Which study:play ratio is better?

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Mdf1992

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Hey y'all, hope everyone had a good 4th of July.

I had a question about the study to play ratio as a somewhat beginner.

I started playing only 1 or 2 months ago. I've been playing on ignition, 2c/5c. My plan was to deposit $50/week ($5-$7 per day) and to plan on losing that money on a weekly basis (for a while until I get better) in exchange for learning.

So the first day, I busted in like 5 minutes. The second day, busted in like 10-15 minutes. The third day, busted in like 30 minutes or an hour, and then reloaded an extra few bucks (I gave myself a few dollar buffer each day in case I wanted to re-load) and was able to stick in there for a few hours. By the 4th and fifth day, I made some small profits. And ever since then, I have been cutting around even or even making a bit of profit.

This was really cool to see, as I expected it would take a lot longer to be able to "hang", even at these low stakes. But even only after playing for 1-2 months, I truly feel that I can "hang", and frankly outplay, my opponents (aka be more patient and disciplined, basically. lol).

ANYWAY, on to the question!

Okay so given my experience (as a beginner), I hear that it's good to stick to something like 75%/25% study to play ratio. I truly want to respect this and keep this, and even when I get better, I want to keep studying as a large percentage of my study to play ratio.

Now here's the question: Would it be better for me to study 3 hours and play for 1 hour (keeping to a proper ratio), or to study 3 hours and play 3 hours? Let's assume that I'm not going to study any more than 3 hours per day. My question is basically do you think that I should only play that 1 hour so as to keep the ratio proper, or do you think that because no matter what, I won't be studying more than 3 hours per day (that's about all I can handle), I might as well play some extra hours?

Does that make sense?

My intuition tells me that I might as well keep playing those extra hours? Or maybe not because maybe I want to save my energy, for instance, for the next day to make sure my study session is clear-minded.

If anyone made it this far, thanks for reading, and I appreciate any input!

Cheers,
Mark
 
eetenor

eetenor

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Mdf1992 said:
Hey y'all, hope everyone had a good 4th of July.

I had a question about the study to play ratio as a somewhat beginner.

I started playing only 1 or 2 months ago. I've been playing on Ignition, 2c/5c. My plan was to deposit $50/week ($5-$7 per day) and to plan on losing that money on a weekly basis (for a while until I get better) in exchange for learning.

So the first day, I busted in like 5 minutes. The second day, busted in like 10-15 minutes. The third day, busted in like 30 minutes or an hour, and then reloaded an extra few bucks (I gave myself a few dollar buffer each day in case I wanted to re-load) and was able to stick in there for a few hours. By the 4th and fifth day, I made some small profits. And ever since then, I have been cutting around even or even making a bit of profit.

This was really cool to see, as I expected it would take a lot longer to be able to "hang", even at these low stakes. But even only after playing for 1-2 months, I truly feel that I can "hang", and frankly outplay, my opponents (aka be more patient and disciplined, basically. lol).

ANYWAY, on to the question!

Okay so given my experience (as a beginner), I hear that it's good to stick to something like 75%/25% study to play ratio. I truly want to respect this and keep this, and even when I get better, I want to keep studying as a large percentage of my study to play ratio.

Now here's the question: Would it be better for me to study 3 hours and play for 1 hour (keeping to a proper ratio), or to study 3 hours and play 3 hours? Let's assume that I'm not going to study any more than 3 hours per day. My question is basically do you think that I should only play that 1 hour so as to keep the ratio proper, or do you think that because no matter what, I won't be studying more than 3 hours per day (that's about all I can handle), I might as well play some extra hours?

Does that make sense?

My intuition tells me that I might as well keep playing those extra hours? Or maybe not because maybe I want to save my energy, for instance, for the next day to make sure my study session is clear-minded.

If anyone made it this far, thanks for reading, and I appreciate any input!

Cheers,
Mark
Click to expand...


Thank U for Posting

So if you are working 5 days a week at poker you would only be putting in 5 hrs of play. If you assume 100 hands an hour that is 500 hands a week we would reach 10,000 hands in twenty weeks. That is very slow progress.

We will not be in enough situations over that time to really progress as a player, so the 3 hrs of learning a day will not be that beneficial.

I would use a review my hands find weaknesses study how to fix that weakness type of plan to grow. Which would be more play vs study at times. Then each time I feel I am ready to move to the next level of play it becomes more study days no play those days.

Hope this helps
:):)
 
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Transitley

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Hello Mate,

My opinion is that you can only take in so much information before you then need to go and implement it to get it to stick. That way it becomes second nature and you will react in the right manner when the situation arises in future. As a beginner, as I am, I reckon a 1:1 ratio is good - sometimes I play more when feeling fresh and energised and study when feeling a bit more tired and able to think clearly.

That said, I studied the 30 day course straight through in 3 days with no play (still only a few hrs in total) and then go back to sections that I want to improve, along with studying loads of books, videos and forums.

I guess your study will change too, to hand analysis which is much more specific - I've not go that far on yet but reckon that must take some time to pick through trends and data,

Right, best get back to the books!
 
perrypip

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It's not enough to study and memorize. You must practise and internalize. There are many specific spots to become familiar with. Based on hand analysis of online play it was found the average player needs about 100,000 hands to become profitable.

You say you have $50 per week of 'tuition' to lose as you learn, and you're playing NL5. Let's say you have loss rate of -20BB/100. That's one dollar per 100 hands, so you could play about 5000 hands per week.

That's about 50 hours of play on a single cash table playing 100 hands/hr. If you play the zone poker you can play up 400 hands per hour, so maybe about 12 hours per week.

If your loss rate is bigger than that than I suggest play money and/or free rolls. But I think if you get preflop ranges right and learn a little bit of aggression you should be able to do better than -20BB/100, assuming you're not getting tilted every time you lose a pot.
 
Vallet

Vallet

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You spend more time studying and this is the right thing to do. Do not sit down at the poker table after training if you are tired. Sometimes I just read books and articles.Additional time should be spent analyzing the hands you have played.
 
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freeisfun

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Poker is a high variance game as a beginner you should use bankroll management at least 50buyins for cash games at whatever stake your playing. So at $.02/.05 you should have$250 . If you're playing to learn the game and don't mind redeposit ing countless times than bankroll management doesn't apply.
 
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