c9h13no3
Is drawing with AK
Silver Level
I hate "4000th post" type posts. Why the hell does the fact that a number ends in three zeros make it special. Who knows.
So anyways, I give you my 4875th poast. Its going to be a special one, in that I have no idea what I'm going to write about. I'm just going to grumble like an old man for a few paragraphs while I'm waiting for my crap to come out of the microwave.
First of all, here's a list of shit good players do:
1) They follow absolutely bat shit crazy bankroll management. In most forums, the conventional wisdom is always 20 buy ins. Any decent player I know that plays stakes where the money is significant uses WAY MORE than 20 buy ins. This is no shen.
2) They are logical, reasonable, and while they all might not be great at math, they recognize when its useful. Often in a hand analysis post, there's no right answer. However, even if two good players are in a disagreement, they'll almost always make a logical, sound argument for what the right course of action is.
3) They talk strategy. I can't tell you the number of times I've sat on AIM and just exchanged hand histories with people. BW (banned) and I would sit on AIM firing hands to each other, responding with "WTF, how can you possibly call there, there's no way villain can get to the river with anything he can turn into a bluff". If you're just playing, sitting in your own little world, with your own little perspective, you're going to suck.
4) They don't tilt (well, okay, they at least have learned to tilt less). Player poker well isn't hard. Playing poker well when you've just lost 15 buy ins to that stupid fish is probably harder than trying to do calculus while two hot girls give you a blow job. Once players start getting good (aka, when you start playing stakes above micros) tilt accounts for the vast majority of your leaks. I rarely played Stud 8 higher than $10/$20, but when I did it usually involved my buddies shooting me a message saying something like "OMFG, there's a fish at $30/$60, and [Good Reg] is tilting so hard".
Okay, I'm bored talking about that.
One thing I think bad players don't understand well is what your edge is. Your edge, if I were to write it as a formula, would read like this:
Edge = [(How well you play) - (How well others play)] - Rake
You can control all of these variables, and by god you should. And oddly enough, the hardest variable to change (how well you play) is the one that people spend the most time messing with. They read books, study, post on forums. But they won't even think about the other two.
Minimize the rake by playing at stakes that aren't raked to shit. My thoughts immediately go to the 10c/20c games on pokerstars. The max rake is 20c, or one big bet. That's insane. At 50c/$1, the max rake is 50c. You essentially double your win rate just because you're not paying through the nose to be dealt hands.
And you can control how well the "others" are playing by not sitting in games with good players. Your profit comes from finding players who are worse than you, and eating them. So when you find yourself sitting at a table, and there's these two regs who just keep 3-betting you and, BY GOD IF I COULD JUST WAIT FOR A HAND I'M GONNA STACK THEM! Leave. You might be better than them, but who cares, the rake is probably eating all the tiny edge you had anyways.
And one last thing. I think this forum is 99% morons. There are 70K members or something ridiculous like that, and there's probably 100 who's posts I think have graduated beyond bullshit. However, whenever someone new shows themselves to be part of this 1%, it makes me very happy. So if you are new, speak up, contribute. Don't be afraid that I'll think you're a moron. Because I already think you're a moron. The only way you can un-moron yourself is by contributing.
K, my crap is out of the microwave, its 1AM, I'm still at work. I must leave.
So anyways, I give you my 4875th poast. Its going to be a special one, in that I have no idea what I'm going to write about. I'm just going to grumble like an old man for a few paragraphs while I'm waiting for my crap to come out of the microwave.
First of all, here's a list of shit good players do:
1) They follow absolutely bat shit crazy bankroll management. In most forums, the conventional wisdom is always 20 buy ins. Any decent player I know that plays stakes where the money is significant uses WAY MORE than 20 buy ins. This is no shen.
2) They are logical, reasonable, and while they all might not be great at math, they recognize when its useful. Often in a hand analysis post, there's no right answer. However, even if two good players are in a disagreement, they'll almost always make a logical, sound argument for what the right course of action is.
3) They talk strategy. I can't tell you the number of times I've sat on AIM and just exchanged hand histories with people. BW (banned) and I would sit on AIM firing hands to each other, responding with "WTF, how can you possibly call there, there's no way villain can get to the river with anything he can turn into a bluff". If you're just playing, sitting in your own little world, with your own little perspective, you're going to suck.
4) They don't tilt (well, okay, they at least have learned to tilt less). Player poker well isn't hard. Playing poker well when you've just lost 15 buy ins to that stupid fish is probably harder than trying to do calculus while two hot girls give you a blow job. Once players start getting good (aka, when you start playing stakes above micros) tilt accounts for the vast majority of your leaks. I rarely played Stud 8 higher than $10/$20, but when I did it usually involved my buddies shooting me a message saying something like "OMFG, there's a fish at $30/$60, and [Good Reg] is tilting so hard".
Okay, I'm bored talking about that.
One thing I think bad players don't understand well is what your edge is. Your edge, if I were to write it as a formula, would read like this:
Edge = [(How well you play) - (How well others play)] - Rake
You can control all of these variables, and by god you should. And oddly enough, the hardest variable to change (how well you play) is the one that people spend the most time messing with. They read books, study, post on forums. But they won't even think about the other two.
Minimize the rake by playing at stakes that aren't raked to shit. My thoughts immediately go to the 10c/20c games on pokerstars. The max rake is 20c, or one big bet. That's insane. At 50c/$1, the max rake is 50c. You essentially double your win rate just because you're not paying through the nose to be dealt hands.
And you can control how well the "others" are playing by not sitting in games with good players. Your profit comes from finding players who are worse than you, and eating them. So when you find yourself sitting at a table, and there's these two regs who just keep 3-betting you and, BY GOD IF I COULD JUST WAIT FOR A HAND I'M GONNA STACK THEM! Leave. You might be better than them, but who cares, the rake is probably eating all the tiny edge you had anyways.
And one last thing. I think this forum is 99% morons. There are 70K members or something ridiculous like that, and there's probably 100 who's posts I think have graduated beyond bullshit. However, whenever someone new shows themselves to be part of this 1%, it makes me very happy. So if you are new, speak up, contribute. Don't be afraid that I'll think you're a moron. Because I already think you're a moron. The only way you can un-moron yourself is by contributing.
K, my crap is out of the microwave, its 1AM, I'm still at work. I must leave.