Playing live 1-2nl takes discipline and structure

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madball

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I decided to buy an umpire strike count thing and every hand i click it. it keeps tracks of how many hands i play and i stop at 100 every day. this allows me to track my BB per 100 hands and keeps me from spending all day at the table which my girlfriend is not to keen of me doing. i also keep a dollar chip stack every time i play a hand, if i notice i have a stack over ten in 50 hands then i am starting to loosen up, if it is over 15 i am on the verge of tilting and i leave, i don't know if anyone else is playing live for a living but if anyone needed some suggestions these our some of the things i do to stay structured.
 
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Ubercroz

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I don't agree with your strategy. It could be where you play (where do you play in Texas? I was in San Antonio and the closest one was like 3 hours away) has some unusually perceptive players, but I have found most 1/2 live games to be too loose as it is, loosening up I have never found to be helpful. I do like the hand counter idea, very neat thought there. But in live poker it is more about your hourly rate as opposed to bbs/100 because you can only play 1 table at a time.
 
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madball

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my BB per hundred hands is easily translated to an hourly wage, 100 hands usually takes anywhere from 2 and a half to 2hr 45 minutes. i am on the Oklahoma border so winstar is only 40 minutes from me. i try to play around 20 hands per 100 but playing live can get very annoying after 30 hands of trash and that took an hr of folding. my dollar chip stack is just a easy device i have found to make sure i am not loosening up because of the frustration when you lose to j3 after you raised pre flop and have folded the last hour. it just helps me know if i am getting to loose if i see i have played 10 hands in the last 30 per say then i know i should leave for the day or come back later.
 
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madball

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the mental discipline of playing live poker with a bunch of tier 1-2 lags just gets draining at times and this helps me stay disciplined.
 
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WormsworthBently

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Some days dictate its optimal to play longer when games are better and you are playing your Agame. you may be losing on value doing this strategy
 
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Ubercroz

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I played at the riverwind(?) there in oklahoma a couple of times. I noticed that the players at my table were pretty loose.

I found playing tight poker there worked wonderfully. They called my bets too often and I could just go to value town.

I think loosening up against a bunch of loose players is usually asking for trouble.
 
Mr Sandbag

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Another thing to keep in mind...

If you only play 100 hands per session:

- It's going to take forever to put in enough volume to even have a semi-accurate bb/100 or winrate
- You will have downswings that last months because of the low volume
- You'll leave highly profitable tables too early

IMO, focusing so much on your stats is pointless and gets in the way of other important things. You should be concentrating on improving your decision making. My advice would be to download a poker tracking App for your phone or create a custom spreadsheet (I use both), input your session results, and close the app/sheet. Only look at your stats periodically - maybe once a month, every 100 hours, etc.

It's important to note that even your first 500 hours (and probably more) will be relatively meaningless stat-wise. You'll be a different player at specific points throughout those logged hours. Mistakes that you may have made frequently in the first 100 hours may be almost entirely eliminated from your game in the last 100 hours, but your winrate will still reflect the "old you."


BTW, welcome to CC! Take notes during your sessions and post hands for analysis on here. You'll be surprised how much it'll help.

Good luck at the tables!
 
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madball

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So after taking suggestions I downloaded an app called poker journal , this app has convinced me along with the advice I received on here to switch to a hourly wage them trying to manage how many Bb per 100 hands. I will still use he umpire strike counter though , I still like knowing how many hands I am dealt or have played at a live game. Thanks again though everyone
 
Mr Sandbag

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So after taking suggestions I downloaded an app called poker journal , this app has convinced me along with the advice I received on here to switch to a hourly wage them trying to manage how many Bb per 100 hands. I will still use he umpire strike counter though , I still like knowing how many hands I am dealt or have played at a live game. Thanks again though everyone

The average hands per hour at a live game with an auto shuffler is about 30. You're better off ditching the counter and focusing entirely on the game and decision making. Adding small, meaningless tasks to your mental game can be both distracting and fatiguing.
 
IPlay

IPlay

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What app would you reccomend for android Sandbag?
 
Mr Sandbag

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I use something called "Poker Income Tracker" to log results after every session. But every month I transfer all the results over to a custom spreadsheet.
 
SeaRun

SeaRun

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SNIP<<<< IMO, focusing so much on your stats is pointless and gets in the way of other important things. >>>>SNIP

Last night I decided to do the same thing and ignore my HUD numbers, which I was paying too much attention to and was probably affecting my range. I know 1 single 1330 hand session is too small a sample size to get an accurate feel, but today's session was fantastic as I just noted in my Journal thread.
 
Mr Sandbag

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Last night I decided to do the same thing and ignore my HUD numbers, which I was paying too much attention to and was probably affecting my range. I know 1 single 1330 hand session is too small a sample size to get an accurate feel, but today's session was fantastic as I just noted in my Journal thread.

1330 hands is more than I usually see in a week of live play haha. I know it's not really a big sample size though.

But still, you don't necessarily need a million hands to know if you are playing better.
 
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Ronoh

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How do you spot the sucker at the table? He's the guy in the game who is holding and clicking a pitch counter every hand.

The whole thread with discipline in the title and the pitch counter, leaving after 100 hands every session makes the thread fairly worthless on it's face so let's just focus on the hardware ;)

Do you keep it in your lap or are they lax enough to let you keep it in plain view on the table?

Do you ever deviate? Like if hand #100 was your BB or if a reckless ATM has built a lucky big stack?

Details!!
 
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madball

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I originally started using it because I felt after 100 hands at a live game I was starting to lose focus, get bored or frustrated. Now I just leave at 100 and mentally it has really kept me from tilting or playing trash hands after an hr of being card dead. I keep it in my hoodie pocket, but I have had it out before and no one stopped me. I had it on the table one day and got made fun of after explaining it and have kept it off since. I also keep a chip stack of ones and every time i am in a raised pot I add one to see how many hands I am playing and since 20 per 100 hands is the average it helps me to stay tag if I see I have entered into 15 pots in the first 50 hands. So yes it is a useful device for me because I need structure and have found various ways to do so. I usually average about 1k every 4 days or every 20 hrs spent at the tables . Previous to this I would have much more variance after playing 15hr sessions and trying to leave with 1k every time I went in. Now I am making around 60 an hr and playing much more disciplined poker.
 
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Tiltt2424

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honestly 100 hands is just not enough. Take days where you can get a solid session in, which could be up to 8 hours long at a live table.
 
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