Weregoat
Visionary
Silver Level
Warning - This is a long post. I want to be a winning B&M player and will discuss my plan. All comments/questions/suggestions will be welcome. Thanks in advance.
I am a career minus player. However my game has come very far since I've begun. I believe now I can be a career plus player, and I have a plan in effect to attain the goal.
I would like some advise. So far we have this:
Stability + BRM + Rules/Limits + Play what you're good at + ? = Success?
1. Stability - First off, I have gambled out of neccessity before. To be honest, it worked out very poorly for me. I'd say I was a problem gambler. I learned that at the $1/3 NL game at my favorite casino (unfortunately forced buy-in of $80) - I could get MAD ACTION. Which worked out well, I got my money in with the best of it a lot, but ultimately I needed to leave plus - which meant when I was running bad I'd buy in over and over again, tilting me further, more poor decisions = more unpaid bills. I have a plan in effect - the new GI Bill for California will allow me a certain amount of money for rent, tuition, and books. With a roommate or two I'll have plenty left over to live on, and with my current deployment money, I'll have enough for a car and some extra expenses to float on, and a potential part time job if poker doesn't work out. I will not be gambling out of neccessity, as a matter of fact, I'll have a seperate account set up for my bankroll, which brings me to bankroll management.
2. BRM - Yup. Everybody swears by it. I recently set up two seperate bankroll accounts through my bank. The checking account will begin with $6000, and the savings account - with funds not to be touched for poker will be $600. This is all for live games, mind you. I find that online has it's pros and cons - pros - always action, can find a game any reasonable limit at any time. Can hit and run, find the fish and eat'em up, etc - But your funds are not liquid. If I run up my $6600 into $8000, I can't get a slice of the profits until the check reaches me, and then until that check reaches the bank, and the check clears. I will be focusing on live because the whole ordeal works in cold hard cash, and I don't trust an internet company deliberately outside the US Jurisdiction with several thousand dollars. When I'm up a certain amount, I'll set aside a certain amount of money, a discretionary percentage. I sit at a table, buy in once ($300), make a couple of buy-ins, get up, go to the gym, get something to eat. Put 30% into my profits account never to be touched for poker again. Which brings me to rules (or limits).
3. Rules/Limits - Setting aside a portion of my winnings - I decided my BR, whatever it is, should not be the sole place where I put my winnings. Some arbitrary amount should be set aside. Because I'm vulnerable to go on tilt. I've done it MANY times before, and don't want to lose everything, should I lose my whole BR. If I have rules set in place so that when I'm up X Buy-Ins and the table starts to dry out, cash out, go to the gym, go get something to eat, etc. Then come back and buy-in again should I feel so inclined. Only lose X Buy-ins in a session (3?). I'd consider a 3 Buy-In dump to be substantial, regardless of the limit, and would definitely put me on tilt. If I get up and walk, I get some time to cool off, analyse my mistakes, etc.
4. Play what I'm good at - I'm really good at NL Hold'em, especially at a B&M. I won't say I pick up a lot of tells, because that's - well, not entirely true. But I generally can figure a recreational player out pretty well, and a lot of regs. And in paper I can talk my way through hands, outloud. And I can do it while representing a hand better than my actual hand. EG - Board reads ATQ8 rainbow on the turn. I have QT, villian bets 8 on the turn. "Let's see. You check/called the flop, which says to me J9, which means you have the weak end of the straight, and you need me to pair my K to chop this pot, so I'll raise you all-in." It's worked before. And it has yet to sting me. It's a move I do very rarely, I guess I could call it a 'salesman bluff', but on occaison I do the same thing with a made hand.
I guess that's all I've got for now. If I focus on a game I can beat, like . . . taking tourists and recs money, I'm sure I can set aside a decent enough amount, and play some tournies on the side - no use being a one trick pony . . . a $40 buy-in tourney can save a lot of trauma to the BR when you're card dead. And as I have my sights set at the wsop main event 2011 and 2012, some tournaments certainly wouldn't hurt my plans.
Summary - Sorry for the long posts, I have a habit of doing such things -
Basically I want to play poker indefinitely, and take enough out of it to have money to . . . make a car payment here and there, expand my BR, buy a set of drums, take a cute girl from class out and have something entertaining to talk about should she wonder how I live my life the way I do. So I need to be successful. I know this site has a lot of successful players, and I'm opening up for pointers, however small, to maybe achieve these goals.
Oh ya! A circle of my friends back home have a homegame every weekend. The level of play there is ussually a bit higher than the average B&M, and the stakes are smaller, so I can go there and have them pick apart my game. Also I plan on sitting with them at tables from time to time and discuss the sessions and various leaks in our games together (where as when i played out of need I was flying solo, and ussually on tilt).
Phew. Thoughts/suggestions/questions? Thans in advance for all comments (again).
WG
I am a career minus player. However my game has come very far since I've begun. I believe now I can be a career plus player, and I have a plan in effect to attain the goal.
I would like some advise. So far we have this:
Stability + BRM + Rules/Limits + Play what you're good at + ? = Success?
1. Stability - First off, I have gambled out of neccessity before. To be honest, it worked out very poorly for me. I'd say I was a problem gambler. I learned that at the $1/3 NL game at my favorite casino (unfortunately forced buy-in of $80) - I could get MAD ACTION. Which worked out well, I got my money in with the best of it a lot, but ultimately I needed to leave plus - which meant when I was running bad I'd buy in over and over again, tilting me further, more poor decisions = more unpaid bills. I have a plan in effect - the new GI Bill for California will allow me a certain amount of money for rent, tuition, and books. With a roommate or two I'll have plenty left over to live on, and with my current deployment money, I'll have enough for a car and some extra expenses to float on, and a potential part time job if poker doesn't work out. I will not be gambling out of neccessity, as a matter of fact, I'll have a seperate account set up for my bankroll, which brings me to bankroll management.
2. BRM - Yup. Everybody swears by it. I recently set up two seperate bankroll accounts through my bank. The checking account will begin with $6000, and the savings account - with funds not to be touched for poker will be $600. This is all for live games, mind you. I find that online has it's pros and cons - pros - always action, can find a game any reasonable limit at any time. Can hit and run, find the fish and eat'em up, etc - But your funds are not liquid. If I run up my $6600 into $8000, I can't get a slice of the profits until the check reaches me, and then until that check reaches the bank, and the check clears. I will be focusing on live because the whole ordeal works in cold hard cash, and I don't trust an internet company deliberately outside the US Jurisdiction with several thousand dollars. When I'm up a certain amount, I'll set aside a certain amount of money, a discretionary percentage. I sit at a table, buy in once ($300), make a couple of buy-ins, get up, go to the gym, get something to eat. Put 30% into my profits account never to be touched for poker again. Which brings me to rules (or limits).
3. Rules/Limits - Setting aside a portion of my winnings - I decided my BR, whatever it is, should not be the sole place where I put my winnings. Some arbitrary amount should be set aside. Because I'm vulnerable to go on tilt. I've done it MANY times before, and don't want to lose everything, should I lose my whole BR. If I have rules set in place so that when I'm up X Buy-Ins and the table starts to dry out, cash out, go to the gym, go get something to eat, etc. Then come back and buy-in again should I feel so inclined. Only lose X Buy-ins in a session (3?). I'd consider a 3 Buy-In dump to be substantial, regardless of the limit, and would definitely put me on tilt. If I get up and walk, I get some time to cool off, analyse my mistakes, etc.
4. Play what I'm good at - I'm really good at NL Hold'em, especially at a B&M. I won't say I pick up a lot of tells, because that's - well, not entirely true. But I generally can figure a recreational player out pretty well, and a lot of regs. And in paper I can talk my way through hands, outloud. And I can do it while representing a hand better than my actual hand. EG - Board reads ATQ8 rainbow on the turn. I have QT, villian bets 8 on the turn. "Let's see. You check/called the flop, which says to me J9, which means you have the weak end of the straight, and you need me to pair my K to chop this pot, so I'll raise you all-in." It's worked before. And it has yet to sting me. It's a move I do very rarely, I guess I could call it a 'salesman bluff', but on occaison I do the same thing with a made hand.
I guess that's all I've got for now. If I focus on a game I can beat, like . . . taking tourists and recs money, I'm sure I can set aside a decent enough amount, and play some tournies on the side - no use being a one trick pony . . . a $40 buy-in tourney can save a lot of trauma to the BR when you're card dead. And as I have my sights set at the wsop main event 2011 and 2012, some tournaments certainly wouldn't hurt my plans.
Summary - Sorry for the long posts, I have a habit of doing such things -
Basically I want to play poker indefinitely, and take enough out of it to have money to . . . make a car payment here and there, expand my BR, buy a set of drums, take a cute girl from class out and have something entertaining to talk about should she wonder how I live my life the way I do. So I need to be successful. I know this site has a lot of successful players, and I'm opening up for pointers, however small, to maybe achieve these goals.
Oh ya! A circle of my friends back home have a homegame every weekend. The level of play there is ussually a bit higher than the average B&M, and the stakes are smaller, so I can go there and have them pick apart my game. Also I plan on sitting with them at tables from time to time and discuss the sessions and various leaks in our games together (where as when i played out of need I was flying solo, and ussually on tilt).
Phew. Thoughts/suggestions/questions? Thans in advance for all comments (again).
WG