Joined: Oct '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 86
Not from a complete novice, but when you were at a point where you knew the do's and don'ts, odds and outs , hand selection etc. Oh, and what a Donk is of course
You've played a decent amount of games on various sites - low stakes Nl/Fl ,SNGs and a fair few tournaments in my case - and do ok but you're not winning overall - it's just not quite "jelling"
I guess i'm looking to develop a style of play that suites me but rather than 'read a book' (not that I discount that at all if somebody thinks it's worthwhile and can reccomend one from personal experience) I want to hear how different people learnt, moved up and what worked for them.
. At the moment my play varies a LOT from tight which I get to feel is too predictable to trying to play looser - which usually just gets me in trouble lol. I'm also a bit c**p when it comes to bluffing - calling and making. I play 'instinctively' but I fear it needs 'grounding' if i'm going to improve.
So if you've gone from Fish to Shark -what's your story?
Edited by ChitStripper (06 January 2009 @ 06:00 GMT)
Joined: Mar '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 6714
I think just lots of small steps. Still learnig, everygame i try to learn from my and outhers play, sometimes you think you play a hand right then one day it dawns on you that youv been playing it like a donk and all the suddon the ppl that you thought were good players just got a little weaker. You say you want your own style, but you know the ppl who are winning play diffrent from you, take tips from them, learn from them, you must do things for a reason and not just because.
Joined: Dec '08
Location: Germany
Age: 62 (F)
Posts: 35
yep, there are many different methods to improve your game, I'm learning all the time by watching pros go at it or wsop videos, you can learn with a good pokerbook, but the best is just to gain experience, you won't find anything better than that, cause that'll help your game and your read on other people very much, the longer you play, the better you get normally, so that's a way to try it, if you get Johnny Chan as your coach though that's also not a wrong thing ^^
Joined: Oct '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 1086
oh dear :/
Never try to learn to learn from WSOP videos!! You have no real idea whats going on the in the hand your watching, as a massive percentage of the persons decision will be based on previous hands and tells we have no clue about.
Although I'm no shark just yet the biggest eye opener I ever had was signing up to Card Runners.
Joined: Sep '08
Location: Malta
Age: 49 (M)
Posts: 82
I've been playing online now for just under a year. I use only Neteller to fund my poker accounts and their prepaid mastercard to withdraw so it's easy to see exactly when i started winning more than losing.
What i changed in my play was that i actually started betting, raising and re-raising. No bluffing but sticking to your plan.. if u raise pre-flop, then u make the hand and that's it. Doesen't matter what cards hit the board but in ur mind u hit the flop and play accordingly. Passive agressive!
My bankroll started growing pretty much on the spot after i'd finished reading the greatest book ever written on poker 'harrington on holdem' i know many of u dissagree, but that's what made it happen for me...
Joined: Jan '08
Location: Germany
Age: 41 (M)
Posts: 153
i think it is not very useful to "learn" from watching poker on tv (or internetstreams). 1. you normally don't see all hands that are dealt to the players, so you don't know how many hands they play and what kind of hands they fold. 2. you don't know why players make their decisions (possible reads and players image are not known) 3. the other players at your table (as a beginner usually microlimits) are not as good as the players at the tv-tables, so there are moves that do not work (like a squeezeplay), but these moves are not necessary on those limits to make a good profit.
i learned very lot during homegames with my friends, who already had been playing poker for a year, so they told me a lot. i think you can learn a lot when you just think about the structure of the game and its probabilities. later of course reading books and online articles becomes important, but i don't think you need to read an article to understand the sense of a continuation bet or things like that.
I'm making profit just for about a few weeks now (I'm not really playing that long internet poker, more live). but I learned the tigh/aggressive play from 2 guys I have classes with at my highschool. they told me the way to make bets, raise and re-raise, It's SO important to play aggressive. after they told me theire strategy I began to read some books (harrington on hold'm, insiders secrets of online poker, ...). I think it's important to watch games, watch video's posted by other players on the net, read books and really analyse your own game. when you lost your buy-in, think back about the hand, was it a bad beat, or just bad play (Be honost ). It's all about losing and then learn from your losses and change them into winnings (it's so easy to say, but very hard to do but believe me, it does pay off just be patient.
Joined: May '08
Location: Netherlands
Age: 53 (M)
Posts: 6197
Posted by weakminded: I'm making profit just for about a few weeks now (I'm not really playing that long internet poker, more live). but I learned the tigh/aggressive play from 2 guys I have classes with at my highschool. they told me the way to make bets, raise and re-raise, It's SO important to play aggressive. after they told me theire strategy I began to read some books (harrington on hold'm, insiders secrets of online poker, ...). I think it's important to watch games, watch video's posted by other players on the net, read books and really analyse your own game. when you lost your buy-in, think back about the hand, was it a bad beat, or just bad play (Be honost ). It's all about losing and then learn from your losses and change them into winnings (it's so easy to say, but very hard to do but believe me, it does pay off just be patient.
+1
I agree, be honest too urself, if you loose a buyinn analyse it, learn from it. Was it a badbeat? Many badbeat wudnt happen if you played better, you did wrong preflop? Postflop? Why you where in the hand in the first place? Why you cant laydown ur hand?
People say too easy ''its a bad beat'', sometimes it is, but many times its just ''bad play''
i know many of u dissagree, but that's what made it happen for me...
). It's all about losing and then learn from your losses and change them into winnings (it's so easy to say, but very hard to do 
