L
louaylouay
Enthusiast
Silver Level
I'm newer to poker. I have played super casually on pokerstars for play chips in the past, but recently developed an obsession with poker and learning how the game works. I became super intrigued by trying to figure out what the best decisions were in any poker situation. I first read a few books, including most of Doyle Brunson's Super System and Decide to Play Good Poker by Annie Duke. After watching hours of professional play on YouTube, I started to get ok (not good by any means) at determining what may be the correct move in a given situation. I just kind of related the decision I would have made with the little knowledge I have to the decisions that the poker pros make. Of course, it is kind of easy to do when you can see everyone's cards for the broadcasted games.
After about a month or so of just watching, reading, and learning, I decided to use $100 as a bankroll and start playing. After about 10-12 hours of playing I realized that what I know does not seem to be working. I believe I am playing poker the way that it theoretically should be played. I haven't had many situations where I am like "shoot, that was the worst possible decision in this situation and I did it anyway." but obviously I am not playing it anywhere near perfectly optimal as this is still brand new to me.
I have made a lot of mistakes in poker but I kind of boiled the mistakes down to one thing, I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO ACTUALLY PUT AN OPPONENT ON A RANGE. I am by no means PHENOMENAL at any of it, but I have a small grasp on some of the basics and fundamentals. I can handle pot odds and I notice people trying to squeeze, steal blinds, leading weak on a missed or weak flop, I know how to theoretically protect my hand from draws, and all of the other "measurable" stuff. but I actually have no idea what these people possibly have in their hands.
I realized that a lot of mistakes I made come from me believing an opponent's hand is generally much different than what it actually is. I just don't get it.
I specifically need help with a few things:
1. Do people's play vary by THAT MUCH that it is seemingly random? I know I'm playing microstakes but I would think that a lot of people who are using real money to play would at least have use something close to a little bit of logic. I feel like everything is 100% random sometimes.
2. I don't know if my issue is coming from me misreading stuff or people just playing weird, is there any way to differentiate?
3. At a multiple-person table, how do you keep track of tendencies? I know that player attributes are a big part of how you read a hand or put an opponent on a range, but on larger tables, everything just kinda blends together and I can't seem to keep track of everyone. I have been just kinda of picking one or two people and trying my hardest to pay attention to them and take advantage when I can play a hand against them. Obviously I don't always get to choose my opponents at a table, so that hasn't worked really well.
4. I know there's about a million metric tons of stuff I have to learn, but I would imagine that the time I put in learning some of the intracacies and important stuff about poker would have at least given me some sort of edge against the lowest stake players, but it just does not seem to be the case.
Any assistance at all, even to something that I may not have specifically addressed in this thread, would be greatly appreciated.
After about a month or so of just watching, reading, and learning, I decided to use $100 as a bankroll and start playing. After about 10-12 hours of playing I realized that what I know does not seem to be working. I believe I am playing poker the way that it theoretically should be played. I haven't had many situations where I am like "shoot, that was the worst possible decision in this situation and I did it anyway." but obviously I am not playing it anywhere near perfectly optimal as this is still brand new to me.
I have made a lot of mistakes in poker but I kind of boiled the mistakes down to one thing, I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO ACTUALLY PUT AN OPPONENT ON A RANGE. I am by no means PHENOMENAL at any of it, but I have a small grasp on some of the basics and fundamentals. I can handle pot odds and I notice people trying to squeeze, steal blinds, leading weak on a missed or weak flop, I know how to theoretically protect my hand from draws, and all of the other "measurable" stuff. but I actually have no idea what these people possibly have in their hands.
I realized that a lot of mistakes I made come from me believing an opponent's hand is generally much different than what it actually is. I just don't get it.
I specifically need help with a few things:
1. Do people's play vary by THAT MUCH that it is seemingly random? I know I'm playing microstakes but I would think that a lot of people who are using real money to play would at least have use something close to a little bit of logic. I feel like everything is 100% random sometimes.
2. I don't know if my issue is coming from me misreading stuff or people just playing weird, is there any way to differentiate?
3. At a multiple-person table, how do you keep track of tendencies? I know that player attributes are a big part of how you read a hand or put an opponent on a range, but on larger tables, everything just kinda blends together and I can't seem to keep track of everyone. I have been just kinda of picking one or two people and trying my hardest to pay attention to them and take advantage when I can play a hand against them. Obviously I don't always get to choose my opponents at a table, so that hasn't worked really well.
4. I know there's about a million metric tons of stuff I have to learn, but I would imagine that the time I put in learning some of the intracacies and important stuff about poker would have at least given me some sort of edge against the lowest stake players, but it just does not seem to be the case.
Any assistance at all, even to something that I may not have specifically addressed in this thread, would be greatly appreciated.