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 BorisTheSpiders introduction thread
Hi everyone,
My name is Paul. I've been playing poker on and off for a long time, but I've never really taken it seriously until now. A few years back I did read a couple of books, play a fair bit and cash out some money, then for one reason and another I stopped playing and have only ever dabbled in poker since with an occassional small deposit online that I'd eventually donk off or the odd live game.
Like a lot of small-losing or breakeven guys who aren't retards but can't beat the rake, my game was basically defined by baseline non-retarded pre flop play, but post flop I was a moron unless I hit the flop hard. I hope that has started to improve now, and right now I'd say my biggest problem is that I am suffering from a most dangerous kind of confusion where I do not know if I have a foundation of basic skill or am worse than I think.
This is problematic. I know that I need to improve a fuckload and that I am basically shit at poker but I am finding it difficult to know where to start because I am beyond the "read a basic book or two" level but I don't have the experience to know where to go next. I have by the way found the "operation winning habit" thread and am doing my reading.
I'm serious this time around about improving. I want to get good at poker. Good enough to consistently make money, in the mid to longer term good enough to turn full time pro if I want or at least make a nice second income.
I really don't care if it takes a lot of work - I can handle that, the important shit is that I don't go broke learning, so that kind of ties in with the confidence issue. I need to know whether or not I'm doing the right stuff so I can be confident that with time I will improve and that I won't go broke doing it.
Personal stuff wise, I wouldn't be getting back into poker right now if I didn't think I could get better with hard work since I'm in no position financially to be gambling - I just finished a bunch of expensive training as a pilot, I am unlikely to get a well paid day job any time soon (flying pays jack shit until you're experienced) so I have right now the luxury of a fair bit of free time to spend studying and learning poker, but I don't have much money to fuck away thinking I'm better than I am, so I am here for a reality check, and to get the resources and support I need to get better quickly.
I am by no means an awful player, I have an understanding of most of the fundamentals, but if there is one fundamental I don't yet have any ability at it is putting people on ranges, especially if I am multi tabling as I find it too much to think about and end up playing cookie cutter poker, albeit playing my position, cards, odds and the stack sizes OK most of the time. I am resolved to play no more than 2 tables at a time right now, I might even move back to one if it helps give me more time to develop and work on the fundamentals - it's more important for me to be improving than it is for me to be making money, so the only benefit I can see in multi tabling is seeing more hands and getting more practice in, but I think there's something to be said for concentrating on hands one at a time right now until I get the fundamentals of ranges down.
I am rolled for 50NL (I haven't paid it all in yet but have set aside 100 buyins) and that's where I'd like to start unless I get strong advice otherwise. I intend to play only 6max cash games.
I got a coaching session just the other day from a guy who's beating 400NL and he thinks I could probably be moving down to 25NL, and I don't want to come across like an arrogant prick saying I'd rather stay at 50nl, but honestly the standard of play and the money involved makes it more meaningful to me and I actually tend to think I might learn more at 50, but I am on the other hand realistic enough to know that I'm not yet anywhere near good enough to be moving up to 100NL.
So far, I'm about breakeven (down just under 1bb/100) over a small sample (3500 hands) at 6max 50NL at Stars and Merge.
I say all this about 50NL vs 25NL because I actually feel like the standard of play at 25 doesn't really lend itself to improvement of my game - I could probably beat 25 consistently if I could discipline myself to just not get fancy and play really tight basic poker, so I don't know if there's much mileage for me in playing that game - 50 feels about right over the small time I've played over the last week or so, and I think a lot of the players there are probably in the same sort of stage of their learning process as I am, at least the non-donkeys are, wheras there are still plenty of large donkeys at 50.
As I post more here, if members who know and see the standard of my play in my HHs think I'd be better off moving down, please sound off and say so - I am here to learn. If players who could cut my throat are going to tell me that I'm worse than I think I am, I'm all ears.
I am vulnerable to tilt that I don't see coming - it's not even tilt the way I see it, it's more like I can be a little tired or distracted, below threshold kind of stuff, and can play anyway without realising I'm bringing a poor quality of game. This is something I've incorporated in my plan by setting limits for session lengths and playing when tired or whatever, but sometimes it just creeps up on me and I don't realise I was doing it until after a loss. If anyone has any tips to combat this I'd be grateful. I suspect it's just practise and experience and learning to recognise your own state before you start acting like a cock.
That's about it for now, I'll post more here as members reply and as I think of stuff that I ought to mention. One thing is that I have some rules about losses (end of session for a day after 2 buyins lost), wins (no more than 4 buyins lost back from session peak before quitting) and so on that I hope will give me some structure and prevent me doing anything really fucking dumb.
If anyone can help a nugget by posting any advice on threads or books on assigning ranges to opponents, playing ranges vs ranges and that sort of thing, that's probably the number one thing I need to work on right now.
Thanks to long time members for all the great content here - I look forward to learning a shitload from you all, and hope I can contribute something here.
Paul
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Originally Posted by BorisTheSpider
