The best way to learn?

[Onveric]

Hi,

So I've been playing poker now for about 3 months on and off, and am a solid 3/4 BB ring player at 0.5/1 on party. Then I started playing SnG's and found them much more interesting than the ring game and proceeded break even/slightly + or so over the last few months.

While my sample size is too small to really tell how Im playing what are some good ways to get better. I read 2+2 often(including the greatly helpful 10+1 guide) and go back and look at hands I lost but I can't help but wonder if theres better way to learn the material and get better at beating these games.

Are there specific books that anyone believes relate greatly to making the jump for basic SnG player to good SnG player?

Is it advisible to look for a mentor or some more experienced friends and get them to comment on your play/help you?

If you were going to go back to when you started playing SnG's whats the one thing you wish you have learned or done earlier?

Any information and help are much appreciated, and I stand in awe of some of the deep analysis I see on this board every day.

Onv

[citanul]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi,

So I've been playing poker now for about 3 months on and off, and am a solid 3/4 BB ring player at 0.5/1 on party. Then I started playing SnG's and found them much more interesting than the ring game and proceeded break even/slightly + or so over the last few months.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good. That's why many people switch.

[ QUOTE ]
While my sample size is too small to really tell how Im playing what are some good ways to get better. I read 2+2 often(including the greatly helpful 10+1 guide) and go back and look at hands I lost but I can't help but wonder if theres better way to learn the material and get better at beating these games.

[/ QUOTE ]

Play, post, read, think, repeat.

[ QUOTE ]
Are there specific books that anyone believes relate greatly to making the jump for basic SnG player to good SnG player?

[/ QUOTE ]

This forum. That guide you already read, along with the many commentaries on it. Especially those from players who's comments are "I'm always short stacked, what's up with that?"

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Is it advisible to look for a mentor or some more experienced friends and get them to comment on your play/help you?

[/ QUOTE ]

I wouldn't pay a penny for such advice when you have access to this forum to do it for free.

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If you were going to go back to when you started playing SnG's whats the one thing you wish you have learned or done earlier?

[/ QUOTE ]

Tightened up preflop. Eh, I did most of my thinking about playing these before I got serious about them. Be careful with your bankroll. I adamantly refulse to redeposit, so that's just me and all, but I find that it works for me. Advice not necessarilly from my own experience: Don't rush yourself up the stakes, Don't rush yourself to multi tabling, don't let one bad streak make you think you're terrible, but don't always think it's just bad luck. Don't think you're a world beater when you run good for a couple of days, but don't always think it's just good luck either. Read a lot. Especially the good old posts, or good new posts. Don't tilt. Be aware of your mental status and honestly evaluate your game.

[ QUOTE ]
Any information and help are much appreciated, and I stand in awe of some of the deep analysis I see on this board every day.

Onv

[/ QUOTE ]

While I probably don't provide any of that awe inspiring stuff, welcome to the forum.

citanul

[Thigh]

Can you tell me where the 10+1 guide is? Thanks.

[citanul]

Link (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=singletable&Number=602767& fpart=&PHPSESSID=)

[SuitedSixes]

Are there specific books that anyone believes relate greatly to making the jump for basic SnG player to good SnG player?

>>>This forum is better than any book, although you will learn some concepts from TOP, TPFAP, and HOH that will help you understand some things on this forum better.

Is it advisible to look for a mentor or some more experienced friends and get them to comment on your play/help you?

>>> Yes. The advice on this board is free, but that doesn't always mean it is correct. You also can't be sure that you are applying the information correctly. Having someone to evaluate THAT is priceless.

If you were going to go back to when you started playing SnG's whats the one thing you wish you have learned or done earlier?

>>> I wish I had learned how streaky these things can be. I also wish I had realized how much fun they are a year ago. My introduction to SNGs began like this, "I have $7 in my account, that's not enough for a ring game, I guess I'll try a tournament."

Working off a bonus in a ring game now, is torture.

[johnnybeef]

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Working off a bonus in a ring game now, is torture.


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[Onveric]

Thats kinda scary, killing bonuses has been the biggest BR builder for me.

[gumpzilla]

I'm assuming you're talking about NL SNGs, as opposed to limit?

I think lots of people (myself included) vastly prefer NL to limit hold'em. There are some games - draw, stud - that I have no problem playing limit in, but limit hold'em bores me to death for some reason. So as long as you don't start to hate limit, feel free to go clear all of those bonuses just as you were before.

[planB]

1st post in this forum.

Here is how I started about 18 months ago (NL tourn/sng only).
1 - read any books I could find (about 25 currently)
2 - played $1+0 tournaments for about 10 months to test the concepts with minimal risk. About $40 profit but tiring.
3 - discovered forums like this and read, read, read
4 - switched to mix of 40% $5 sng, 50% $2 2 table and 10% freeroll mtt. Last 8 months produced $800 profit.

I don't keep stats like some people but base on bankroll/profit which works for me.

Content to stay at lower limits while still learning.

[Slim Pickens]

Buy Poker Tracker or similar. Use it.

Slim

[gumpzilla]

Depending on where you're playing, $5 SNGs are a poor choice. The key issue is whether the rake is $1 or $.5. If $.5, fine. If $1, move up to $10+1, which will lead to minimal change in difficulty and will make it easier to beat the rake.

[ZebraAss]

CAN'T YOU READ, STUPID! /images/graemlins/smirk.gif



http://members.chello.at/hhofer/pgifs/rr-pot-bath.gif

(Forum = Gold)

[planB]

Thanks, I have read this comment on rake before. Some is at $1 and some is at $0.50. I have played only a few $10 1 and have done very well in them. My only problem with the $10 sng is if I were to lose several in a row (5-10). I really decided to play sng's rather than ring games because I wanted to take the $ out of the game and just rely on skill. Maybe if my bankroll gets larger I will phase out the $5's.

[Slim Pickens]

I see no problem with playing the 5+1's on Party if your goal is to build a bankroll for playing the 10+1's on Party. Certainly move up as soon as you bankroll supports it, but don't feel guilty about paying the site a little extra until then. Just think of it as an extra tax for playing against people who are either are dumb enough to try to make money paying a 20% vig/images/graemlins/confused.gif or simply don't care because they're playing exclusively for fun /images/graemlins/laugh.gif.

Slim

[pooh74]

[ QUOTE ]
Buy Poker Tracker or similar. Use it.

Slim

[/ QUOTE ]

Dont know if that's the best advice for someone starting out on STTs at low buy-ins. Great for ring, but basically for SNGs its basically a lazy man's ROI/ITM calculator. at 50 bucks that's 10 buyins for these guys and is not gonna help their game nor their table selection. (almost never see the same players at low buyins so tracker is no help really.)

but, thats just me...I bought it once i was playing the 30s.

[BigDave]

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If you were going to go back to when you started playing SnG's whats the one thing you wish you have learned or done earlier?

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't rush yourself up the stakes, Don't rush yourself to multi tabling, don't let one bad streak make you think you're terrible, but don't always think it's just bad luck. Don't think you're a world beater when you run good for a couple of days, but don't always think it's just good luck either. Read a lot. Especially the good old posts, or good new posts. Don't tilt. Be aware of your mental status and honestly evaluate your game.



[/ QUOTE ]

This is spot on. Nice post.

[Slim Pickens]

I think Poker Tracker has two uses. Pros use it for table selection and opponent evaluation. Rec players can use it as a self evaluation tool. Being among the latter, it's been extraordinarily helpful to review my own play and plug basic beginner leaks using the data I collect on myself. The first one I plugged was tightening my starting hand standards in the early rounds. It's one thing to know you should, it's another entirely to see quantitatively that it's costing you piles of chips.

It's probably not good for table selection because the tables fill up so fast, and I rarely have data on more than one opponent, but I've got a lot on the one player whose performance is going to be most closely tied to my ROI. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

Slim