the whole poker concept is starting to click for me, new view

D

Dingodaddy23

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I'm basically writing this for me, as I like to put thoughts down in writing, helps reinforce it in my mind, and for you all to see and maybe point out flaws in my thinking or even help you out with your game.

I think this game as a WHOLE is starting to click in my head. Should have a long time ago, I mean, I always KNEW these things, just disregarded a lot of it. Not just the playing the cards part, becaues I've always been confident in that and never really doubted my abilities as a player, but all the things it takes to be a consistently winning player, such as bankroll management, tilt control.

No more whining about bad beats, ever. Ive finally realized that all moaning accomplishes is making u feel worse, and makes you make worse plays. And nobody cares. I may still post a beat that cost me in a tourney sometimes, but It wont be a moan post.

Tilt Control- Recently I've been good about not tilting. If I start playing and the cards mess with me alot, I just quit and play later. Also not playing way over my bankroll helps this a lot. I think a lot of the times I tilted before, a big reason was because the money mattered a lot to me and I felt like I was "screwed" and started pressing to get it back. Im finding walking away easier than it was before, like the other day first hand of a sng i got AA all in preflop and got ran down by AK, then next tourney I flopped a set of aces only to get ran down by runner runner flush by a guy drawing to a 8 high flush, and I just closed the laptop and said screw it. Came back later that night and placed in 3 out of 5 sng's.

Bankroll Management- I'm really serious about properly managing my roll this time around. When i built up that 4k on stars, I cashed out a much needed 2500 and tried to built it back back up quick as possible playing 10/20 limit. One night ran into someone who was extremely good. He was playing way UNDER his roll and constantly 3 bet-capped everything. He got on a real lucky run of cards and had me seriously tilting to the point of calling him down with Q high and things like that, and he always seem to know when I had it and never paid me off, seriously he had me tilted so hard I didn't even realize how much money he was taking from me. Learned a much needed lesson though. Recently party gave me 25 bucks to play with, which I grinded out to about 150 playing 6$ 20 man sng's, and am now sitting at about 600 dollars after a week. Yes, I did cut a few corners in the BR management to get there but now I can play for respectable stakes (20$ sng's for now). I basically got the bulk of it in a 77$ SNG which I took down. I did that because grinding 6 dollar sng's is very unpleasant to me. And what I notice is the 20$ sng's on party are WAAAAY easier for me than they used to be. I dunno if i'm just a lot better than I used to be a few months ago when I played those alot or there are alot more donks, but I see some REALLY bad plays in these, and once you get down to 5 handed or less, they are mostly weak-tight, just good enough to get there, just bad enough to be easy to read. they'll usually let you know when they've got a hand and when they don't, and are easy to bluff out of pots on things like 4-flushes or straights or just raising the flop when u think they missed, and believe me they'll let you know if they have an opair, they'll usually rock an all in with any overpair.. a lot of them dont understand basic push or fold situations. I find the 20's to be extremely easy thus far.


Goals I have.

-In 20$ SNG's, ITM% of at least 30%. I think this is easily doable.
-Final Table a party guarantee tournament
-Only move up in levels when I have at least 20 buy-ins for that level. My plan is not to withdraw until I reach the required amount for $55 dollar sng's, and then withdraw 2/3 of any profit and leave 1/3 to the bankroll each month
-Not to play cash NL, I think losing large sum's of money on a single hand tilts me, and a lot of plays that I use successfully in tournaments simply do not work in low stakes cash games where stacks aren't deep and tourney lives aren't on the line.
-And one last goal is to always analyze my play and situations that arise during a game. To always improve. I think on this forum we should start posting more hand histories, I respect the thoughts on strategy on a lot of the members here, such as Fish and Chuck. And I also think a lot of us have different strengths and can help each other fill leaks in our game. Like Chuck, you're way too tight!!! not that it's a bad thing at all, sometimes i'm way too loose and it costs me. Plus you're way better than me in cash games, I mean I've never been really good in cash no limit, it frustrates me alot, you're good at keeping control I think you would go a lot further in some of the MTT's you've posted about if you took a few calculated gambles at certain points. The way I see it is you're gonna have to get lucky a few times to make a final table, sometimes you just gotta stick your chips in there, and Fish you're overall just great player, I respect your opinions on strategy alot.:cool:


When everyone posts hand histories, you should leave out the results of the hand until people look it over and try to read the hand, its a good excercise for hand reading which is HUGE to your improvement as a player.

oh yeah, one final thing, to Rob - hey no bad feelings between us, ur right i do moan alot, your post is one of the things that inspired me to rethink my whole poker metagame. But you were kinda rude about it, but its no biggie.
 
Kenzie 96

Kenzie 96

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Nice post, sounds like you are thinking soundly,good luck. Leaving out the results when posting hand histories is something that FP has recommended before. Good idea.
 
robwhufc

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Dingodaddy23 said:
oh yeah, one final thing, to Rob - hey no bad feelings between us, ur right i do moan alot, your post is one of the things that inspired me to rethink my whole poker metagame. But you were kinda rude about it, but its no biggie.
Er, glad i could help :eek: .

Your post pretty much sums up my poker experience so far in my 14 months of playing. It took me a few days to realise i was better than the average player, but a lot longer to realise i wasn't the best. Like you, the turning point is when you realise the reason you suffer so many bad beats is that you're a good player, and therefore more likely to be at showdown with the best hand than a bad player. I just laugh them off now, and dont feel like my money has been "stolen" when some moron has pulled off an improbable suckout - they will have their day, and you'll never get the money back, but they'll lose long term whilst you win.

(PS, great post - the best i've read for a month plus).
 
AlurOne

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nice post dingo. good idea to write your thoughts - it helps to crystalize your thinking during play.

its a great feeling when all of a sudden you feel like you "get it", regardless of what you're trying to get better at. good luck!

:)
 
Nitram_80

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I agree with that bad beats will happen and you just have to deal with it. A few weeks ago I was always talking about my bad beats but now I just move on . I used to always insult the fish after they gave me a bad beat but now I just stay quiet and hope they stay in the room. I on the other hand prefer NL cash games and thats where I make my money mostly. It doest hurt when you lose your whole stack in 1 play but its a great thing when the opposite happens. Good post.
 
JeeDub84

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Great post Dingo. I really agree with you on the bad beats. You must forget about them(except for the opponents hand) so that you can move on and improve your overall game. I also want to mention that you must have a higher goal in the $20 SNG's than 30%. With only getting in the money 30% of the time you are setting a goal to lose money. Say you did 100 $20 SNG's you are investing $2000 and paying $200 in Vig. With 30% if you place 3rd all the time you are losing $1000, 2nd all the time you lose $400 total and with all 1st place finishes you will win $800 overall. Now I know you will not place the same every time, but you need to set a goal of min. 60% in the money to see any real profit or not lose money consistenly on these games. I hope you take serious thought on this and do some calculations of your own so you can see what I mean.
 
buckster436

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Nice post Dingo,, hope the notes help ya,, theres lots more to poker than many realize, i been playing since i was about 12 or 14 yrs. old, now im 61 and I still dont know it all, and never will, but notes is a good idea,
buck:cool: :hello:
 
ChuckTs

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Sounds like you've experienced a poker epiphony! Something I really need right now...

Dingodaddy23 said:
Like Chuck, you're way too tight!!!

I think I agree with you here Dingo - As i've been analyzing my games a whole lot more in the recent past, I've realized that almost every MTT I play, I bust in the middle-late stages because I have a small stack. I don't switch gears early enough. All the MTTs I've placed high in have been a result of me getting a good run of cards in that stage of the tournament and then playing the game I'm most comfortable with: loose aggressive and dominating the table. I of course can only do this when I have a big stack.

Thanks for your point of view Dingo - I appreciate it ;)

It sounds like you have acquired a new perspective on poker; one that all of us know about, but haven't yet truly understood. Everyone's heard that you have to focus only on your current decision at hand, and that if you are playing sound poker every hand, then you will profit in the long run, but we haven't experienced the true meaning of this, and it's still just 'advice' to us.

I'm planning on reading some Sklansky and maybe Harrington books in the near future so I can possibly get my own "poker epiphony" ;)
 
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