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 Top 5 lessons in last 20k hands
I’ve been playing poker for a year, and I’ve been a winning player for about three months coinciding with reading four poker books and joining FTR discussions. I thought I’d post this as a Beginner’s thread and see if any of y’all have learned similar lessons or other ones that I could benefit from. These are poker fundamentals that most people know about, but I am finally internalizing them.
1. Poker Patience means for-real, wait-forever patience
This is one of my biggest weaknesses in life, so it’s no surprise I had to learn it for poker, too. Patience means taking 100 hands to set up a donk for a stack-sized play, getting sucked out on, and setting it up again. Then having the donk leave. Then working the next donk. It means watching while the donks rake in stacks while you’re card dead – three nights in a row. And then makin’ do when you can’t make a hand in what seems like forever. And still playin' good poker even when it means fold, fold, fold.
2. Picking Spots means actually thinking about your picks
Starting hand charts can get you playing too loose. I like playing and used any old excuse to play. I’d find the loosest starting chart and treat it like a contractual obligation to get involved in a hand. And I’d be dominated. Now, I enjoy playing when ahead.
Same with c-bets. When I first learned what c-bets were, I used ‘em every hand I could. Now, I’m learning to check down, even giving up some slight edges, just to make sure I’m not getting predictable. And to make sure that when I start shoving chips in the middle, I’m likely to be ahead.
3. Variance goes both ways
When I run good and win 30 BB / 100 for a thousand hands, I smile ‘cuz it does feel good. But I don’t get overly excited. It’s just variance. And when I get stacked 3 times in a hour, I don’t consider wrist-slits. I think about the hands involved, and if I got my money in good – well, that’s just poker. If the fish are biting, I’m still playing. No worries when the variance is against me, sure, but it’s just as important not to think I’m Johnny Chan when it’s all hitting for me.
4. No tilting over bad beats
When I get bad beated, now, I just smile and reload. If I actually read the game well (not just lucky breaks) and got my KK all-in preflop against AQo, I’m thrilled, even if he flopped an ace and rivered a Q. If it only happens a couple times in a night, I’m okay with it. When it happens three or four times in 75 hands, them I take a break. Usually 5 minutes is enough. I get right back in there and play hard. I try to remember this basic rule – if you get your money all-in good more often that you get it all-in bad, you’ll suffer more suckouts than your opponents. And that’s a good thing.
5. It’s all part of the big poker game of life
I used to have problems playing badly both at the beginning of sessions and at the end, too loose, too aggressive. Early in sessions, I was trying to generate action, make something happen. Late, I was tired, groggy and had a devil-may-care attitude. I was ready to gambool. Combing patience, spot-picking and an understanding of variance allows me to play each hand well. The results will take care of themselves. It really has helped me to think of my sessions as all one big poker game that just gets interrupted every now and again.
If you got all the way down here, thanks for listening to my rambling. Play good. Peace.
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Originally Posted by Fnord
