Helping myself improve at SH
 

I have been playing .5/1 at various sites for about a month. I have a positive winrate, but only 20k hands, and lately, my performance/decisions make me think I may be running hot. Obviously, I don't have enough hands in PT to be able to search for leaks and correct them. I think my preflop play is solid (24/13- playing somewhat tight to start my SH career), but I feel uncomfortable in lots of postflop situations.

What I'm hoping to achieve by making this post is a few things:
1: Find out how other players in this forum started in SH, how many hands it took them to get comfortable with the playstyle and classify themselves as a long-term winner. I often see players comment that preflop play isn't nearly as important as postflop play (assuming your VPIP and PFR are not insanely high). I would like to improve my postflop play, but I feel I am fine preflop.

2: Determine how to evaluate my play/sessions. Does this just involve posting hands in the forum/looking over HH's in PT? What is your thought process when looking over HH's? Are there any questions you constanly ask yourself?

3: Learning how to play against fish/calling stations (Loose passive players). I know the general idea is to value bet them, but that is about where my understanding ends. On many of the .5/1 tables, it is impossible to get the pot shorthanded with a raise, so I cannot implement many of the strategies I usually see advocated (calling down, value betting, etc.) Does anyone have advice playing against tables full of calling stations? Perhaps wait for a good hand and bet, bet, bet?

Sorry for all the questions/semi-long post, but I'm hoping that we can discuss some of these topics for some of the newer players to the forum.

(Before anyone suggests it, I have read the FAQ, 6-max baby steps, and basically every other "historical" 6-max post.)

Re: Helping myself improve at SH
 

I think once you get up to about 50,000 hands with a couple hundred posts you start to get the hang of it.

Re: Helping myself improve at SH
 

1. It takes infinite hands to get "comfortable" at short handed because it is so aggressive and full of tough decisions. If you post your stats in the brags beats and variance forum I will look over them for major leaks. I made a post at 10k hands and some players were able to give me some pointers even at that point. If you look at the stat FAQ you will learn a lot. Also after 20k hands you should know whether or not you are a winning player in these games if not from stats then at least from being able to tell you have an edge at the tables.

2. To evaluate your play, write down hand numbers for some of those hands that feel uncomfortable for you and you find yourself wondering what the heck to do. Post some of those hands here after you have spent some time thinking about them.

3. Ed Miller talks about this in his six max article in this weeks 2+2 magazine, the best way to beat callers is to bet bet bet. Calling stations are good for us.

Re: Helping myself improve at SH
 

I am up 235 BBs after 15k hands of .5/1 (I had a disastrous 5k hands of 1/2). Is this enough of a profit to be confident that I am a winning player?

Also, what is the best way to make a stats post? Take a SS of PT or just copy down stats? I have a general idea of ranges for stats from the stats FAQ, but I'm wondering if some of the stats are significant at 20k hands.

Thanks for the reply jph.

Re: Helping myself improve at SH
 

They are not all significant at 20k but we will be able to tell if anything is way off. Post a SS of your detail screen and maybe position stats.

BTW - 235BBs after 15k hands is enough to be reasonably confident that you are a winner at .5/1. If you do a search you will find the math if you want an exact % assurance.

Re: Helping myself improve at SH
 

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I think once you get up to about 50,000 hands with a couple thousand posts you start to get the hang of it.

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Re: Helping myself improve at SH
 

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I think once you get up to about 50,000 hands with a couple thousand posts you start to get the hang of it.

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At least

Re: Helping myself improve at SH
 

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I think once you get up to about 50,000 hands with a couple thousand posts you start to get the hang of it.

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At least

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Yeah. Back in the day I used to think guys with 2306 posts knew everything there was to know about poker. It's kind of like realizing your parents aren't invincible when you're five.

Re: Helping myself improve at SH
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
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I think once you get up to about 50,000 hands with a couple thousand posts you start to get the hang of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

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At least

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Yeah. Back in the day I used to think guys with 2306 posts knew everything there was to know about poker. It's kind of like realizing your parents aren't invincible when you're five.

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Yeah I feel like I'm just starting to learn. Everyday I find at least one post that makes me rethink part of my game.

Re: Helping myself improve at SH
 

And most of them should be in either OOT and the zoo. I'd say at least 1,500 of those couple thousand.