Your Approach to Improving Sucks (Chick Pic Inside)
The typical BC hand history is usually accompanied by something like, "wow I screwed up here." Then everyone says, "yeah you really screwed up here," and then it's left alone to die in the bowels of the Beginner's Circle along with a few hundred or thousand other shitty threads that no one learned shit from. The worst part is that you most likely aren't getting anything out of the posting of the hand in the first place because you never achieve any depth as to why you were making the mistakes you were making in the hand. The bottom line is that the problem isn't solved (or even acknowledged), and in a few days or weeks you'll post another hand where you're making the exact same types of mistakes, and you'll wonder why you aren't getting anywhere quickly in poker. So here let's figure out the why.
In one such thread, I replied with a link to this thread http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...es-t80178.html and suggested that OP do some actual analysis on the plays made and form some ranges for his opponent on each street. OP replied with a much better explanation of the hand than he originally posted in the thread, but prefaced the post with "I suck at ranges."
And this made a light bulb go off in my head. This comment gave away something about OP's attitude towards learning Because you suffer from a really shitty state of mind (and as a result, approach) to working on this, I'm going to help you out. But first, check out this chick:
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/2...ldweck2ay1.jpg
This is Carol Dweck. She's a professor of Psychology at Stanford, and she's pretty damn smart. Her research shows that if you say something like "I suck at ______" then when you were young, your parents and/or teachers probably forced you into being what she calls an "Entity Theorist". Our goal is to make a change to you having what she refers to as an Incremental View. Here's the difference.
Somewhere in South Dakota, little Johnny comes home and shows his dad that he made an A+ on a math test, his dad probably says, "OH YEAH MY LITTLE JOHNNY IS SO SMART WOOT!" Then the next week when little Johnny comes home and shows his dad that he made a D on an English test, his dad probably says, "YEAH YOUR MOM WAS NEVER GOOD AT ENGLISH SO IT'S PROBABLY NOT YOUR THING." This creates the notion that intelligence is a fixed entity, and does a lot of crazy shit to you that will manifest itself in lots of different ways. For our purposes, we're looking at someone saying "I suck at ranges" and then shying away from really working hard at getting better at dealing with ranges.
Now let's say little Johnny has a girlfriend named little Susie. When little Susie comes home and shows her mom that she made an A+ on a math test, her mom probably says, "OH YEAH MY LITTLE SUSIE WORKED SO HARD STUDYING FOR THIS TEST WOOT!". Then the next week when little Susie comes home and shows her mom that she made a D on an English test, her mom probably says, "WELL IF YOU STUDY MORE AND WORK HARD YOU'LL DO BETTER NEXT TIME." This creates the notion that intelligence is not a fixed entity, but instead something that can (and should) be improved with hard work.
Years later, little Susie grows some C-cups and starts hanging on on FTR posting 5nl hand histories and pictures of her ass. Little Johnny decides he'll start playing 5nl also. Someone tells little Susie in one of her hand history posts that she should put her opponent on a range. Little Susie tries to put her opponent on a range, and fails miserably. There is no feeling of the ego being hurt and no reason to back down from the challenge. Instead, little Susie is motivated and excited by the challenge and works her ass off getting better at putting people on ranges.
In a different 5nl post the same day, someone tells little Johnny that he should put his opponents on a range. He prefaces his reply with "Well I suck at ranges", notes multiple times during his half-assed attempt that he "sucks at ranges", and then finally ends his reply with "I suck at ranges." Because of his previous experiences, little Johnny is convinced that he sucks at ranges because he wasn't good at it the first time he tried.
Six months later, little Susie runs 6 ptbb/100 at 100nl over 50,000 hands, and little Johnny is breaking even at 10nl. Little Susie tells little Johnny to go fuck himself and starts hooking up with spoonitnow. The end.
