# hands

[gomberg]

This is just a post about some random thoughts from me /images/graemlins/smile.gif

I was just looking at some threads in the small stakes and some other forums about telling players how they should play 50k hands at this level at least before moving on to the next, etc.

Then I thought about my poker career. I don't play a lot of hands. I do a ton of analysis and thinking about the game, and read everything I can about poker in general - but I do not play that much compared to a lot of you.

In general, I play between 5-10 hours / week at an average of 1.4 tables at a time. I've always been of the philosophy that I want to play higher and higher and will wait until I'm beating very high limits until I start expanding horizontally.

Because of this, I have probably played less than 100k hands in the last year and a half (have about 50k hands in PT, but also have played a lot at sites that don't have hand histories, live, etc.)

At every level I've played (except 10-20), I beat the game for over 9 PTBB / 100. It just makes me laugh to think I need 50k hands to move up a level. That's a rediculous number to me. Should I be worried I don't get a large number of hands in? Thoughts?

[Yeti]

The method you are using is best to become a better poker player.

FWIW, I think you're vastly underestimating how many hands you need to make conclusions.

[AZK]

You learn a lot more if you have the discipline to sit and play one table, go over hands, think about what other players have, what they think, how they play their hands, how they play their hands against you, the list goes on and on... Playing one table is boring, if you do all this, one table is TOO much work, how the hell could you multitable without PT and the like? After a while it gets easier.

I agree with yeti that you are vastly underestimating how many hands you need to play to prove yourself, but if you are winning, have the roll/sack, move up. I've always been a fan of this mindset. Whey sit and play 100s of 1000s of hands just to see if I'm good enough to move up. Move up, you get knocked down, you get back up, rebuild, rinse, repeat. It's all about mindset. A lot of people want confirmation that they play good. [censored] that. It's all about mindset, we are gambling, you should be willing to risk getting stuffed in an effort to play higher and see if you can hang. I could go off on a ton of tangents but I think you get the basic idea of what I'm getting at.

[gomberg]

Thanks for the replies - that's how I feel too. It's just like in life - if you take smart risks, you will be much more successful in the long run. It just seems that if you don't risk anything, you can never move on to bigger and better things.

I've been reading a book called "The millionaire mind". It's pretty interesting stuff. It seems the underlying theme is that most very successfull americans have taken huge financial risks to get where they are. I feel you can apply these same concepts to poker (just like starting ones own business).

So for the age old question, when have peoples' BB / 100 # converged since I never play enough to get there? (in terms of hands played...)

[Yeti]

[ QUOTE ]
So for the age old question, when have peoples' BB / 100 # converged since I never play enough to get there? (in terms of hands played...)

[/ QUOTE ]

I've never really played past 100k at one limit. I think at that point you will have a pretty damn good idea, but it's still insane how much the bb/100 can swing after a good or bad session.

[hit_the_set]

[ QUOTE ]
You learn a lot more if you have the discipline to sit and play one table, go over hands, think about what other players have, what they think, how they play their hands, how they play their hands against you, the list goes on and on... Playing one table is boring, if you do all this, one table is TOO much work, how the hell could you multitable without PT and the like? After a while it gets easier.


[/ QUOTE ]

I personally use this approach. Once in a while I play two tables. My win rate is 15.33PTBB/100 over 5,979 hands over 2 months. I am still learning the game(one reason why i dont multitable) and its so much fun!

[gomberg]

[ QUOTE ]
it's still insane how much the bb/100 can swing after a good or bad session.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah - I've seen the effects of this. My hourly rate has been everywhere from $130 - $210 / hour in the past 6 months and can easily swing up and down more than $15 at a time after some large variance sessions (this is all at 5-10 and 10-20 at 1.4 tables multitable ratio)

[lapoker17]

I've found the risk taking part to be right on.

The whole online thing eludes me, as everything seems to be so formulaic.

I play live. I learned how to play live in a game over my BR against players much better than me. It was kind of expensive, but it was a crash course and it was totally worth it. I'm a degenerate gambler, though.

Working your way up is cool too, I just didn't have the patience.