my upper-level course in mid-high stakes NLHE

[McStinky]

I was in school forever (bachelors, masters, PhD), and just finished. I have been playing poker for a couple years and gradually have been taking it more seriously. I have been very successful in school, and OK in poker but not killing it like I thought I would. So it's time to go to class. Here is the course description for my imaginary class in mid-high stakes NLHE.

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Course Name: Mid-High NLHE 401

Course Goals: To prepare students to crush 10/20NL on Party.

Prerequisites: mathematical maturity, tiltlessness (let's pretend this is possible), knowledge of proper bankroll management, many hours of experience playing, understanding of the main concepts in the good poker books

Quizzes: For daily quiz, go through all new hands posted on the forum. Decide how you would play the hand within 30 seconds. Next, think for a few minutes and see if you are still happy with your original decision. Finally, look at the "answers". After the quiz, record the new things you learned.

Homework: Play sessions and record the hands you are unsure about. Post key hands to the message board. Also, find a study partner at the same level and quiz each other on the key hands from each session.

Course Project: Make a list of the most interesting hands you have ever read about on message boards, in articles, or wherever. Explain what makes them so interesting, from a strategic point of view.
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The point of all this is to develop a more systematic way of reaching an advanced level. Although the psychological stuff is important, the focus here is on refining strategy. Notice that it is very focused on individual hands, which I think is a weakness. I think there needs to be more on preflop play and frequencies and stuff, but I can't see how to do that systematically. Maybe PokerTracker should come into play there?

I'd love to hear peoples' comments. When talking about learning, most people just say to "play hands, post, and respond to posts", but I feel that this can be improved upon/refined. What kinds of creative things have people done to get their "poker education"?

[BobboFitos]

we need hot professoras

[yvesaint]

i think one of the top, most important skills is reading/table selection

before taking a shot at 5/10, i watched the tables for a few days, noting who was a regular, who was a winner, who was a donator, etc., how people played this hand, that hand

then when i sat down at a table, i was confident i was one of the best players there, and had good reads on everyone

[McStinky]

Good point. I forgot to mention table selection. That seems like a skill that is independent of the ones in my "course" (but perhaps a lot more important).

Along those lines, I am trying to develop a systematic way to decide to leave a table and try another. It is tough to decide between switching to a table that seems fishier or staying at a table where players are better but you have really good reads on them (assuming you don't want to play both at once).

[Marlow]

[ QUOTE ]
Course Project: Make a list of the most interesting hands you have ever read about on message boards, in articles, or wherever. Explain what makes them so interesting, from a strategic point of view.


[/ QUOTE ]

Take this a few steps further. Anyone can make a list, but it takes additional depth of understanding to order the list in a specific way. For instance, take a look at ToP and categorize the best threads (we're talking dozens if not hundreds of threads) according to the chapter titles. This is more challenging then it sounds, and it forces you to draw conclusions that you wouldn't draw otherwise. If you want to go even further than that, make a database that allowed you to sort your threads in many different ways, thereby giving you the opportunity to find interesting and unusual results from the same information.

Also, scrap the word "interesting." I work with instructors every day to help them write effective objectives, and this is just terrible. Why? Poker is a real life game with real-life consequences. And "interesting" just ain't useful. Find better words to describe the outcomes that you're shooting for on the other end of your study.

Anyway, there's lots more but I gotta go right now. I've been thinking about something similar to what you're desacribing this for a while now. I might be interested in some sort of collaboration. PM if interested in slinging a few more ideas around.

Marlow

[McStinky]

Wanted to throw this out there one more time because I think people have more to say about the learning techniques they have tried.

[ML4L]

[ QUOTE ]
Wanted to throw this out there one more time because I think people have more to say about the learning techniques they have tried.

[/ QUOTE ]

You could hire a coach.

ML4L

Send your students to me instead. I will school them for a little $1000 heads up NLHE action.

[JMa]

Table selection in party's 5/10 is way overrated. Everybody pretty much sucks, just take the table w/ highest avg. pot.

[captZEEbo1]

[ QUOTE ]
Send your students to me instead. I will school them for a little $1000 heads up NLHE action.

[/ QUOTE ]PLEASE TEACH ME!!!1

[AZK]

I'll post the money required for your lesson.

[FoxwoodsFiend]

[ QUOTE ]
i think one of the top, most important skills is reading/table selection

before taking a shot at 5/10, i watched the tables for a few days, noting who was a regular, who was a winner, who was a donator, etc., how people played this hand, that hand

then when i sat down at a table, i was confident i was one of the best players there, and had good reads on everyone

[/ QUOTE ]

For anybody who plays this game more than once, it's simply not worth the time to scope out the table. Sure, when you play you'll be SLIGHTLY more profitable, but you'll also be giving up on the value of playing instead of watching (you're still profitable even if not maximally so) and this approach also precludes 4-tabling.
Just look for average pot size and play the tighter games until the looser ones open up.

[gergery]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Wanted to throw this out there one more time because I think people have more to say about the learning techniques they have tried.

[/ QUOTE ]

You could hire a coach.

ML4L

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you know any good ones? /images/graemlins/grin.gif

-g