Best/Most efficient way to improve my game?

I just reached my goal I made last month to reach a 6k bankroll. Ive been playing the best poker of my life but I know theres alot to the game Im missing. Before I move up stakes (playing 200NL right now) I wanna improve my game. I have been playing 6-max NL my entire poker career and have never been successful anywhere else. Whats the best way that some of you have found to do this. Heres a couple ideas I have:

1) Write out a full strategy.
2) Start using a live stats hud.
3) Review hands after each session.
4) Review stats (Pokeroffice) after each session.
5) Start playing some NL Full ring games.
6) Start playing some limt Full ring games.
7) Start playing some short-handed limit games.
8) Read a specific article.
9) Read a specific book.
10) Play a specific style of poker (Try to win playing a LAGG style, etc..)
11) Keep a full poker journal of any difficult hand.
12) Play in some live games.
13) Start playing Sit-n-goes or MTTs.

Those are the ones I think of. And before you say do them all, I dont really have time to do that. Im more looking at whats the best time to result ratio.

What do u think? What has worked well for you?

And before you say do them all,

Stay where you are. Why do you have to change if you just want to move up the ladder of the 6max games?

I play MTTs, full ring, and 6max games though after playing just 6max for a couple months my MTT game suffered so it may not be such a smooth transition esp. if you aren't use to full ring. So I would play full ring NL and when you feel compfy with that move to MTTs.

Originally Posted by Happy Jones

2) Start using a live stats hud.
3) Review hands after each session.
4) Review stats (Pokeroffice) after each session.
8) Read a specific article.
9) Read a specific book.

Those are the only ones that I really think will help, some of the others may even be counter intuitive. Honestly though, review your hands, read stuff, etc. More importantly though, think about the situations, respond to posts and see how others play. Focus on these things and I think you will be fine.

I still wanna play 6-max as my main game I just heard that playing a different variety of games help you improve your play in every one.
For instance playing a in a limit game might help me learn about pot-odds, value betting, isolation, etc..

How important do u feel the live hud is, I have a full license of Pokeroffice but I just dont find it very useful when using the hud.
Is it worth it to become familiar with it or is there alot of good players that play without it.

Also dont take me as a new player trying to learn the string of 6-max NL holdem. Ive been playing poker for 4 years and online for almost 6 months, I have been a profitable player ever since I started and have grown tremendously in skill since I started.
I just feel like I could accelerate this learning curve to be able to play with the best of them.

Originally Posted by Happy Jones

How important do u feel the live hud is, I have a full license of Pokeroffice but I just dont find it very useful when using the hud.
Is it worth it to become familiar with it or is there alot of good players that play without it.

Also dont take me as a new player trying to learn the string of 6-max NL holdem. Ive been playing poker for 4 years and online for almost 6 months, I have been a profitable player ever since I started and have grown tremendously in skill since I started.
I just feel like I could accelerate this learning curve to be able to play with the best of them.

Im not saying you are a beginner man. The HUD is very important, I mean, it cant hurt can it? There are some players at higher stakes [Samo @ $2knl] that dont use a HUD, but I mean if you have it available, you might as well use it. This is a problem Im having right now, Im trying to focus on my play. First thing I did is cut down on my tables from 8 to 4, this really makes me think about hands themselves instead of just going on auto-pilot. Try to think about each individual hand, and put your opponent on a range. Go over some hands that you werent in and guess what each player has. Sign up for the session reviews, post and reply to hands, etc. Basically, just think about situations as much as you can and analyze everything.

14) play more hands
15) think about what the hell you're doing

Im not saying you are a beginner man

I didnt take your previous post as an insult just wanted to clear that up.
Ive been only playing two tables at a time right playing anymore and I just seem to start playing straight cards. Would you recommend trying to increase to 4 or just play 2; where im comfortable?

think about what the hell you're doing

What do you mean?

read everything you possibly can about the game. before accepting any of it as fact think about it alot and discuss it with other poker minds.

watch good players. try to understand everything they do. why would they call a push with 2nd pair? why was that a good spot to bluff? theres usually alot more levels of thinking with these actions than it appears at first. once you learn to think on all sorts of levels your game will grow leaps and bounds.

1) Write out a full strategy. - NO
2) Start using a live stats hud. - maybe
3) Review hands after each session. - obviously
4) Review stats (Pokeroffice) after each session. -stats arent so important
5) Start playing some NL Full ring games. - not really important
6) Start playing some limt Full ring games. - not really important
7) Start playing some short-handed limit games. - not really important
8) Read a specific article. - how about, read any articles?
9) Read a specific book - see #8
10) Play a specific style of poker (Try to win playing a LAGG style, etc..) - yea, but its not so important to learn to play each style, but rather to understand each style. with that said, playing each would probably help learning
11) Keep a full poker journal of any difficult hand. - maybe
12) Play in some live games. - not really important
13) Start playing Sit-n-goes or MTTs.- no

1) read read read, books magazines FTR, whatever (don't take everything as gospel, though, there is some crappy advice out there)
2) think about poker a lot
3) after you're done playing review your hand histories
4) think about poker some more
5) use hud or gametime+, this is good but don't let it take over your game and put you on auto-pilot


And that's just a start. Something that helped me out a lot was reviewing my hand histories after each session. I'd pull up the hands where I lost the most and figure out exactly *why* I lost the money in the first place. Bad play, bad call, or bad beat? I started writing things down in a journal (blog).....and learned from my mistakes that way.

Originally Posted by Happy Jones

Would you recommend trying to increase to 4 or just play 2; where im comfortable?

Ya, I would give >2 tables a shot at least, especially if you want to build your br faster. If you aren't making more $/hour you can always drop back to 2.
On the other hand, you can probably learn the game faster with just 1-2 tables, with more time to analyze each decision.
I'm still figuring out what's the best for me...there's lots of variables with that.

Originally Posted by benny999

Originally Posted by Happy Jones

Would you recommend trying to increase to 4 or just play 2; where im comfortable?

Ya, I would give >2 tables a shot at least, especially if you want to build your br faster. If you aren't making more $/hour you can always drop back to 2.
On the other hand, you can probably learn the game faster with just 1-2 tables, with more time to analyze each decision.
I'm still figuring out what's the best for me...there's lots of variables with that.

Experiment with more tables, it can't hurt. Move down to get the hang of it if you have to. With more practice playing more tables will come naturally to you.

True story: When I first started I was a nut-camper playing full-ring looking to hit sets and get paid, and that's it (ie: I was barely 10/2, lol). When I played two tables for the first time the action seemed to go so damn fast it was crazy. I asked my poker coach (the guy who staked me) how on earth he played eight tables at a time when two was so difficult me...

Looking back I cannot believe I ever actually asked that question. (And I can't believe I was ever a 10/2, ha!)

Originally Posted by Happy Jones

5) Start playing some NL Full ring games.
6) Start playing some limt Full ring games.
7) Start playing some short-handed limit games.

Learning NLHE definitely made me a better LHE player. And learning short-handed definitely made me a better full-ring player. So I think I'm a believer that there are synergies to learning multiple poker variants.

Having said that I don't think I would recommend to anyone right now to go play full-ring or LHE, because relative to short-handed and NLHE the games kinda suck right now.

Perhaps learning a new poker variant might help? The HORSE games on Stars were supersoft a while back as everyone struggled with the games they weren't familiar with.

Originally Posted by Lukie

14) play more hands
15) think about what the hell you're doing

This is the best advice given here. Playing a lot of hands while thinking about your game is the only thing that will really boost your development as a pokerplayer.
Other than that read "Theory of Poker" and "NLHE: Theory & Practice" if you havent already. And also, read all the good threads here on FTR and 2+2 and post a lot hands on these board.

who writes NLHE theory and practice?

Originally Posted by Happy Jones

who writes NLHE theory and practice?

Sklansky and Miller, came out in June of this year I believe.

Originally Posted by Happy Jones

who writes NLHE theory and practice?

This is for Lukie...
Linkie

Originally Posted by swiggidy

Originally Posted by Happy Jones

who writes NLHE theory and practice?

This is for Lukie...
Linkie

Hahaha...i guess i deserve that.

Im doing a promo where I get three free poker books. So aside from NLHE thoery and practice which other of the following would you advise.

Pick two: (Super Systems, Theory of Poker, and Harrington Volume 1 and 2 have been read)
Ace on the River: An Advanced Poker Guide - Barry Greenstein (328 pages)
Championship No Limit & Pot Limit Hold 'Em (Championship Series)
Gambling Theory and Other Topics - Mason Malmuth (313 pages)
Getting Started in Hold 'em - Ed Miller (203 pages)
Harrington on Hold 'em: Expert Strategies for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. III--The Workbook - Dan Harrington, Bill Robertie (350 pages)
Hold 'Em Poker - David Sklansky (110 pages)
Hold'Em Poker for Advanced Players (Advance Player) - David Sklansky, Mason Malmuth (332 pages)
How To Win The Championship: Hold'em Strategies for The Final Table
T.J. Cloutier (304 pages)
Internet Texas Hold'em: Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro
Matthew Hilger (298 pages)
Kill Phil: The Fast Track to Success in No-Limit Hold 'em Poker Tournaments - Blair Rodman, Lee Nelson (240 pages)
Make a Million from Online Poker: The Surefire Way to Profit from the Internet's Coolest Game - Nigel Goldman (256 pages)
Mastering No-Limit Hold'em - Russell Fox, Scott T. Harker (224 pages)
Online Ace : A World Series of Poker Champion's Guide to Mastering Internet Poker - Scott Fischman (240 pages)
Online Poker: Your Guide to Playing Online Poker Safely & Winning Money - Doyle Brunson (192 pages)
Phil Gordon's Little Green Book : Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold'em
Poker Essays Mason Malmuth (262 pages)
Pot-Limit & No-Limit Poker - Stewart Reuben, Bob Ciaffone (224 pages)
Texas Hold'em Odds and Probabilities: Limit, No-Limit, and Tournament Strategies Matthew Hilger (256 pages)
The Book of Bluffs : How to Bluff and Win at Poker - Matt Lessinger (256 pages)
The Making Of A Poker Player: How An Ivy League Math Geek Learned To Play Championship Poker - Matt Matros (286 pages)
Zen and the Art of Poker: Timeless Secrets to Transform Your Game -Larry Phillips (192 pages)

The one's I've read...

I know you're getting it, but NLHTP is awesome.

I enjoyed Ace on the River, won't help much with your play.

I have the little green book and little blue book from the library, haven't started yet.

Kill Phil - don't bother

Caro's book of poker tells is a must if you play live

Tournament poker for advanced players is good for bridging the analytical gap between ring and tournaments. It helps with understanding things that a lot of people call "standard".

SS was the first book I read, I need to re-read it. It's mostly pre-flop and flop if I remember correctly.

Haven't gotten to SS II yet.

Im a fan of Barry Greenstein wants the jist of Ace on the river is there anything helpful to a cash game NL holdem player?

It's about his career and how he views the game. Some general stuff like traits of a sucessfull player, etc. There are some HH, that discuss higher level thinking. I'm not actually done with it yet, 3/4 maybe.

It won't help your cash game or your tourney game much.

Originally Posted by Happy Jones

I still wanna play 6-max as my main game I just heard that playing a different variety of games help you improve your play in every one.
For instance playing a in a limit game might help me learn about pot-odds, value betting, isolation, etc..

i think you offer a valid point/concern here.

i wanted to do the same thing about 6 months ago. so, i switched to limit. started on a rush (beginners luck), and, after 10k hands, realized i hadnt a clue what i was doing. i like the game, but needed to learn about drawing, value-betting, and protecting my hand with the c/r, and so on. the switch DEFINITELY helped my NL game. but...

the transition back was tough. i found myself "in between" concepts too frequently, and had to devote time more to one or the other, not both.

did the same with 6max, and my fr NL game has skyrocketed since. in staying within the same general game (NL), i have been able to switch games, always find a game, and focus on game plans much better. limit is gone (to me) for now.

long post short. i would say switch it up, realize it may take awhile to learn a newish game, and do your best. see what you bring back to 6max with you, i bet you'll be surprised at how much it can help.

btw, drop a level or two when you switch. that way you arent paranoid about losing the bankroll you've worked so hard for.

give it a go!

Anyone ever read these ones:
Make a Million from Online Poker: The Surefire Way to Profit from the Internet's Coolest Game - Nigel Goldman (256 pages)
Online Poker: Your Guide to Playing Online Poker Safely & Winning Money - Doyle Brunson (192 pages)
The Making Of A Poker Player: How An Ivy League Math Geek Learned To Play Championship Poker - Matt Matros (286 pages)