Re: Do any other winning players...
 

I think everyone here could use a good, healthy dose of feeling like they're terrible at poker. I too often forget to take my "I suck" medicine before I play. If you go in with a feeling of immortality, you'll be too inclined to chase weak draws and round up your pot odds. Fortunately for me, I'm in the middle of a downswing in spite of playing at looser tables at Paradise relative to Stars. Nothing induces humility like getting beaten with a large stick.

When I'm convinced of my terrible play, I do more to focus on it and correct it than when my badass self can do no wrong.

Re: Do any other winning players...
 

[ QUOTE ]
I don't feel like a mediocre player, but the more I learn about poker the more I realise that I know nothing about poker.

I am sure that all the regulars will agree too.

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah the game seems so simple on the surface, preflop isn't really complicated though I still need some work on button/co situations .. its postflop that is so tricky

Re: Do any other winning players...
 

I don't really consider myself a winning player yet, and I don't think any number of hands will convince me of it. The only thing that will convince me I'm a truly winning player is a when I'm consistently beating 3/6 and above. While I don't think I'm a horrible player, I'm no where near where I want to be. In reality, I'm probably not doing too badly considering I've only been playing a few months, but I'm a perfectionist and I absolutely despise losing. I just don't have the confidence to shrug off losing sessions, because I don't know how much is bad play and how much is just getting sucked out on.

I also think reading the "bragging" posts is detrimental. When I read of players who have upswings lasting thousands of hands, or tens of thousands of hands I get irritated because I've never had something like that. I'll hit a nice upswing that lasts a day or two, then it's back to really having to grind out my gains. Even when I'm running well, I'm not really running well. Then, seeing people taking the .50/1.00 tables for 4, 5, 6+ BB/100 delivers another blow. I only took the stars .25/.50 for about 2.50-2.75BB/100 and I start to wonder whether I'm just kidding myself.

It's a long road to success, but I've come far enough to know the fruits will be worth the effort, so I continue to grind it out, think hands through, and hope that everyday I play, I become a little better.

Re: Do any other winning players...
 

My main problem is thinking quickly...

During every session, I write down the hands I want to look over when I'm done. A lot of times, the ones I want to review end up 5 minutes from becoming a new thread here. The reason they don't make it to thread-dom is because once it's all laid out in front of me and I get to see what happened every street, the hand becomes much clearer. For instance, I'll see that I'm calling a bet with the proper immediate pot odds but the preflop raiser is behind me. Or, I'll forget that the guy to the left 3-bet me preflop and I'll bet into him with a good draw when I should check raise.

A lot of it has to do with not closely observing my tables (like right now, I'm writing this post and scratching my balls). As others have said in this thread, having a +BB/100 is incentive enough to keep playing, knowing that I can be mediocre and still earn some, as Uncle Rico would say, "Moolah."

Re: Do any other winning players...
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
One, who are you comparing yourself to?

[/ QUOTE ]
Probably some of the posts along the lines of "I started two months ago with $200 and now I only have $2000 because I'm in the middle of a 50BB downswing here's my 5k-hand stats whats wrong?"

[/ QUOTE ]

precisely. everyone talks about "crushing" these limits, and the only thing i'm crushing is my mouse when when some knob calls 3 cold and cracks my rockets with his 72o. but i'm not bitter, since i just got home from a friendly tourney in which i got bounced on the bubble when my OE straight draw/flush draw/two overcards missed. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] it's nice to know that others think their incompetance can compete with mine. thanks guys! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: Do any other winning players...
 

try not to think about your level of play. This assumes that your winrate, or bankroll, or anything else determine how good of a player you are. The simple fact is that these things are effects, not causes, and not particularly deterministic causes since they are all also affected by random chance accruing over several thousand incidences. The cause that you should focus on is your ability to recognize the correct play, and implement it. The ability to do that consistently is something that literally takes YEARS to develop. Even the guys who are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year playing poker make mistakes, so the newer player who is playing in a much less defined environment is allowed to do so as well. Especially since those mistakes, and the ensuing lessons, will help pay your way to either higher limits, or cooler stuff.

I know, its not that easy. Ive found that strong drink and fast women are helpfull. Well, not so much the fast women. Just the strong drink.

peace

john nickle

Re: Do any other winning players...
 

Personally, I still have trouble with the swings. Part of me knows that I'm winning player, but another part of my brain wonders...why am I down 30 BB over the last 1,500 hands? It's silly, but it's hard to shake. I think much of this may come from the fact that I'm moving into my own apartment in a few weeks, and I plan on playing a lot of .5/1 to help with some expenses (help being the key word here - this is not a "going pro" post by any means [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ). I think any doubt I might have is getting magnified in my brain.

Re: Do any other winning players...
 

Constant improvement is important to all of us, but we also want to make a lot of money. I am wondering if I will improve faster if I single or double table instead of four tabling. Any thoughts on this?

Re: Do any other winning players...
 

[ QUOTE ]
Constant improvement is important to all of us, but we also want to make a lot of money. I am wondering if I will improve faster if I single or double table instead of four tabling. Any thoughts on this?

[/ QUOTE ]

You're easily missing many opportunities to learn. I exclusively single-table, and I think it shows. (And I mean this constructively, and not in a bragging sort of way.)

Re: Do any other winning players...
 

Years ago some guy wrote a tongue-in-cheek management book called (I think) The Peter Principle. All about how organisations work. His basic thesis was that people get promoted to the level at which they can demonstrate their incompetence. (Below that level, they perform well, so they get a chance at one of the tougher jobs further up the organisation. This carries on until they find, shall we say, their level.)

I guess something similar happens in Poker. As soon as a player feels they're winning at one level, they move up and find things are a little harder.

I suck big-time, and I'm only playing at $0.25/$0.50. Then again, I only started playing a few months ago, and I know that I'm better now than when I started (mind you, that ain't saying an awful lot.)

I try to play a lot, and read a lot. Read a lot, play a lot.

I'd settle for 2.5BB/100.