poker crossroads

[BrianSwa]

yes I know im gonna get shit thrown at me but I dont mind at all, as for where to start what do you suggest? yes I know I can beat .01/.02 NL but thought starting as low as I could was a good idea. Do you suggest .05/.10 or .10/.25?


also should I start playing full ring or shorthanded?
im thinking full ring would most likley be better, more hands per orbit, not as loose.

[jimmym]

Playing poker is great, something we really love doing, we get a buzz its feels fantastic sitting in front of the pc holding that lucky thing (hope you dont squeeze to hard) asking the lord for the card you need and then thanking him when you get it.
Hour after hour spent infront of a pc, bankroll climbing, then falling then climbing then another deposit but this time your going to play properley, you know you can do it because you know someone who has done it and your a better player than him, step up then win a few, lose a few, step back down, enter tournies. play the low limits who cares hours spent in a low limit tourny with 1000s of other fantastic players.
Hour after fuckin hour, deposit after fuckin deposit...........When will this fuckin bubble burst ,,when Oh when will I start making something out of this fucking game I spend so much time playing, Oh well another deposit but this time I will play different, WONT I. ........ Truth is I fuckin wont, I will fall back into the same routine, same senario, same shit outcome.

Some of us are just not good poker players, we think we are but the bank statements dont lie, we play the same over and over we change now and then but then fall back into our shit ways,,,,well another deposit should sort that out..this time..


This time, shit the chances are the outcome will be the same, so what should some of us do? carry on playing the game we love, depositing enough to sit in a tourny for hours with 1000s of other players and winning it,,winning what 5 hours to beat 2700 players and winning $700 because its another low limit entry game. Fuck this its time to get a grip.

Five months later, not a single game played, not a single $ lost but I have money in the bank, so I must be winning. I miss playing poker, but I dont miss losing, instead of playing I will sit and read articles and books about poker, I go through hands other players have wrote about and understand were it went wrong and can now point were it could have went right. Am I ready to make that next deposit, am I fuck I know I need to learn more because after playing for the past years I learned only one thing and that was that I was a shit poker player who thinks he was good.

Does it matter when I start playing again wether to play in $1 tournies or $100, No but I feel I will have learnt so much more than just playing poker, I feel I will understand how to play poker.

My advice to you Brian could have been said in one word :QUIT: learn and return, more time for yourself, your family, do the overtime instead of the computer time.

[Govman6767]

Harsh words maybe BUT it is the truth I AM NOT a losing player I was also NOT A WINNING PLAYER I'm a break even player big wins big losses small wins small losses in the 6 months i've been here I have done nothing but read poker books. Books on odds, math, reading hands, tells, bluff's not just one factor of the game but the game in general. I realize in my time off I did not have to be a break even player because there was so much I did not understand and grasp that I feel I am grasping now and in 3 more month's I think of how much more I will grasp. I think it's easy to not become a losing player but it is VERY VERY VERY hard to become a winning player.

I don't know if you can go right from losing player to winning player I'm sure it's possible but it might give you a better feel if you aim'ed for break even player and after spending some time there understanding what you are doing wrong at break even you can progress to winning player. 6 months off is a GODSEND but it's 6 months off PLAYING not 6 months of of poker. It's 6 months of studying, learning, thinking, analyzing, after some time off you begin to realize what you were doing was wrong or if not wrong then it was just not the best way of doing things to get the most out of your game.

One of the biggest things I've learned so far that hurt my game was not pumping the pots because I was afraid of losing but after studing some of the math and the theory over and over and over again I learned that my logic sucked. I was not losing because I was playing scared but I was not winning as much as I should have been hence my endless endless sessions of break even play.

summed up take the playing time off but don't stop learning and studying there is a lot of good info on these pages from TP and Zybomb don't just read it LEARN IT ANALYZE IT and slowly put it into practice.

I'm a B&M player who dabbles on the internet if you can find a casino play in the B&M rooms and find a low limit game where the blinds don't hurt and just look at ppl how they act how they play a person you can see on tilt is a lot better than a guy online who says he's on tilt cause he played the last 20 hands.

Take time off read study buy good books from good sources try Sklanskys new NLHE book or if that's too hard a read try the book "why I lose at poker"
good luck man I hope you make it
Because when I get back to the USA I'm sure gonna

[melioris]

climbs on the soapbox...

Brian-I am a consistent winning player at $25NL and $50NL full-table and 6-max. I don’t make a lot of money, but enough to keep me happy and allow me to make a few large (1K) purchases a year from my poker money. I play because I enjoy it, because I learn about myself and the human condition playing poker, and because at this point in my life I have all the intellectual stimulation I need and so I don’t feel like I am wasting my time by not doing something else with my poker time.

To improve at these levels is mostly internal, I think. I have started an assload of poker books, and I have yet to finish my first. Sure I probably have read most of them, hoping around chapter to chapter but I haven’t read one start to finish yet. I am interested in cardrunners.com and probably do it if I ever decide to play 100NL and above. But for 25NL and 50NL I think what you need to do to be a good player is self-control. And the bitch of it is you need that for EVERY hand you play. If you don’t have that, you will not be a winning player. No book, no video, nothing else but you can do that. And it doesn’t make you a bad person if you don’t do it, a lot of people work their asses off, take care of their family and play online to blow off some steam. That is great, but they aren’t going to be winning players unless they have self-control in EVERY hand. It will take you an hour to win a buyin worth of small pots, and one hand to blow it because you are not going to let that donkey push you around. Playing winning poker isn’t a shit load of fun most of the time and maybe you would rather have fun.

You need to consider the time investment. Family and job are the two largest time commitments most men have. It is tempting to carve out some time from one of those to play poker, but you got to ask yourself if spending less time with your family is worth it to play 25NL? Also, I believe it is our obligation as humans to spend some time each day trying to improve our self and the world in which we live. Becoming a better poker player ain’t satisfying that human instinct. The culture is which we live leaves a lot of people feeling unfulfilled, and I believe it is because culturally we don’t recognize this basic human instinct. So if you have the time to play, make sure you have already satisfied your commitment to your family, to your job, and to yourself.

This leads to my final point. To be a winning player I think you need to understand why you play poker. You got to spend some time reflecting and learning about yourself and understanding why it is important to you to play and win. I think this is the most important aspect of being a winning player. If you understand your motivations and you are clear with the desires that playing poker is fulfilling, then it is much easier to be discipline in EVERY hand and it is easier to justify the time you spend playing poker.

gets off the soapbox

[BrianSwa]

yea I could deal with break even.... As for what jimmy said like penguin said I expected some of the shit, again though he is free to make his opinion.

good advice though and I appriciate it, I plan on doing alot of reading and learning. As for this forum, I have been here awhile and there are tons of great advice on it, doing forum searches now on past articles. Might be suprised but Lou posted some great stuff back in the day that I have re-found and its actully pretty good.

plan on reading alot on the hand histories and mentally saying what I would do different then scrolling down to see what the local experts here think. This forum is a very good outlet to improve your game and there are some really great players on it. I know I have bashed the forum in the past but honestly its one of the best outlets to learn poker in my opinion, not kissing ass just stating facts. I have gone through this in the past on this forum and not listened to the advice becuase I dont think I really wanted to improve, this time though I honestly do which is the only reason I made this post, I honestly want to improve.

As for just quiting and spending time with family like Jimmy said, I dont think there is a need to right now. My family is very well taken care of and I can balance playing with kid, playing poker and "playing" with wife very well. If it got to point like it did in past where playing was all I was doing yea then I agree its time to quit but as long as I can distinguish poker as a hobby and dont let it control life there is no problem with playing "when" I have time.

[jimmym]

[quote=BrianSwa]yea I could deal with break even.... As for what jimmy said like penguin said I expected some of the shit, again though he is free to make his opinion.

Brian, you got me wrong I am not giving you any shit, weve been around here for a long time some of us really do need a reality check and get our lives into shape, poker wont be our ticket to fame, it wont pay the bills, it can though cause alot of pain and stress and turn very ugly if not kept in check.

Some of us need to pull away from poker, think about what you done before we started playing online and see if we were better off. If the answer is that we were better off then change things. As I said we love poker but I also love other things that cost less and with better outcomes.

You asked us 3 questions but then quickley withdrew from your first option, I felt this is the option you want to take but are to scared to stop. Shit man I know its hard but then believe me for some of us its the only realistic option, take a year out learn the game enjoy some time doing other thing and look forward to a better time when you decide to return to plaing poker.

Ive started playing Bridge and BackGammon free online working my way up through the skill levels, I spend more time at gigs enjoying myself with my family, I do a little more overtime earning the cash for a trip or event and I have started saving more the past few months, give it ago Brian I feel its better than the starting over again theory playing low limits, players like JD and TP make a living from the players like us because they know how to play poker and dont just play poker.

[BrianSwa]

[quote=jimmym]
sorry took it wrong way but still +reped you for your 1st post because it was real...


im no worst or better of since I started playing, at 1st when I 1st started playing I played way way way too much but since then I have been able to work it into my life where I still have time for family.

I withdrew from option 1 fast because I had been thinking about my options all night. I came to conclusion as long as poker just stays a pasttime then its fine to play, as for doing it for living HELL NO. BUT I do want to get better. I'am the kind of person that when they do something they want to be the best at it so why not try to improve. Really making the money isnt really what I want I just want to be good, It wouldnt matter what it was I always want to be the best at what I do.

When I set goals for myself I always reach them, this is one of the only time I have not been able to reach my goal and to be honest that pisses me off to no end. I never plan on making tons of money playing but one day I would like to be able to play higher limits and know I could beat them, I dont want sucess over night and I plan on working for it, again as long as it dosent take anything away from my family. MY family is always 1st. hell poker isnt even in top 10 for me but it is something I enjoy.