dr. klopek
02-28-2005, 06:56 PM
Admittedly, I have not spent the time on poker needed to convince a person that they have learned enough to become a winning player. I have only read WLLHE by Lee Jones, Theory of Poker, Poker Essays vol. 1, and I'm in the middle of SSHE. I read the forums a lot, and despite most of my posting being in OOT, I have spent a lot of my 2+2 time reading threads to which I can make no contribution. I don't post that many hands as there have been requests that the number of threads be reduced in favor of fewer threads with higher participation and content, which I agree with. I started out sort of lackadasical, but have really picked up the studying aspect lately.
I also have 3 professional poker players at my disposal to clear things up for me when I need it, egregious errors in my game don't last very long. This also means that I'm constantly part of an ongoing poker discussion between my successful poker playing friends, from which I have gained much information.
I have played an embarassingly small amount of poker. I credit my slow progress mostly to this. I don't play too many tables, I try not to multitask too much, and I use PT and gametime+. Overall, the problem with this aspect is that I don't have the sheer volume of hands and hours needed to make one truly comfortable at a poker table.
I also seem to have tilt issues on occasion. Nothing too bad really, just the occasional open fold or raise simply because they shouldn't have me beat. I have many leaks in my game to plug, this being a big one, not because it loses me tons of money, but because it hinders my learning.
The problem is, the more I learn, the more I feel like I don't know. I don't mean "the more there is for me to learn," I mean new information and new things to consider confuse me at the table. I think it's a bit of a plateau.
I play .5/1. I recently took a shot at some 1/2 b/c I had the BR and decided "why not?" I lost 200bb in 13k hands...I'm starting to question everything I thought I knew. While I do admit, of course, that this is a downswing augmented by bad play, I have recently begun to consider that maybe it is, in fact, a losing player evening out after an upswing.
What I'm getting at here is: is this a matter of lack of experience? Is the plateau effect natural? I feel like this can no longer be considered a downswing. Lately I have been having trouble with even the most pedestrian of concepts, and I don't think dynamically enough to apply what I do know to different situations. Do I have to consider that I'm just not the kind of person who becomes good at poker? Or can I chalk it up to learning curve? Is it natural that the rate of improvement should slow down at a certain point?
I also have 3 professional poker players at my disposal to clear things up for me when I need it, egregious errors in my game don't last very long. This also means that I'm constantly part of an ongoing poker discussion between my successful poker playing friends, from which I have gained much information.
I have played an embarassingly small amount of poker. I credit my slow progress mostly to this. I don't play too many tables, I try not to multitask too much, and I use PT and gametime+. Overall, the problem with this aspect is that I don't have the sheer volume of hands and hours needed to make one truly comfortable at a poker table.
I also seem to have tilt issues on occasion. Nothing too bad really, just the occasional open fold or raise simply because they shouldn't have me beat. I have many leaks in my game to plug, this being a big one, not because it loses me tons of money, but because it hinders my learning.
The problem is, the more I learn, the more I feel like I don't know. I don't mean "the more there is for me to learn," I mean new information and new things to consider confuse me at the table. I think it's a bit of a plateau.
I play .5/1. I recently took a shot at some 1/2 b/c I had the BR and decided "why not?" I lost 200bb in 13k hands...I'm starting to question everything I thought I knew. While I do admit, of course, that this is a downswing augmented by bad play, I have recently begun to consider that maybe it is, in fact, a losing player evening out after an upswing.
What I'm getting at here is: is this a matter of lack of experience? Is the plateau effect natural? I feel like this can no longer be considered a downswing. Lately I have been having trouble with even the most pedestrian of concepts, and I don't think dynamically enough to apply what I do know to different situations. Do I have to consider that I'm just not the kind of person who becomes good at poker? Or can I chalk it up to learning curve? Is it natural that the rate of improvement should slow down at a certain point?