[Ed Miller]

marchron,

I'm glad the book has helped you understand the game a little better.

Here's my advice for you:

1. For the first few months, expect to lose. Limit hold 'em is a complicated game, and even with the book to guide you, you're simply going to make lots of mistakes while learning. I lost for months before things began to click for me.

2. Since you expect to lose, play at a limit for which losing 500 BB wouldn't destroy you financially. It's ok to pick a limit where losing 500 BB would "hurt" a little, but don't let it break you. I started playing $4-$8 at a local cardroom, but only because I was making enough at my job that $0.50-$1 felt like nothing. I lost $2,000 before I got winning consistently. So play $1-$2 if losing $500-$1,000 isn't a terrible, unconceivable result.

3. Leave your ego at home. Sure you're going to play against bad players who make obvious mistakes, but don't run around with a chip on your shoulder. You don't make the same mistakes they do, but you make other ones. You are no expert, and you are learning to play just like they are. Don't worry about what your opponents do and/or how lucky or unlucky they happen to get. Just worry about, "Did I play this right? Did I play that right?"

4. Post hands here. While reading helped my game a lot, interacting with people on this forum made the big difference for me. And don't just post your hands, answer other people's hands too. Actually, that probably helped me more than anything. I would sit down for two hours and just answer as many hand posts as I could. Sometimes my advice was good, and sometimes it was bad. I didn't care. Eventually, my advice became consistently good, and I became a consistent winner.

Good luck. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]