M
Murky Lurky
Rising Star
Bronze Level
Hi all,
First off some background about me:
I am relatively new to playing poker, having first caught a passing interest some years ago, but never had the geographical fortune(?) of being anywhere near a casino, nor trusting of online accessible games at the time.
My interest was recently rekindled and furthered when taking a class for statistics in my degree in economics when I took and broke down all the games on offer at my (now) local casino to add something tangible to my studies in order to help them stick. Naturally, poker NLHE specifically, with it's lack of GTO was found to be the only interesting one of the games on offer. So after reading the Mathematics of Poker as well for my downtime reading during that semester I am somewhat interested as to the viability of cash game players, not as a likely avenue to pursue full time, but hey a few extra $ here and there for having some game theory related kicks who wouldn't that enjoy right?
I have won some tournaments already in my very short stint playing around in them and have gained about 1000% on my buy in equity at popular site through small stakes tournament results.
So with all the online literature re: micro stakes grinding it SEEMS fairly interesting, but honestly I doubt that. It seems to me to be seated firmly between rarely viable to hardly even worth it on $/hr basis, but that's not an interest to me -What IS however is the value of it as a learning tool in order to progress to higher stakes.
Is this actually the case? I cannot see the value in taking what I already have in tournament poker ability and basically bastardising that for a short time so as to learn the conventions (because by and large it seems that it is played on convention derived by pigeonholing, narrowed through HUD usage the largely terrible player base so as to profit most from their ineptitude, as well as exploiting the leaks derived from being geared towards these other players from recognisable Xtabling regs) of a stake that to me is likely also largely damaging again to my game because frankly, who could give a shit about making 40-80c/100 hands? Not me, that is damn certain.
Here is the kicker, I work for a casino. I am a dealer at a casino and I see ****ing idiots all the time, every workday. And while so many play the winner and talk up their shit, all are losers. Including regulars at +EV games. Little more than skaters on a wealth transfer mechanism. And those that are "winners" frankly should just get a job, by my estimation they are barely up half the time and when they are it is barely enough to overcompensate down periods. But hey, they are liquidity providers. So someone who spends their time playing for cents on many many tables at a time to me is seating themselves firmly in the sick gambler side of assessment, if they persist for any prolonged period of time, especially if progression is not an enforced goal. That strikes me as an action junkie with shitty risk assessment who has patterned themselves into this mode of play. And needless to say: ****. That.
So, exposure to what seems to be a monotonous, relatively worthless to me on $ basis, convention bet (as opposed to leverage and developed risk assessment) driven play pool -is it worth it as an online poker learning tool for better strategy for higher stakes cash games? Do observations of this player base hold any real value for higher stakes for an already well grounded tournament player? I imagine that by and large almost everyone who plays these stakes never moves into any actual financially useful stakes (except maybe for those based in countries with very weak currencies vs USD/EUR -do you see any Swiss/Saudi players there? Haha!) and therefore when it comes to actually interesting stakes on a grinding assessed basis let's say .50/100 and above the players who started at .01/.02 must be in a minority, correct?
Before you answer, take note: halfway through economics degree, works at a casino, already successful tournament player oh and as for risk tolerance -former deployed combat soldier. I am already smarter than most people you've ever met, but I give this community the respect that there are bound to be many with much much greater insight to the poker industry mechanics and risk/reward assessment distribution amongst player base values.
Yes I know what hubris precedes if that's what you feel you need to post, so don't bother. To that I say this -I have only 2 habits: doing things, and not ****ing those things up.
If you actually read all that, then I am already tipping my hat to you, good sir/madam.
First off some background about me:
I am relatively new to playing poker, having first caught a passing interest some years ago, but never had the geographical fortune(?) of being anywhere near a casino, nor trusting of online accessible games at the time.
My interest was recently rekindled and furthered when taking a class for statistics in my degree in economics when I took and broke down all the games on offer at my (now) local casino to add something tangible to my studies in order to help them stick. Naturally, poker NLHE specifically, with it's lack of GTO was found to be the only interesting one of the games on offer. So after reading the Mathematics of Poker as well for my downtime reading during that semester I am somewhat interested as to the viability of cash game players, not as a likely avenue to pursue full time, but hey a few extra $ here and there for having some game theory related kicks who wouldn't that enjoy right?
I have won some tournaments already in my very short stint playing around in them and have gained about 1000% on my buy in equity at popular site through small stakes tournament results.
So with all the online literature re: micro stakes grinding it SEEMS fairly interesting, but honestly I doubt that. It seems to me to be seated firmly between rarely viable to hardly even worth it on $/hr basis, but that's not an interest to me -What IS however is the value of it as a learning tool in order to progress to higher stakes.
Is this actually the case? I cannot see the value in taking what I already have in tournament poker ability and basically bastardising that for a short time so as to learn the conventions (because by and large it seems that it is played on convention derived by pigeonholing, narrowed through HUD usage the largely terrible player base so as to profit most from their ineptitude, as well as exploiting the leaks derived from being geared towards these other players from recognisable Xtabling regs) of a stake that to me is likely also largely damaging again to my game because frankly, who could give a shit about making 40-80c/100 hands? Not me, that is damn certain.
Here is the kicker, I work for a casino. I am a dealer at a casino and I see ****ing idiots all the time, every workday. And while so many play the winner and talk up their shit, all are losers. Including regulars at +EV games. Little more than skaters on a wealth transfer mechanism. And those that are "winners" frankly should just get a job, by my estimation they are barely up half the time and when they are it is barely enough to overcompensate down periods. But hey, they are liquidity providers. So someone who spends their time playing for cents on many many tables at a time to me is seating themselves firmly in the sick gambler side of assessment, if they persist for any prolonged period of time, especially if progression is not an enforced goal. That strikes me as an action junkie with shitty risk assessment who has patterned themselves into this mode of play. And needless to say: ****. That.
So, exposure to what seems to be a monotonous, relatively worthless to me on $ basis, convention bet (as opposed to leverage and developed risk assessment) driven play pool -is it worth it as an online poker learning tool for better strategy for higher stakes cash games? Do observations of this player base hold any real value for higher stakes for an already well grounded tournament player? I imagine that by and large almost everyone who plays these stakes never moves into any actual financially useful stakes (except maybe for those based in countries with very weak currencies vs USD/EUR -do you see any Swiss/Saudi players there? Haha!) and therefore when it comes to actually interesting stakes on a grinding assessed basis let's say .50/100 and above the players who started at .01/.02 must be in a minority, correct?
Before you answer, take note: halfway through economics degree, works at a casino, already successful tournament player oh and as for risk tolerance -former deployed combat soldier. I am already smarter than most people you've ever met, but I give this community the respect that there are bound to be many with much much greater insight to the poker industry mechanics and risk/reward assessment distribution amongst player base values.
Yes I know what hubris precedes if that's what you feel you need to post, so don't bother. To that I say this -I have only 2 habits: doing things, and not ****ing those things up.
If you actually read all that, then I am already tipping my hat to you, good sir/madam.