How much time to study?

hubcio96

hubcio96

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I'm an aspiring recreational player who is tired to be on the wrong site of the earnings. How much study time you suppose to spend on average for each our f playing cash or tourney? I spend money on tools (HM3, Range wizard, Leak buster), but I don't spend quality time studying it. I'm about to readjust my poker strategy and create a 2021 road map to decide if I'm going to be a serious recreational (non-professional) player, or keep it just a "fun" at micro stakes. What is your studying strategy?
 
Katie Dozier

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This definitely depends on how much free time you have in general of course and if your goal is to become a winning player or the bigger feat of becoming a pro that supports yourself by playing—but I doubt that “it depends” is exactly the answer you’re looking for so I’ll try to be more specific :)

When I was learning to play, I spent significantly more time studying than playing. Essentially I thought of it as though studying was like normal school time and playing was like having a test. (Which was appropriate given that I was in college at the time lol.)

I’d recommend beginning studying by making a detailed list/schedule of which concepts you plan to spend time on and when. As you go on, you’ll naturally find that some concepts take longer or less time than you initially planned for—and that’s okay. Just keep plugging along, spending dramatically more time studying than playing and you’ll get there!

Best of luck to you! :)
 
ObbleeXY

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I spend money on tools (HM3, Range wizard, Leak buster), but I don't spend quality time studying it. I'm about to readjust my poker strategy and create a 2021 road map to decide if I'm going to be a serious recreational (non-professional) player, or keep it just a "fun" at micro stakes. What is your studying strategy?

Interesting that you are spending cash on tools. I cannot yet justify the cost as the stakes I play are sufficiently low as to make it not cost effective. But perhaps when I play more often or at higher stakes that is worth it. For now, I seek out the free or trial s/w.

Whether you intend to get serious or not, I recommend you to make sure you keep it fun. Poker is not your friend when it isn't fun.


Your plan to create a roadmap is good. Plan your work, then work your plan.
In your plan, be sure to include the following:

Preparation activities - the sorts of things you do outside of the game to make sure you are in the best shape to win. This means sleeping well, eating well, getting exercise and all that stuff. So get 8 hours, 3 squares and 30mins of walking min.

Practice - like one of our pros said in the thread, playing should be considered a test of your work. (Or, as Evan calls it, practice). This is the time and place where we take the opportunity to try some new things and build on what we've learnt.

Before/After your session - don't make it about poker. Enjoy some time before you play doing other stuff you like (to get your head in the right place). And immediately after your sessions, give yourself some time away from poker. (e.g. don't review immediately)

Review - Make sure you go back and review some or all of your hands. Look for leaks. If you have a HUD like HM3, you can right click the hands as they're scraped/exported from your Poker App into HM3 database, and label them for review (or bad beats or bluffs or suckouts). Replay the hands and ask yourself how you might have - extracted more money (if you won) or minimised your losses (if you lost). If you cannot identify the weaknesses, load a hand up to CC and ask the group for help.

Research - spend some time reading and researching. By this, I mean like the CC site, PokerCoaching.com, or reading the myriad of books available. Generally, I would not call watching a stream of your favourite pro study, unless you are planning to play off against them. If you are keeping a database of opponents, seek out the regs on your favourite poker room and watch them play. If you come across regs often (e.g. in a certain game you like), this can provide awesome info which you can use to identify mistakes and then exploit them later.

Evan also talked about trying to put longer gaps in between your review of your stats. The reason is that stats take a long time to get going consistently in the right direction. Variance will affect them. Trying new things will affect them. All your hard work will affect it.

OK, so now we've talked about what goes into your study, now you can talk about how much time you want to spend.
A pro might spend hours per day doing this (or so I'm told). Others will say this is an absurd expectation for a recreational player.

I'm just a rec who has a similar attitude to yours. I want to win, but I have no intention of going pro. (I'll pretend the reason is having a well-paid job rather than being a million miles from being a pro!). Still, I probably spend:
- an hour a day on CC.
- an hour a day reading/researching,
- an hour a day exercising (this includes just walking the dog) and on average,
- an hour a day playing poker. (Now, I don't play poker every day, but I do try to exercise, sleep, eat, get on CC and read every day. )

So that is basically a part-time job adding up to 25-30 hours per week.

Start with something achievable. Schedule it. Stick to the schedule.

Since I started this, I'm only up less than two hundred bucks (not including satellite wins which is maybe a couple hundred bucks worth there too). But I was down $25 per week before this. So now at least, I can play my favourite game essentially for free, with the chance of getting a few good pay-outs.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,
ObbleeXY
 
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hubcio96

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I’d recommend beginning studying by making a detailed list/schedule of which concepts you plan to spend time on and when. As you go on, you’ll naturally find that some concepts take longer or less time than you initially planned for—and that’s okay.

Best of luck to you! :)


That is the advice I heard so may times, and yet, I get so excited and ready to "jump in", I want to learn everything. One of the mistakes I did, was to learn the "exploitive" concepts before even getting the simples GTO concepts. So, this 2021 year, trying forget the awful 2020, here is my plan. Learn 2-3 concepts per month (as some of them go hand in hand) Monday-Tuesday, "study", Wednesday "midterm", Thursday Friday learning, Saturday "final exam". Sunday - Optional (Family time). Week two, further conceptualization of concept form previous week, and dabbing into the next concept. Every six weeks, take a week off with a reward for great work would be weekend tournament ($10-$30 entry, pending how well I did "studying").
 
hubcio96

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Your plan to create a roadmap is good. Plan your work, then work your plan.

ObbleeXY



Love that quote - but its nice toe be reminded once in a while.
From you well written and thought out post I got three major thing - balance, quality and purpose.
Have fun playing, it, but don't play just for fun - have a purpose, goals, and strive be serious about reaching them. Nothing wrong with playing just for fun, but for what I'm trying top achieve, it will require some "blood and sweat."
 
Katie Dozier

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That is the advice I heard so may times, and yet, I get so excited and ready to "jump in", I want to learn everything. One of the mistakes I did, was to learn the "exploitive" concepts before even getting the simples GTO concepts. So, this 2021 year, trying forget the awful 2020, here is my plan. Learn 2-3 concepts per month (as some of them go hand in hand) Monday-Tuesday, "study", Wednesday "midterm", Thursday Friday learning, Saturday "final exam". Sunday - Optional (Family time). Week two, further conceptualization of concept form previous week, and dabbing into the next concept. Every six weeks, take a week off with a reward for great work would be weekend tournament ($10-$30 entry, pending how well I did "studying").


This sounds like a great, realistic plan! Hope it goes very well for you—especially during the “exams” :)
 
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in my opinion, it is advisable to look for and act on a poker team, especially for beginners. That's because you can evolve the game in a short time. This tip also applies to those who already have advanced experience and intend to dedicate themselves more and more to learning the techniques.

The teams offer classes and support materials, such as videos, training, informative texts, etc. In addition, they also serve as a great incentive to create a network of contacts with players of different levels.

And, without a doubt, having a community is a great differentiator to achieve even more dexterity in the game. So socialize and exchange poker ideas with people who are also looking to learn
 
DorJel7504

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I’d recommend beginning studying by making a detailed list/schedule of which concepts you plan to spend time on and when. As you go on, you’ll naturally find that some concepts take longer or less time than you initially planned for—and that’s okay. Just keep plugging along, spending dramatically more time studying than playing and you’ll get there!

Best of luck to you! :)

You're the first person that I've heard say it this way, which makes sense to me. But I'm always hearing people say that the more hands you play, the better you get.

Did you study poker and play the same amount of hours that you studied, or did you study much more then you played?
 
DorJel7504

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in my opinion, it is advisable to look for and act on a poker team, especially for beginners. That's because you can evolve the game in a short time. This tip also applies to those who already have advanced experience and intend to dedicate themselves more and more to learning the techniques.


Are there any poker teams that you'd suggest a newcomer should try out first, or do you think just searching online be a good place to start?
 
thwenth1983

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Study vs practice

Good morning everyone, I usually watch on the thwitch the player delepo10, who is a player who won more than $ 260k in Mtts this year.
He used to say that study is important, but he hardly studies and practices a lot, he spends many hours playing, as the saying goes, practice makes perfect.
And of course you have to study, which ranges to play from each position, which range you can play by call or 3bet, you need to study when to call 3bet, how many blinds can I call from, depending on the stack you have to go All in direct, the more the practice is much more important.
An information that helped me a lot, in the micros, the vast majority of the fild of the check when it misses and bet when it hits, play your hand according to the value it has and don't keep hunting bleff.
Studying 1 hour a day I believe it is ok, in my opinion.
 
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