Before you post that hand, READ THIS
 

There are too many new threads in micros right now, and too many frivolous ones.

I know what many of you are thinking. "This is a poker strategy board. How can posting a poker hand and asking for strategy advice be wrong?"

Everybody has strategy questions. But many of our questions have already been answered. Sometimes, threads get a really great discussion going, with lots of people chiming in with a new angle to consider. Everybody benefits from those threads.

Some people post great advice, and everyone who reads that advice benefits.

Some people post bad advice, and when they are shown the error of thier ways, everybody again benefits. Not only does the bad-advice poster get his play corrected, but so does every lurker who felt the same way. Believe me, there are lots and lots of lurkers like this.

There's almost never just 1 way to play a hand or just 1 thing to think about during play. The more people who respond to a thread, the more angles that are discussed, and the more everyone benefits.

Of course, everybody who has a hand they felt icky with wants to post that hand and get a million responsed from all the Big Name posters. So people post. And post. And post. It's like they keep calling, praying to hit thier 1-outer that will win a big pot. So the board gets innundated with posts. Post after post after post falls off the bottom of the page with only 20 views and just 1 or 2 responses. Nobody can keep up with all the posts. Its impossible for any single thread to gain any momentum and gather lots of discussion, and the whole forum suffers.

This doesn't benefit anyone. Everybody has to initiate fewer threads, and reply more often to existing threads. Don't be afraid of posting bad advice. If you post something that's wrong, you will quicklly be corrected. That's OK! Nobody thinks you are an idiot for posting bad advice, and everybody has just benefitted by reading the correction.

So please, for the good of the forum, start fewer threads and reply to existing threads more often.

Re: Before you post that hand, READ THIS
 

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

(aka: i concur whole heartedly)

I took a brief break from posting in the micro forum to work on my 6 max game a little bit. I came back the past couple days and have really been surprised by a lot of posts which basically contained hands with zero thought provided. This is not an answer forum. I highly recommend a lot of the vets ignore posts that make no effort to provide reads, attempt an answer, or at least begin the process of breaking down their own question. that's not to say those are appropriate (or available) for every topic.. but make an effort.

reading and responding to existing threads is how i learned to play. i find it much more valuable than posting a hand, unless there is a specific situation that i feel uncortable with. when you feel uncomfortable with a huge range of things, just read/respond to hands and you'll tackle things much faster. save the topics for specific hurdles.. not general learning.

Re: Before you post that hand, READ THIS
 

This advice seems to go against what I see as being the purpose of these forums. Whenever I see a new player asking for advice, people tell him to "post hands that make him feel icky," as is the case with the articles in the 2+2 magazine.

Also, the "icky I dont know what is going on posts" are much less annoying to me than the "did I miss .5 SB with this flopped quads" junk that I see.

Re: Before you post that hand, READ THIS
 

Good work duder. This post will be bumped early and often.

Brad

Re: Before you post that hand, READ THIS
 

I agree completely. I've learned so much more by posting my thoughts on threads and getting told why I'm wrong. The key word there is ***WHY*** I'm wrong. Just being told that you're wrong and here's the right thing doesn't help anyone. But the people who know what they're talking about are willing to take the time to EXPLAIN why what they feel is correct. And that's how you learn.

Re: Before you post that hand, READ THIS
 

[ QUOTE ]
Whenever I see a new player asking for advice, people tell him to "post hands that make him feel icky," as is the case with the articles in the 2+2 magazine.

[/ QUOTE ]

Your absolutely right about that. And I must admit that I commit this sin myself. But when I first realized (a while ago) that more threads are paradoxically worse for the forum and me personally, I started to change my advice. Now instead of telling people, "Post more hands." I try to tell people "Reply to threads more often."

I suggest that everyone else do the same, or something along those lines.

Re: Before you post that hand, READ THIS
 

[ QUOTE ]
This advice seems to go against what I see as being the purpose of these forums. Whenever I see a new player asking for advice, people tell him to "post hands that make him feel icky," as is the case with the articles in the 2+2 magazine.

[/ QUOTE ]

i always cringe when i see that.. i think the advice should be "read a bunch of existing topics, try to answer them, then read the responses". when you feel 'icky' on a lot of hands, you really just need to be exposed to more hands and more situations. that's best done by reading existing hands.

Re: Before you post that hand, READ THIS
 

as a relative "n00b" any and every post is an opp for me to answer and learn more and have my answers challenged by the vets if need be. The more posts the merrier.

The "did i extract enough value" threads are garbage but every other post serves a purpose for me.

The purpose of this forum as i understand is to learn and share ideas.

Re: Before you post that hand, READ THIS
 

More POSTS are good.

More THREADS are not.

This is a good post, Grunch. I'm considering turning over my stewardship of the micros to you. If you're in need of a good monkey avatar, I have one around somewhere. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Rob

Re: Before you post that hand, READ THIS
 

I really think we need to sticky this or something like it. With all the new topics going up this thing is eventually going to get buried over time (how about that for irony).