Has your game improved?

Swineflesh

Swineflesh

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Hi all,
I have been playing poker for about 3 months now (pokerstars) and found myself repetitively coming back to this site whenever i quizzed google for poker advice.

I have tried cash games, MTT's and Sng's; Finding the Sng's the most marginal for profits. ah, but to no avail i'am finding my pokertracker stats all soaked in red.

Im hoping that if i coat myself in a thick helping of cardschat forums everyday the repetitive immersion is going to hone my 1337 poker skillz.

But... My question to all of you is. How long have you been clicking on cardschat.com from your bookmarks folder and.. has it attributed to a success with the poker realm or a failure; for you?
 
B

Big_Rudy

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I wish. I've been playing for about three years online and live for longer than that. Unfortunately my game is about where it has always been. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I was a marginal winner before and I'm a marginal winner now, both live and online.

Tbh, much of this is probably my fault. I play too much and study too little. I must have 12-15 poker books, most of which I've read once and stuck on a shelf somewhere. I've also continually jumped between game formats and styles (generally not a good idea). Then there was the whole Black Friday thing for us US players, which caused me to abandon poker for nearly a year. I'm actually just getting back into it right now.

I think, in general, this site is great and there are a lot of nice people here, but like anything else in life, you'll get out of it what you put into it. Some things are easily answered, and fixed, like bankroll management issues, dealing with tilt, technical questions (how do I set up a HUD, etc). Others, like fundamentally changing your game, will be significantly harder and take more work on your part.

Then, there is the advice issue. You'll get tons of it here. I truely believe that everyone who gives advice here is trying to help you improve your game, BUT everyone approaches the game a little differently. And, the best meaning advice in the world, from a very talented player, will not help your game much if you can't incorporate it into your game in a proper and successful manner.

What I'm trying to say is what works for some players, and hence their advice, may or may not work for everyone/you. I've struggled with this before from players on here who I admire and whose games I respect, but whose advice, no matter how well intentioned, just does not work when I try to incorporate it into my game. Then I've had a few "aha" moments where someone will say something, or offer some advice and it just "clicks".

Long story short.... You'll find tons of help/advice here and a lot of nice people. Its up to you how much you get out of it and will be directly related to how much effort you put into it.
 
micromachine

micromachine

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This forum has definitely helped me improve faster as a cash game player.
 
trucker103

trucker103

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dont think u will get any one to say its a failure to come to this forum
plenty of info to make ur game better and the peeps here are willing to help ya
so enjoy
# 1 rule for new peeps at the table stop playin in so many hands be patient !
 
G

gsxr5221

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I don't think its how often you come to the site but whether you apply the stuff that you read at the site...I could come here every day but if I don't apply any of the things I'm reading or studying up on what good is it doing?
 
M

Madness_does

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Im about the same as I was years ago, one thing I have learned that has helped me alot though is, fold fold fold fold, and only play premium hands.
 
dj11

dj11

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Been here a long long time. Lot of posts, lots of stupid opinions, lots and lots of laughs. I probably even have developed a few enemies. And friends.

Only playing poker for 3 months? And you thought it was gonna be a cakewalk eh? Easy money? You have a world full of players with a similar attitude, equally disappointed.

You say you are still pretty much playing your same game. Do not despair! There are things you can do, that will change your game in a positive way. First and foremost is patience. It is THE MOST IMPORTANT aspect of the game. 3 months is not patient.

You say your tracker stats are all in the red. You will need to either post some of those stats so we can respond, or learn the program so well that you can see, for example, that limping in every pot isn't paying off. Or that always seeing the SB is either. So learn to love to fold. Use that time to watch what the other players are doing. Remarkably, for a very long time, you may think you understand what they are doing, but you are really just seeing a few of the player patterns showing up in similar situation. There are a gazillion 'player patterns' that you have not recognized yet. You will, with more experience, but for now you don't even know they exist.

This is where CC comes in. Every now and then, you will read a post or thread, and some hint about those patterns, or idiosyncrasies will pop up in a 'AH HA' moment, and your game will change without you even understanding that it did.

Re-read those books. This will amaze you. Since you mention SNG's, you must have HoH (Harrington on Holdem) perhaps vols 1 &2, maybe even 3. I think I have reade 1&2 5 times now. Each time I understand what I am reading differently. Sometimes remarkably differently. What has changed? My subconscious mind (I believe) has finally figured out a player pattern it had not recognized the last time I read it. I have internalized some new aspect of the game and can deal with it now.

Personally, I used play money poker to learn a lot of things that others would say you can learn faster via being the fish and paying for your education. At the higher buy-in play money games, funny things happen. You find that many of the players are starting to take the game seriously, and you can see a distinct difference in how a table plays. Part of this is, of course, a function of there being no 'scared money' involved in play money poker.

Scared money. Can of worms for a new player. One of the oddities of the game seems to be, if you are scared to lose your money, you probably will. If you decide to play the play money route (many of us have, many have not), try to think what you would do if there was real money involved in making the decisions you will be making. Easier said than done.

3 months is not very long, be patient. Post your stats somewhere here, and get a gross analysis of what we see. Let's first try to place you on the great player skill chart.

We can help you improve as fast as you are willing to improve.
 
dooydoo

dooydoo

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One way to find success is to pick only 1 game that you enjoy the most and stick with it. My bread and butter is 6max nl cash. I will not play anything else until i move up to a limit (midstakes probably) where i will have 'mastered' the game.

Its easier to master 1 specific game rather than dabble in all of them at the same time.
 
calicard

calicard

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If you look at the top of this forum you will see various titles: Poker Forum, Strategy Articles and a few more. I recommend you go through the Strategy Articles for the type of game you play. I also believe that a few members are conducting their own classes on here. If you go through the Strategy Articles you should pick up a few tools that you can add to your poker arsenal. Also if you have specific questions about how you played a certain hand there are players on here that can evaluate the hand in either tournament hand analysis or cash game hand analysis. I also highly recommend going through the learning poker section and see what you might discover there.
Good Luck
Welcome to CardsChat
 
Swineflesh

Swineflesh

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Iam amazed at how readily you guys are willing to teach and share you knowledge, thankyou all. My current plan of action is to crawl these forums on my hands and knees with a magnifying glass and pick up any loose debris of poker wisdom i can find and fit into my pockets.
At the moment iam fixated on a few poker "mottos" that i have written on a piece of paper under my computer monitor; "LOOSE ATTACHMENT TO HANDS", "BIG POTS ARE FOR BIG HANDS", "Long time to check/call = poor hand", "long time to bet/raise = good hand".
The problem is, there is just so goddamn much to learn about this game. After that being said, with a community like this im actually less concerned about that now.

PS: 3 months really isnt a truthful statement ive been playing on and off for 2, but could easily condense that into 3 months.
 
dooydoo

dooydoo

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Get table scan turbo, pokerstove, skype, and teamviewer. You will end up using all those programs in your poker career.

Once you get at least 15k hands in cash games on pt, let me know and we can do a db review
 
Poker Orifice

Poker Orifice

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Iam amazed at how readily you guys are willing to teach and share you knowledge, thankyou all. My current plan of action is to crawl these forums on my hands and knees with a magnifying glass and pick up any loose debris of poker wisdom i can find and fit into my pockets.
At the moment iam fixated on a few poker "mottos" that i have written on a piece of paper under my computer monitor; "LOOSE ATTACHMENT TO HANDS", "BIG POTS ARE FOR BIG HANDS", "Long time to check/call = poor hand",< not necessarily... keep in mind that some player are playing multiple tables & will often take longer to act "long time to bet/raise = good hand". < this is often the case.
Another one to add there (for micro play... more so in Tournaments), quick call will often = draw
The problem is, there is just so goddamn much to learn about this game. After that being said, with a community like this im actually less concerned about that now.

PS: 3 months really isnt a truthful statement ive been playing on and off for 2, but could easily condense that into 3 months.
Sticking to one game & even one format of it is a good idea at first. Many will start off with Single Table SNG's, & then perhaps adding in the occassional tournament & gradually expanding to playing 18mans, 27's, 45's or 180's. Sticking with one for awhile will be beneficial... also with same speed (& I'd choose 'regular speed' over 'turbo').
Good Luck!
 
Arjonius

Arjonius

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To benefit from this or any other forum, it's probably best to have a mindset that is both open and questioning. Obviously, it's pretty difficult to learn if your mind is closed. Otoh, it's also not great simply accepting everything, or even just what seems reasonable when you read it. That's why it's important to get into the habit of asking yourself how appropriate things are in relation to the current state of your game. Advice that's good in a vacuum can be not so good in the context of where your game is at and the level of your opponents. And since there's no quality control, some of the advice posted is mediocre or even bad.

For instance, if you're a beginner-level player working on learning to play a solid TAG game, trying to use advanced plays can be getting ahead of yourself. Not only that, in order for them to work well, such plays can require opponents to have more knowledge than the average ones you find at micros. It's certainly not uncommon to see players try to run before they can walk, so to speak. Some refer to this as FPS, fancy play syndrome.
 
micromachine

micromachine

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"Long time to check/call = poor hand", "long time to bet/raise = good hand".

Careful not to read too much into timing tells because:

1) people will manipulate the amount of time they take to make a play in an attempt to confuse you.

2) amount of time taken will depend on how many tables they are playing.

I would agree with Poker Orifice...it's better to choose one format of the game and stick to it until you are winning. GL :icon_pira
 
A

Aslama01

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Any information you read, pick up, etc. is beneficial. Yes, this and other sites have helped my game. I've beenplaying 8 years now. Still not a consistent winner. But I always come back and read up. I love the game.
 
Z

zippyzip

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Hey Swineflesh,


I would read books, watch videos. Also, analyze your hands after your session. The winning hands and losing hands. You can mark your hands if you use HEM during your session and review afterwards. Discuss hands with fellow players who are also learning. Also, sometimes you have to step back and take a break and really look inwards. Make sure you aren't tilting. Be honest with yourself.

I have some friends starting a microstakes study group if you are interested. This definitely helped me as I was moving up in the stakes. And I still talk to friends about interesting spots even though I'm generally a midstakes player now.
 
Reptar7

Reptar7

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My game took a big step forward when I joined 2P2 and then when I joined Cardrunners (free membership from FT). I am new to CardsChat, but it is very similar to 2P2 and can only help your game.
 
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