|
|
 My first 1k - Thank you FTR
Hey guys,
i finally hit my benchmark for this year - 1k completed. This post is inspired by Pelions "TY FTR" thread some months ago and i´m writing it more to remind me of what i´ve learned (and how much more is still to work on) and to review my progress. It´s also more of a summary of great articles i soaked up here and maybe marginal ideas from me.
I started out in January depositing 50 bucks into party and went exactly through the "newbies circle of death". For beginners this should be the first "must read". I went broke, but couldn´t stop. As a student i didn´t had much money to reload and i found EverestPoker with a minimum deposit of $5, so i put $17 in there. In April i first came here, lurked around for some days and signed up. "Bankroll Management" (must read No.2) gave me another "aha"-effect and i played 1+.10 SNg for a while, then moved up accordingly with my growing roll. At $400 i started quad-tabling $10NL full ring, right now i´m trying to beat 25NL full ring.
When starting out playing poker and you´re serious about learning and getting better your main goal should be to stay humble. Appreciate advices, read and learn, always look for what your doing wrong. searching for what you´re doing fine doesn´t take you anywhere. Read AOK´s 19 Hands strategy. i know most people here find it at least questionable, but for me it worked well in the beginning. for beginners it´s essential to learn to play tight and before getting to fancy postflop plays you have to develop a solid preflop strategy, which keeps you out of most trouble.
Know your odds. When i first read about pot odds i thought: "Hey, when i play like this i won´t hit my loved flushes and straight no more!". That´s right, and you won´t lose money anymore chasing too expensive draws.
Know your position. It´s what most beginners, me included, underestimate. With increasing limits the positional advantage changes from what i call "passive positional advantage" to "active advantage", meaning that at 2NL you won´t be able to take pots down abusing the button and just raising unraised flops or reraising weak bets, but you know if you´re getting the right price to draw to your whatever and can make cheap flushes and straights. If you observe some 50 or 100NL tables you´ll see the pot rotate clockwise with the button, where the last one to act just puts in a strong bet after its checked to him.
Know your enemy. You´ll see the people talking about "i put him on XX". Mostly u can´t tell exactly what your opponent is holding, at micros ppl do play any two cards, especially when they are suited. Put them on a range. There will always be ppl serious about playing poker, who won´t play trash cards and there will some who will. observe your table to get an idea of what them dudes might be holding.
Read Renton´s 169 Hands article. It´s great. read and re-read the implied odds section, at 10 and 25NL your sets are the moneymakers and not applying that concept to your game will cost you a good bunch of chips. in addition to that, don´t buy in short. it´s not only, that your giving up value (3 way pot all-in: u lose -> -X; u win -> +2X) but at some spots you´re denying yourself your implied odds. And don´t get to fancy, when you´re loosening up in LP as renton recommends, you´ll end up in some awkward situations which require advanced postflop play.
Respect bets and raises. In most cases a bet means, what it looks like: "i like my hand." The decision, what sort of hands they like is oftentimes hard, but here i recommend rather making a bad fold, than a bad call.
Learn to deal with variance, downswings and your emotional reactions. The cards are always fair. It might take some 10k hands, but in the long run Aces and Kings be winners, while 27o will be a loser, no matter how often you saw a 772 flop or your big overpairs got cracked by suited crap. Read 77´s article about dealing with downswings. Variance is somedays your best friend, when u hit 2 straightflushes within one session and on another day it´s your worst enemy when not even your flopped set of Aces holds up. Stay calm and analyze your game as objective as possible. If you lost your stack with your set on a 4 flush board it wasn´t bad luck, but a bad call.
Don´t play for stacks with TPTK.
That´s it so far. There´s still a lot to write about, but i have to go to school now. I want to thank all you guys for great advices and all that replies to questions and HHs. I owe you a cold beer, without FTR i would´ve never got this far.
|
Originally Posted by bigred
Reply With Quote
