Two Plus Two Older Archives - Help me with a study plan (long and probably boring)???

I'm struggling in an attempt to understand exactly where you are in poker, just as I'm sure you are! But poker is an extremely large topic, and the more we learn about it the larger the topic becomes. So it appears just about insurmountable to you and I, because after all, we are mere beginners. No matter our occasional accomplishments; we are ignorant (untaught), and simply don't understand the full scope of our ignorance. Just as tiny infants learn at absolutely astonishing rates, but are able to communicate none of it to others, we are learning at a faster rate than we'll ever do in the future, yet communication between us and the rest of the poker world is poor, at best! It goes with the territory!

Simply speaking, poker at every level, even my 1/2 cents NL HE level, is just a plucking of the fish by the sharks! Different fish and different sharks at different levels, but still it's a feeding frenzy whereby the sharks compete for the right to eat the fish. It's instructive to me that my 1/2 cents games are constantly served by sharks, who have played with distinction in $2/4 games, for example, but often because of poor money management ended up nearly broke, so here they are in a 1/2 cents game with their single dollar bankroll. They will take that $1 to a few at 1/2 cents (provided they play conservatively enough, and put their ego aside during the process), will then take their $3 to $10 at a 5/10 cents game, etc etc, and one day they will arrive back at the $2/4 game properly capitalized, and older and wiser.

You and I are different from each other, and we have different approaches to levels. I started with $50 April 6th, and bankroll fluctuated between ABOUT $50 and ABOUT $42, perhaps as many times as 4. Of course I was learning as I went, but true beginners are going to develope leaks where advanced players will never touch again. So all of this was simply various expressions of ignorance. The last trajectory took bankroll to $32, as I was employing more aggression in my play. But I reached bottom at a point where I was fundamentally more sound than I'd ever been. I believe it was July 16th (a Saturday) when I had my metamorphosis; the post of mine documenting this event is well-worthwhile reading, as it demonstrates how things can go together very quickly for poker players (hence there is always hope, even for those who perceive themselves as being poker derelicts!). Bankroll went resolutely up to $57, doing the last in probably a burst of $7 in half an hour. Unfortunately, this half hour burst was followed by a wonderful bad tilt, and I ended the day at $42. BUT. I know when I go back to playing I'll use PokerTracker to find causes for my tilt, and this tilt with accompanying analysis will bless my game forever more! Hence I say wonderful bad tilt... Along the way, since I was documenting everything to 2+2, I received gobs of help, especially from Pov and AKQJ10, and not inconsiderably from Sheridan.

I see you as a very bright young man, who never had a good conception of how to build up a great poker game. It just came to you, assisted by reading etc. Unfortunately you didn't have the opportunity to go back-and-forth on 2+2, as you have been doing in threads lately. As you know from that experience, the back-and-forth process brings to bear the considerable poker experience of others, bringing to your attention perhaps too many wonderful avenues, where growth in your game might be obtained. There is just so much time! You should read and reread these answers, to obtain the full measure of learning implicit of what they've offered. Then go back to them and ask direct tightly limited questions of them! Dialogue. Grow. Apply. Think. Share. Teach.

I'm going to run thru some extracts from your post, so I can give specific answers. It's predictable that I'll run out of gas before I spill my speel, but then you should ask more questions. This dialogue is vitally important, actually for both of us. In the process of attempting to organize my thoughts to provide plausible answers, my understanding of the game also grows. For this I thank you in advance!

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"then make a lesson plan of, say, 10 important concepts, then focus on one a month"

[/ QUOTE ] I wouldn't put a timeline on each concept. First present the 10 concepts to 2+2, in the most brief form possible. Ask others to help you to decide order of importance of each concept, so you can work on the most important concept first, etc. For each concept, tell briefly why you believe it's important to your own growth, concerning poker. They'll probably tell why some of the concepts are important to their own game, and then just look at what you've started! Then you should use your many books to enrich your understandings. Report back as to where your big breakthrus in understanding happened: book title, page numbers, and what the breakthru consisted of. You will be simply amazed at how quickly your progress will happen! Why do I predict fast progress? Because you're using all the resources available to you: 2+2 experience of others, your teaching capacities, the knowledge of these great authors, a multiplication of your personal effort to extend to dozens of persons (possibly), thinking, playing, teaching, organizing etc. Do I do this? Only to a degree. Do what I say, not what I do!

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"hoping for input on how to advance and when I know"

[/ QUOTE ] Reread my second pharagraph above. When YOU believe you've become a shark at a certain level, rather than a fish, and provided you have the 300 to 500 BBs in bankroll so you're adequately capitalized at the new level, then move up in limits. Remember experts occasionally lose big money playing, and rank beginners often win hugely. So results-oriented observations are poor ones. YOU must build a game, and constantly analyze your game to ferret out weaknesses. Luck is a factor, and it obscures just how good we've actually become (or how bad we really are!).

You have it very right when you retrench after some heavy losses. That's the time to read and think, before playing. It's also a great time to ask 2+2 for help. We're simply not able to see the plank in our own eyes, but we can see the speck in someone else's. That's human nature... Finally, back up to the prior level, until you've regained your former successful status.

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"minimum retirement age is 57 for me, so 22 more years of studying and hope that the game still has some life in it when I get there"

[/ QUOTE ] Personally I resigned from Sandia National Lab when I was 30. You'll be brain-dead if you sit in the bureauracy for another 22 years. At least you've got enough spunk left in you to attempt learning poker. Work at poker as though poker were going to be legalized in every way here in the U.S. within a year. The explosion of interest, as all major Las Vegas casinos jump onto the internet, will bring another 60 million poker players to the U.S. crop. There will be another explosion of competition among casinos, we'll find fish simply everywhere, and with big bonuses and rakebacks. There might even be a lowering in rake percentage, with all this competition!

I stayed at Sandia 5 years (and actually received a 5-year pin!). I'm guessing that I was working on passing the exit exam after just 2 years. I could see the people around me. They had a job, and that's about all. I had exciting projects all the while I was there, but I still wanted out. So I bought my first duplex the year I went to Sandia, bought the second the next year, and the 3rd year I stepped it up to 30 apartments. By the time I resigned at age 30, I had 118 apartments, and 3 times the income I'd had as a staff member at Sandia.

Set your sights high! As you succeed with poker, you'll also find your government job gets more interesting. They'll respect you more, and they'll give you better treatment. My work at Sandia was wonderful, but I didn't see that others also had neat jobs. I had a great job because I made it that. They just couldn't keep me down, and in 5 years I was history...

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"Money management, though, is the biggest concern for me right now"

[/ QUOTE ] Always have way too much money sitting idle than you employ. Error in favor of even greater conservatism, stressing lower limits until you've proven to yourself you're a shark, and not a fish. It's not statistics that you should use to assess whether you're ready to move to higher limits. It's bankroll size related to BB size, and it's the realization you've settled into a deserved role of shark at tables. When you look around you and can name the sharks at your table, and know how each of them function, you're probably a shark yourself! You'll be beating the other sharks occasionally, too. The shark must, at the minimum, breakeven against other sharks, but dominates the fish utterly.

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"old BJ double-the-bet plan: $10...lose...$20...lose...$40...lose...$80...win.. .$10"

[/ QUOTE ] This is call Grand Martingale. I've used it successfully at blackjack too, and taught others to do the same. It's totally inappropriate to playing poker. Why? Because competent sharks at $2/4 aren't in the same league as sharks at $1/2, and so on down the levels! They've earned their shark status, and know much more than sharks operating at lesser levels. They've earned the power!

Too many people play at the level at which they're incompetent. They can drop down a single level and make excellent money. Part of the reason is the siren song bonuses present. One is expected to believe one can breakeven on play, and still come out way ahead simply because of bonuses. Fine; show me a breakeven player and I'll show you a player who isn't growing! Show me a player who isn't growing and I'll show you a player who is dead.

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"have you devised a similar plan/angle of attack to reach your $100k? I could set my goals to $1M in 5 years, but without a map and a game plan, I have no idea the best way to get from point A to point B....I need direction"

[/ QUOTE ] I believe that the cycles Reading, Playing, Thinking and Teaching are a lifelong thing with poker players. They never end, but relative importance of these 4 components change. As one becomes expert, Reading is done more to refresh memory, than to establish first principals. Playing is at ever more challenging levels. Thinking extends to areas never even conceived of earlier. Teaching becomes almost an end unto itself. Notice that most of the best TV players are entertaining writing a book, if not they're actually doing it! Is it the money from royalties? No, JMHO. To organize a book, one that won't be laughed right out of the bookstore, demands organizing one's poker game as never before! So they write books so as to become better poker players.

When I return to playing it will be to get back to competence with 1/2 cents NL HE, and then move capital to $70.00 (3,500 BBs). I'll attempt to figure out whether I'm a shark at 1/2 cents. Do I breakeven against other sharks? Do I trounce fish? Do I understand other sharks?

Then I'll go on to 5/10 cents NL HE. Because my requirements are so large at the 1/2 cents level, I expect the 5/10 cents games will be easy. With $70, I'll have 700 BBs at this level. My next level would then be 10/25 cents, which requires $125 bankroll. So at 5/10 cents I'll have to win $55 more, to add to my $70 entry level. That's 550 BBs more, to a total of 1,250 BBs. This is much less difficult than the move from 1/2 cents to 5/10 cents, and much less time-consuming. Again, I'll come to grips with my relationship to sharks at the 5/10 cents level. I WON'T GO UP IN LIMITS UNTIL I'VE EARNED THE RIGHT TO BE CALLED A SHARK AT 5/10 CENTS!!!

So I'll move one level at a time. 1/2 cents, 5/10 cents, 10/25 cents, 25/50 cents, 50/100 cents, $1/2, $2/4, $3/6, $4/8, $5/10 and $10/20. There will be some backing down, as I realize I'd gone up to the next level prematurely, or because I need to rebuild confidence after some debilitating drawdowns in bankroll.

I see bonuses coming in not before level $1/2. Playing profitably is more beneficial than bonuses, and I suppose that's always true. I don't have a whole lot of respect for one who breaks even at $2/4, and earns $1,000/mon from bonuses. I have more respect for a 50/100 cents player who wins 6 BBs/100 at NL HE! At 1,000 hands/wk he gains just $50 weekly, but his prospects aren't limited! He'll learn how to multitable 4 tables to win $200/wk, and then he'll take on $1/2. Six months from now he'll be making 4.5 BBs/100 multitabling 4 tables at $5/10. That's 4,000 hands weekly, and $1,800/wk (4.5 x 40 x $10). I'd rather be him!

Let's express the $100,000/yr goal as a daily one. Working 300 days/yr (50 weeks times 6 days/wk), this goal is equivalently $333.33 per playing-day. One can go all over the map varying one's personal VP$IP, average pot size won, hours played per day, number of tables multiplayed etc etc. If one is expert, making $335/day can be done using a variety of playing styles. It's just a matter of learning how to play that expertly, and then going about making the income required. The final result must also be a fun thing! Hope this helps...

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"Consider the uselessness of ego in the game of poker..."

[/ QUOTE ] Don't take it personally. Playing without ego is something to be strived for. Ego is simply one of the enemies we face. I have no idea how this fits with you, but you surely do!

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"feel my love of money is holding me back...know the move is to fire $100 at the pot, but I still value $100 too much sometimes to make the move"

[/ QUOTE ] We need to master greed, fear, impatience, ego etc etc. It turns out good poker is also a good spiritual walk.

This post was much more ambitious than I'd expected. I hope you'll take it apart, breaking it into half a dozen of your own posts, and put up dozens of questions! Why? Because I'll benefit (and so will you!). As is often the case, some of my best posts are in answer to others in their threads. If there a few responses to my post, given that it's hidden away within your thread, I might republish it as my own thread, with some rewriting. But this will be absolutely unnecessary if you take advantage of my post within your thread, and build a number of useful responses, as above.

Dave