[uw_madtown]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm inspired after reading that. I kind of want to grind all day now.

[/ QUOTE ]

After playing with my databases to include all my hands, I'm at 281k hands. I grind way too much.

Talking with s0ma on IRC, I want to include a short addition: three pieces of advice to beginners.

1) Read 2p2 books and forums incessantly, particularly the better posters. This includes those older ones I named in my original post (I forgot Nate tha Great, yikes). Archives are gold.

2) Keep your day job -- aka, don't withdraw from your BR if you can absolutely avoid it. The opportunity cost of rebuilding a bankroll from scratch multiple times early on simply due to making withdrawals makes me want to cry.

3) Learn to enjoy the grind but don't become complacent either. If you simply view poker as a profitable hobby, this isn't important, but if you view it as a source of income (or even dream of going pro), you'll need to be able to get the hands in. One of the most frequent comments I've seen from the best players here is that they have trouble doing this. I don't really have this problem, and that's the second part of this -- you can't just "grind out" the hands. It's easy to fall the other direction, where you stop trying to improve your game and just mindlessly grind. It can make the game less fun, and certainly will stunt your growth as a player. In our chat, s0ma said his playing:reading ratio was something like 1:2. I'd say mine has been 2:1 or even 3:1. I think 1:2 is probably better for your growth as a player.