Frustrated gambler advice

I have been playing online now for a couple of years and never did too well. Then about 6 months ago I decided to take my hobby more seriously. I have read a few books on no limit holdem. I was pretty amazed at how diffrent the hands played out and what I saw after spending some time investigating the game. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on the true fundementals of the game and wanted to use the sit and go's to pratice, learn and gain experience.
One problem I find the lower limit games to be very hard to play. Everyone limps in, you will get called any amount at any time on a whim. Every hand has the possibility to be turned into a coin flip. So I moved up to some higher stakes tabels. I find these easier to play at but I am not really good enough to hold my own and could go through a good portion of $ playing there.

Any suggestions as to the best way to improve?

[Bigdaddydvo]

Go to SNG forum and read the FAQs to start.

Moving up limits because it's tighter and "people respect your raises" is really awful. Beat the 10s consistently and move up from there.

[yellowjack]

You must realize that you're making money when they make mistakes in terms of EV, i.e. opponents calling a big raise preflop with garbage is +EV for you. I don't suggest playing too high until you have a good grasp of this fundamental concept, and how being aware of this ensures your success at any level, and any gambling game.

Sorry if this sounds repetitive to you, but the reasons you listed for moving to higher stakes tables don't show that you understand this.

Thanks for the quick responses.
A couple of question. I hate to be the newb but I looked around and could not find the sng faq.
Also not to sure what +EV is. Are you are talking about offering unfavorable pot odds and being constantly called with semi weak hands?
Thanks again for the response I appreciate the advice.

[yellowjack]

EV is the money you gain/lose in making a play, over all possible cases. Take for example this very simple situation:

A heads-up no limit hold'em game between two players with no blinds or antes. <font color="red">Player A</font> is dealt Ah Ad and goes all-in for $10. <font color="blue">Player K</font> calls the all-in with Kh Kd.
On average, with some help from twodimes.net, we see that the AA will win 82.36% of the time, lose 17.09% of the time, and tie 0.54% of the time. Conversely, the KK will win 17.08% of the time, lose 82.36% of the time, and tie 0.54% of the time.

EV of Player A
0.8236*(<font color="red">+$10</font>) + 0.1708*(<font color="blue">-$10</font> + 0.0054*(+$0) = +$6.528 (= $6.53 rounded up)
Player A will win $6.53 on average, each time he is in this situation.

EV of Player K
0.8236*(<font color="red">-$10</font>) + 0.1708*(<font color="blue">+$10</font> + 0.0054*(+$0) = -$6.528 (= -$6.53 rounded up)
Not surprisingly, Player K will lose $6.53 each time he is in situation.

This explains how the donkeys calling allins with trash eventually lose. In this example player K didn't play the hand incorrectly at all. And that's the thing, you can play a hand correctly and still be behind because you have no idea what your opponent has. However, as long as you are +EV against the range of hands you think your opponent could have (i.e. any pair, AK or AQ) then it's correct to call even though you may get unlucky.

In the case of making big raises preflop and getting called by garbage, it's not that simple. Postflop play cannot be simplified very well. However, you can figure out how much money they are losing by making that preflop call after you know their hand, by using the above idea.

Hope this helps.

[Felipe]

I don't play NL but I recommend you buy these very fundamental and important books:

T.O.P.
HoH1

They will pay themselves off soon.

[NLfool]

ok first off low limit is very frustrating. Don't overplay you overpair in limit in a field of 7 or 8 players. You want to thin the field play no limit. You're getting +EV if they all call but they are also not making a significant mistake with all the callers you aren't getting nearly the +EV spots you think you are (plus it's likely to get you frustrated or tilting)


2nd in SNG in the beginning don't play anything except for big pairs and AK, AQ (and don't call raises with AQ) Playing this tight you'll get down to 5 players as the blinds are escalating. Now the blinds/antes are worth stealing and you've earned a rep as a tight player you'll steal more than your fair share now. From here is it easy to make the money

Someone already said this but it really should be stressed. Moving up in stakes because you think the bad beats and the suck outs will be less is an a extremely flawed concept. The more mistakes your opponents make the easier it is for you to succeed at poker.

The thing that sucks though, is that it takes a bit longer for better play to shine through at sng's, than it does in ring games. Probably why you feel you are losing too much. Variance in sng's is hard to deal with. Maybe you should check out ring games, or multi tables. they might suit you better.

Well first off let me say that I am really impressed by this board. It looks like I asked a couple of pretty general question and instead of getting flamed I got some very intelligent and useful answers. Just wanted to say thanks.

I have read both of Harrington's books but have not read t.o.p. by Salansky yet. Looks like I will be getting that shortly though.

As far as EV there is a chapter in Harrington’s second book on this though it is refer to as hand analysis I believe. I have been focusing on the general strategy and have only touched on some of the more in depth strategies in my game play. (Mostly watching my M and changing my play accordingly)

One more question I would like to ask before I let this thread die. It looks like I need to really take into account EV. When playing how often do you bother to calculate this? Is this something that needs to be done on a regular basis, or more of a big pot turning point situations? Or is it more of a study the hands through calculations and know through experience roughly what the EV is?

[tigerite]

The latter, for sure.