Rookie Question

[Slowplay]

I have been only playing for a few months, although I recently jumped from 3-6 to 6-12 and even as a rookie I am still shocked at the terrible skill level of many opponents. How many BB/hour should someone be averaging and how much time should they invest at a certain limit before experimenting with bigger games? Also--and here's my inexperience speaking--I find it incredible infuriating when that manaical moron sucks-out a baby flush or gutshot after calling my raise on the Turn, when I am holding Top/Top or even Trips. I know that it's difficult to blast draws off of the battlefield in a low-limit game, but does anyone have advice? Check-raise the Flop, perhaps? What are the odds of hitting a four-flush vs. a full boat when you flop two pair? Anything will help.

Danke.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

A flopped 4-flush is a 1.9 - 1 dog to hit by the river. A flopped 2 pair is a 4.84 - 1 dog to fill by the river.

[Allan]

Since it takes so long for your true win rate to converge and you lack of experience/knowledge it is hard to say how much a person who is a newbie should be averaging. If you are break even your first couple of months, that is a great start. If you've lost some it isn't the end of the world. With experience and a more thorough understanding of poker theory you should be on your way to a successful approach.

As for how much time to invest in a certain limit. I think that is somewhat a personal choice. Bankroll certainly played a part in this decision for me. I wasn't comfortble playing poker with money not made from poker so my approach on moving up has been more conservative and slower than most. What was comfortable for me was to play a lot of one limit until I logged a fairly high number of successful hours. Upon feeling comfortable with this limit and the win rate I had, I took some shots at the next limit up usually playing short sessions. These short interspersed higher limit sessions became more and more frequent untill virtually all the sessions I played were at the new limit. Sometimes the transition was not easy and quick and involved getting beaten down to my previous limit more times than I'd care to admit, but eventually it stuck.

All in all, it's pretty simple, it takes time and work but isn't unattainable...don't delude yourself, just make sure your understanding of the game and the fluctuations involved are sound and you should do fine...Have a +EV reason for every action you make in poker....including moving up in limit.

Hope this helps,

Allan

[Slowplay]

Thanks for the replies; some sound advice and very helpful odds. Sadly, I am a cursed right-brainer who relies more on reading players and studying their betting patterns, mannerism, and "tells" (although as of yet I haven't spotted anyone who eats OERO cookies when they flop the stone cold nuts). So, pot/implied odds, favs vs. dogs, and probabilites are clearly costing me a few bets on borderline raises/calls/folds. If anynone can offer this English Major any tricks/tips/quick calculations, he would be infinitely grateful (e.g. - how to convert number of outs for a particular hand into odds?).

Thanks.

[J.R.]

This essay may be of some help.

http://www.posev.com/poker/holdem/strategy/outs-abdul.html

[redsamurai]

One of the best pieces of advice I've gotten about playing poker at brick and morters is to be aware of how you spend your time when you are out of a hand. If you are playing tight you'll likely be out of the majority of pots as soon as you look at your cards. Use this time to your advantage. Learn to count bets in terms of big blinds and calculate pot odds. Once you can do this for pots you're not in, it becomes second nature to do it for pots you are in. Another good use of "down" time is to pick a player and profile his/her play and manerisms (tells). Make it someone at the table whose play you respect and can learn from or someone whose play you feel you can take advantage of later. These two seemingly small tips have made a huge difference for me at the table.

[Slowplay]

Once again thanks for all the feedback. Please forgive me, but one more annoying math-type question and one comment:

If you have 9 outs (say a flopped four-flush) and you are an approx. 2-1 dog, how is this figure arrived at? (For my future calculations). Also, I have started to drop certain starter hands (in attempt to play more solid) and I am now averaging about 3-4 BB/hour at the 6-12 game (good, average, great?). I have also started to notice opportunities to "open up" my game against predictably good players, such as playing any ace OTB in an unraised pot when I am positive that my opponents are decent enough to raise their big bullets and fold their small ones. Any other "loosen up" hands (depending of course on position, odds, texture, etc.), because I have noticed that a few excellent at my local players seem to be winning monster pots with QT, and 85, nailing baby straights (and, of course rattling the weak players who didn't spot it on the board).

Thanks again.

[Allan]

Slowplay,

I don't know how much studying you've actually done but if you go to the books forum or the biginners forum and do a search for: skp's list, it will give you a very excellent reading list of some of the greatest books on poker/holdem.


In these books you'll find all the answers to your questions. The books that will help with the math end of things are:

Getting the Best of It by Sklansky
Hold 'em Odd(s) Book by Mike Petriv


the petriv book shows how to do calculations for a lot of different holdem stuff..


Allan