What is the best way to rate my progress

[Schmed]

or lack there of /forums/images/icons/crazy.gif

As I have said before I am very new to casino style poker. I am doing the background but there is nothing that can supplant putting your money inside that line when it comes to learning the game.

From everything I have read about rating your progress you should do it monthly/yearly and not per session. That is so hard to do. Last night for example I got kicked right in the nuts. I'll spare the stories but I had 4 bad beats and probably 5 bad obvious bets that probably cost me a lot of that loss. I'm sure there were a number of subtle bad decisions as well. I didn't play as well as I had last week when I played and really got taken. (Well relatively speaking...lost 260 in my ll 1-4-8-8 half omaha half hodm). In total, 8 sessions, I am down, off of the top of my head, basically the 260 I lost last night.

I feel as if I am getting better but still there is a lot of info that is not being processed fast enough.

Just to update. I have read HPAP and now am reading Poker theory. I know I probably should have switched those two but my friend got me HPAP for my B-Day in January. I have TTH and Turbo Omaha high for my computer. My stratgies work well in Omaha on the puter and good in holdm. Funny I seem to play Holdm a lot better at the casino and Omaha worse. Personally I think it has to do with the fact that I read that book and it helps me identify situations.

Last night may be a function of a couple of things. I have been trying to be a bit more aggressive. Not call as much and raise more from late positions but really the times I was doing that I was coming out ahead. Really it came down to about 10 hands in 7 hours of play that killed me. There were 4 hands in particular that I lost around 150 total on. (I'll spare y'all another bad beat story).

Are the online poker schools worth it??? I could see some merit in having someone look at your play and tell you how they would approach it. I dunno, if you made it this far thanks for reading this I know it's long.

[Howard Burroughs]

Just wondering, are you playing O/8 or high only? If you are playing 0/8, get Ray Zee's book ASAP! His 22 concepts section is worth the price alone. I could not imagine myself playing O/8 without Ray's 22 concepts in my bag of tricks. Don't leave home without them.

If you are playing high only, remember something Mason once said......."If ever there was a worthless game, this is it". Or words to that effect.

*****************

How to rate progress?

Money for one. Write all of your results down (don't forget to log your bad ones) It will all be there in black & white.

Also, look for mistakes the other players are making. As you study (books,forums, etc) and play more, you will start noticing more & more errors that players make. Of course sometimes they make big mistakes and still get pushed real big pots. But hey, that's poker.

Best of Luck

Howard

[Schmed]

First of all thanks for the comments.

Yes it is Omaha high only. We play O8 at a home game I play but at Harrahs in New Orleans they play a lot of high only Omaha. Last night they had 2 15-30 games and a couple of nights a week they play a 30-60. The game I am playing in is one round of Omaha hi and one round of Holdm 1-4-8-8...a little more friendly for the beginner /forums/images/icons/wink.gif . I do wish they would just play a straight holdm game.

I got Ray's book hoping that it would help me to some extent. At least I'll be able to practice the concepts in my home game. I haven't read it yet as I bought it with The Theory of Poker on Amazon and just got it Monday...I know what's taking me so long....(actually I am about half way through theory of poker and have a million questions but am waiting until I finish and am reviewing it to bring them to this forum).

Thanks again Howard...much appreciated....

[Ed Miller]

When you are beginning, there is simply no objective measure of your progress. Statistically, it takes thousands of hours for your win rate to converge... and as a new player, you will be improving quickly in that time, meaning that your win rate won't converge for still longer until your improvement levels off.

You cannot measure your skill based on your short-term results. Wish you could, because that would make this game a little less nerve-wracking... especially when you are a beginner, but you can't. What you can do is participate in this forum and post responses daily to all the posted hands. In the beginning, what you say will be wrong as often as not. Don't get embarrassed... everyone is here to learn, and all the experienced posters have gone through a phase where they didn't understand the game very well. As time goes on, though, your responses will start to line up hand after hand with what the expert posters recommend; then you will have made significant improvements in your game. You will need to fully understand the reasoning behind making poker decisions for this to happen.

[rayrns]

"post responses daily to all the posted hands. In the beginning, what you say will be wrong as often as not."

I did and I was wrong.

"Don't get embarrassed..."

I was.
But thanks to your post I will try evaluating hands again.

[Ed Miller]

Go back and read the posts on the Small Stakes forum from July and August... I was just a beginning player and no doubt said some really stupid things (I was definitely told several times how wrong I was). That's what this forum is for... to say stupid things (anonymously /forums/images/icons/smile.gif) and learn from your mistakes. You don't need to impress anyone around here... and besides, when you do learn and gain knowledge, you will begin to impress people. No way to get there without putting in your newbie time, though.