Studying

Hi Everyone,

There has been a lot thrown around here about ranges, reads, etc. lately. I also see a lot of posts about 'just spell it out for me' and have been VERY guilty of that myself.

Spoon made a recent post about the psycology of why we aren't improving. I wanted to take a slightly different tangent. I am working to improve and will get better, but I want to maximize my studying time for best results. I am having trouble understanding a bit of the math (and this is a bit frustrating). I am working to grasp some of the posts, studying hand histories, etc. but it just doesn't seem to be coming quickly enough.

What I would like to know is... how do you study? What methods of study have proven most effective for you, personally? Was there a studying methodology that suddenly made it 'click' for you?

I'm willing to do the work, I just want to do it effectively... suggestions appreciated...

Monty

Don't move forward till you've mastered one topic. This is especially important in math because more advanced topics will just become overwhelming without solid understanding of the basics since basic concepts are the root of more difficult problems. If you master the basics and then move up to the tougher stuff, the so called 'tougher stuff' isn't really all that tough to begin with.

Methods that make it click: Repitition. As boring as it sounds, and in fact as time consuming as it sounds, reading about something you just aren't getting multiple times is the only way for it to sink in. I've read some sections in books/articles/magazines too many times to count. It's worth it though, even if I had to spend hours of my potential poker playing time reading a book. Your BR will thank you.

Best thing to do is take it slow, master one concept at a time, re-read over things you already know - this will boost confidence as well. Don't feel like you have to learn everything there is about poker in one hour, because you can't.

In the end the more you put in, the more you get out. Don't rush, focus on understanding the most basic principles before jumping into anything over your head. If poker math is troubling you, start reviewing the most basic principles of it like drawing odds and pot odds examples. Master those, move up, repeat cycle. I hope reading this helps a bit, I'm sure you will benefit from other replies.

Oh yeah one more thing:

I am working to grasp some of the posts, studying hand histories, etc. but it just doesn't seem to be coming quickly enough.

This is good, your working hard and trying to piece everything together. It's not going to come quickly at all so don't expect it to. The more time you spend though, the faster it will all sink in. Think of it this way, an extra 5 hours of study a week is an extra 20 hours a month. If you decided not to keep studying during this time, 20 hours of your month has gone to something else, therefore something else will develop, and poker development will be slower.

To sum it up: your doing the right thing by continuously studying - just keep doing it.

Here are a few starting places:

- Why do you do each betting action?
- How do you figure out analytically if a betting action is correct?
- How does a player's ranges affect the above?

You could try reading a couple books to get started. Something like NLHT&P gives you things to think about that you may not be aware of (from an analytical standpoint)

As for studying HH, I'm pretty bad at it myself so don't have a ton of experience. You could take a hand you got confused on, and see what your equity was, compare it vs some other hands, then vs the range.

You don't really have to delve into complicated theory at 10NL. Your money comes from playing better hands than your opponents and them being unable to fold; 3betting is minimal, you don't need to balance ranges, etc.

It's my belief that you need experience first. If you've only played 10-20k hands you don't know what kind of hands other people play because you haven't seen it (especially the lol play at micros). I would mostly play now, ask about one or two confusing hands and see where your thinking is "wrong"

<<<noob juicing the pot.

Was thinking about this today. Eeirie!

I think with math the answer is always obtainable and logical. They are numbers at the end of the day and you dont have to try to read between the lines like in other areas. With other areas that we want to accelerate our development in, its seems to me that its going to be intangible much of time.

With regard to my thoughts earlier, so far I have been online approx 90mins, read quite a few threads, sent some emails not even opened a poker room which is good if this is what i planned to achieve today, however I only wanted to play a couple of sng's and i'm fucking around on forums!!

I think a poker time table is in order for my personal learning to add sturcture to what i want to work on. As, if i cant even log on to play a couple of sngs wtf are WE thinking im like when i say to myself yeah rolla we gonna study poker now. yeah.. i'm playing sngs and streaming porn instead.