader of the flop. I simply have a hard time in detecting straights. If I have a weak hand, it is easy to fold, but if I have a strong hand I usually fail to observe and blindly raise.

I'm fooled to many times into betting for another player. Like someone holding QQ and I have a T and the flop is T-x-x. I feel I have the hand to win, I raise, he just calls, constantly. I cannot pinpoint that I'm being trapped, when or how.

Where to go from here?

I'm not sure if I'm ready for money games. There are too many holes in my game, some of them big, I want to play poker for recreation and at least break-even and don't loose money.

I read a lot and I have a couple of poker books heading my way. I study a lot everything I do, but I don't know what tools I should use to study my game.

My goal is to improve my game to the point I feel confortable in playing money games as I believe those will be more competitive. On the other hand I have not yet understood how I can improve and study beyond reading and playing.

So... what do you all think?

Try playing some play money omaha and you'll see how quick you start to read boards. When you switch from omaha to holdem it's like climbing down from the thread mill - your legs just move themselves.

As per your main question - I think you should try some real money games. People in play money games tend to be so terribly bad you're actually becoming a worse player playing them. Play money should be just to learn the software, then move out of there as quickly as you can.

Just deposit $20 and play the smallest SNGs.

Good luck!

i would play some freerolls.
you can win real money with no risk.
lots of people will tell you that freerolls are useless but
they can be very usefull.
as you begin to go deep in the freerolls
the play becomes much better.
if you can constantly go deep in the freerolls
or even reach the final table a few times it will improve your game.
especially the private freerolls like the ones here on cardschat.
check them out.
you could also try micro ring games (1c/2c)
practce good bankroll management and
only move up in stakes when you can consistantly
beat the level you are playing at.
strategy changes as you move up in limits,
so you have to adjust.
higher limits = stronger competition (usually).
there is lots of info on this forum and
lots of helpful people,
so check back here often.
above all remember poker is a long term game
dont worry about short term results.
reveiw your hands.
good BRM.
study.
enjoy.
good luck.

Just tried a freeroll SnG and almost got ITM. Out of almost 3000 players I finished 464th. Money was at 432 and up if I'm not mistaken.

I know it's not a big result, but I expected to finish at a much lower position.

It was a turbo tournament and I think I played too tight and got back too early.

Nice post. Well laid out and easy to read. Most posts on this forum from people with less than 20 posts are like "HOW DO I MAK MONEY?!111".

Anyway in answer to your question, you sound like you've got a good basis of understanding. Try to build on this. Download some ebooks on poker like Phil Gordons little green book and just random cash game books. Also Moshmans SNG strat is good for SNG play. Harrington on Hold em is excellent for tournament play too and if you haven't read these two yet... thats where your going wrong.

After that deposit some money and play $1 SNG's.
Use the basic strategy of playing SUPER tight in the early blinds, then move to an aggressive strategy when you have like 10-22BB's left.
By tight I mean 99+, AQs+. The donks in the $1's will all get themselves out by shoving crap, so you should always make the last 5 unless you deviate from tight play or if you get in a cooler.
Post hands you were unsure of in the hand analysis forum and people will point you in the right direction. If there is an underlying problem to your play people should be able to pick it up so don't worry about posting too many hands.
Articles online are good too. Cardschat and ThePokerBank have excellent articles. if you haven't read these and taken cliff notes for each article you're missing out big time, they're fantastic.

Anyway welcome to the forum, if you need a hand post in the Cash Game forum or STT/MTT forum and you'll get lots of help

Agree 100% ^
The more time you spend playing the playmoney games, I think there'll be a bunch of habits you'll have to 'unlearn'. Maybe try watching a few $ games, some micro & then some a bit higher ($10-$20) & check out the HandHistory feature for each hand that goes to showdown. Watch a few tables at a time.

Thanks guys.

I'll update the journal thread but that's exactly what I've been doing the last couple of days. I've watched a bunch of .01/.02 rings and I'm considering just starting because the table just makes more sense. It's not as random (if that makes sense to any of you) compared to play money.

Play freerolls, .01/.02 is almost like playing free in terms of bad play, but try to play your best even if others around you aren't. You could also try a subscription site which would be all tourneys like clubwpt or spadeclub. Good place to practice with a defined financial risk, you can often win free months also, so you could do it without spending any money.