How long will it take me to get a good grasp of the game?

J

Jarrsts

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I am at the very beginning stages of a futile poker career. I win all the time, but it can't be because of beginners luck. What should i change to balance my game out? How long do you think it will take me to understand all the aspects of the game?
 
OzExorcist

OzExorcist

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It can take a lifetime.

With a few months of solid work you'll probably be on top of starting hands, position, betting amounts, that sort of thing. But the game's always changing, because the people playing it are always changing - that's the lifetime bit.
 
mparker876

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^^What Oz said.
Doyle Brunson is fond of saying "No Limit Hold em, a minute to learn, a lifetime to master." If you're willing to put in the work you can learn all the basics in a short time, but learning to put those basics into use can take a little longer. My advise, pick up a couple good books and start reading up on starting hands, playing position & how to bet your hands. After you have a firm grasp on that you can move on to pot odds, hand odds & bankroll management. Then there's learning about 3-bets, 4-bets, etc. Basically there's always more to learn. I've never met a player who knows it all & doesn't need to improve their game somewhere ( though I have met a few who think that they're gods gift to poker lol). You can learn quite a bit just by reading through threads on this forum too, and if you post trouble hands in the hand analysis forum, there's a lot of good players here who will gladly give advise on things you could have done differently. Welcome to the game!
 
momoney2

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As part of the intro to the WPT, Mike Sexton says, "It's the Cadillac of poker. It takes a minute to learn, and a life-time to master." care of Doyle Brunson.
 
PokerVic

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If you're at the very beginning of your career, then you're at a very important stage. Play, by all means, because every hand brings you experience. But, make sure you read all you can. poker articles, books, and forum posts will save you a ton of learning time, and will also keep you from developing some bad habits early that can dog you for years.

Because poker is a game of chance, negative reinforcement can be very dangerous to a beginning poker player. You can play badly and still win, thus convincing you that you played correctly. The next time you find yourself in that same situation, that miracle river card might not show up. Analyze your hands after the game is over, and ignore whether you won or not, and try and determine if you played the hand well.
 
Shakes

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Just to expand on what Vic said, there are some great books you should read. Super System, and Harrington on Holdem books are pretty much essential reading for any aspiring poker player. My adivce is to play hands, play hands, and play even more hands because reading will only get you so far.

As far as playing, to start out just go to some freerolls and use it to hone your skills on how "you" want to play your hands. Note: 99% of the time the freerolls is not what you will see in real poker. Then slowly move up when you think you got a good grasp to build a bankroll. Dont go up to far though or one bad beat will send you back down to the bottom.

Finally, get feedback on hands you think you played well, you think you played wrong, and you arent sure on. Like Vic said you could have days where you play very well and get crappy results, or you play crappy and get every miracle card you can think of (just ask Jamie Gold when he won the wsop). Now the key is to win the battle of mistakes because everyone makes them...well except Phil Hellmuth. Now in the case of having a bad streak, just take a few days off to regroup for a few days and you should be fine

Hope this helps your game and good luck at the tables.
 
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