How much practice is needed?

[coldcards2]

If I want to become a great hold em player how many hours do you think I hsould spend a week working on my game and getting experience. How many hours, roughly, should I try to get a week???

[jman220]

A lot. Start off playing the micro-limits on stars or something similar, and read SSHE by Sklanksy.

[JeanieJ]

It's an odd question.

You could spend your whole life practicing poker and never become a "great" hold em' player. So I suppose it depends on what you consider great. Study when you can, play when you can, read forums and books. If you're good enough, you'll know it. If not, I'm sure you'll have fun trying.

[x2ski]

[ QUOTE ]
If I want to become a great hold em player how many hours do you think I hsould spend a week working on my game and getting experience. How many hours, roughly, should I try to get a week???

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the issue is how many hours, roughly, you want to get in per week. Try to be more clear when you post.

Anyway, it's not "quantity", but "quality". Don't just crank out hands (like I do), try to focus on your plays based on the reads you have on your specific opponents.

Read and post in the strategy forums (unlike I do)...

Micros (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=micro) , Small-Stakes (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=smallholdem) , Mid-High (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=mediumholdem) [if you're a LAG], and apply what you learn to your own game (at the appropriate times, of course)...

In the long-run, you should be fine.

[sthief09]

give credit where credit is due. Ed Miller wrote SSH

[Niediam]

60+hours/week

If you just want to be a solid winning player I'm sure an intelligent person would be fine with 20hours/week.

[AngryCola]

[ QUOTE ]
60+hours/week

[/ QUOTE ]

This is silly, and it's clearly a number you just pulled out of your ass.

How long should you play 60+/week before you become a "great player"?

Forever?

Playing that many hours per week may actually hurt more than a few people's game.
Practice is very important, but let's not get carried away with some of these recommendations.

[krasserpan]

Hey, isn't poker just like any other sports? I mean, you can also practice a lot, if you want to become a football star, but this doesn't make you a Ronaldinho. It differs from person to person and how talented the person is. OK, you can compare poker much better with chess, but there you will find the same. Hope you get it /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Niediam]

It's possible that there are some prodigies out there who can get by with less... but the 'average' highly intelligent person will have to almost devote their life to become a GREAT player.

Btw, when I said 60+ hours I week I don't mean actually playing... I'm including reading books, 2+2, and thinking about poker in general.

[AngryCola]

[ QUOTE ]

Btw, when I said 60+ hours I week I don't mean actually playing... I'm including reading books, 2+2, and thinking about poker in general.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is completely different, and I don't disagree with it.
Great players think about the game almost constantly.

[kurom]

I've recently decided this game is for me, and asked myself the same question. However, what I found is more playing != better playing. I've tried to treat this as a formal education, so I've done five things:

1) Play poker. I plat $1/$2 mainly, sometimes venturing to $2/$4, and play 2-3 nights a week, 5-6 hours a night.

2) Read. SSHE is a great book to read, re-read, and keep going back to. These forums have been great too, even though I've done nothing but lurk. On the reading side, I feel it's better to read the hell ut of a few books, than it is to fly through seven books not really learning anything. The way I figure, any one book is marginally better than any other, but the real value is how deeply you understand any one of those books. From here I'll probably go to Advanced Hold 'Em.

3) Write. I have a little poker journal, where I record my night's experience. May sound cheesy, but being forced to recall the evening of poker, the memoerable hands (which are usually all beats) and then discussing them -- with myself -- in my head forces me to acknowledge the good and bad parts of my game. I suggest you try doing the same.

4) Watch. Because most of my weekday evenings are spent near a computer, if I'm not playing, chances are I'm watching a game. I watch to see if I can start identifying player-types, what people have, who's drawing, etc. all based on their betting styles. I'm still not great at it, but I figure if it keeps me thinking about that, it can't be all bad.

5) Walk Away. Don't let poker become your only focus. You will lose. Walk away for times, do other things have other interests and then come back. This is big for me personally, as it keeps me from tilting.

That's been my regimen, and it's starting to pay off. Playing the 1/2 and 2/4 games to begin I sunk about $300 into the online sites. I haven't put anything in in weeks, and while not exactly making money, (I have a day job with a much higher return on my time) I'm definitely not losing it anymore.

And above all, have patience. You will be bad at first. You will lose money. Never try to "make it back" by playing more hands. Whenever I feel myself tilting that way, I repeat this adage in my head "Cold Hard Math." It may not be 100% true, but it seems to do the trick.

[JunkHead]

[ QUOTE ]
Great players think about the game almost constantly.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, I'm either a great player or a sick compulsive.

My money is on sick compulsive...


JunkHead

[bernie]

5

15 mins studying. (magazine article. Most articles suck, but the ads can be pretty to look at)

3h45min playing (usually on a weekend while wife-g/f is playing slots or banging another guy in the parking lot)

1 hour telling everyone how great you are.

Hey, it seems to work for most of the guys I see in the cardrooms!

b

[Ray Of Light]

Just put in regular hours, however many or few you feel like doing... the rest will take care of itself...

[bdypdx]

In a local cardroom where I play, there are people who've been playing for years and years and one wouldn't know it from the way they play.

So, like others have said, you're going to have to add a lot of study and analysis to become a great player.

d.

[jman220]

[ QUOTE ]
give credit where credit is due. Ed Miller wrote SSH

[/ QUOTE ]

oops.

[popniklas]

Good first post. Welcome to the forums.

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

I heard somewhere that the game takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master. I don't remember where, but I think it may be some TV show or something...

[Andrew Smith]

Great first post. Incredibly valuable advice here. Follow your own advice and you should be winning in no time.

[Net Warrior]

To save yourself a lot of time and effort, get a coach!

[jba]

stop lurking

[spaminator101]

start out by reading this forum