How much poker study is too much?

[spurgeon]

I enjoy studying and reading about texas hold em. However, I do not want to spend most of my short time on this earth reading about poker. How much poker knowlege is relevant? The more you study, it seems like you start to reach diminishing returns. Sometimes it seems like all the extra study I have done does not seem to matter. Also, a lot of posts on this forum are nonsense. So, you really have to go through a lot on here to get the gold. When did you know that you had "arrived" as a hold em player and could scale back your study of the game?

[jojobinks]

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When did you know that you had "arrived" as a hold em player and could scale back your study of the game?

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i haven't. doubt i will. sometimes it can be depressing, especially when i can't find much published material that seems worthwhile. then i re-read small stakes hold'em and HOH , and realize i don't necessarily need new stuff.

i agree that studying the forums can be frustrating. it takes a lot of judgement to filter out the noise...

don't hold your breath on "getting there," is what i recommend.

[LINES]

You know the saying, "Takes a minute to learn, but a lifetime to master". Keep reading, poker to me is like anything else. You have to keep studying and learning. Hell, every game is a study session.
I have invested quite a bit into buying books, and i'm proud of it damnit [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

[grimel]

When you beating a 300/600 game by 4-6BB/100. Then again, in one of his many interviews, Doyle B said he was still learning from the young guns.

[k_squared]

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When you beating a 300/600 game by 4-6BB/100. Then again, in one of his many interviews, Doyle B said he was still learning from the young guns.

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perhaps a part of what makes it a game that you can always learn more about is that what is the right play is largely dependant upon your opponents! Hence, when Doyle says he is still learning he is saying he is still learning how to take advantage of how those specific indviduals play!

Just a thought...

-K_squared

[Jordan Olsommer]

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I enjoy studying and reading about texas hold em. However, I do not want to spend most of my short time on this earth reading about poker. How much poker knowlege is relevant? The more you study, it seems like you start to reach diminishing returns. Sometimes it seems like all the extra study I have done does not seem to matter. Also, a lot of posts on this forum are nonsense. So, you really have to go through a lot on here to get the gold. When did you know that you had "arrived" as a hold em player and could scale back your study of the game?

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While I don't have a very high poker acumen (and thus have much more to learn than the Average Bear), I like to get my poker time and studying time as close to 50%-50% as possible. Now that may sound like a lot more study than is useful, but I look at it this way: an athlete practices how many hours every day before his game, then watches film/practices more for how many hours after the game? Now compare this to the paltry 2 or 3 hours he actually plays

I read a quote by Mike Sexton somewhere along the lines of "poker players are like golfers; they don't want to practice , they just want to play." But it would seem to me that practice (reading books, doing exercises, thinking about the game before you play) and review ("watching the film" of that day's game - i.e. going over the hand histories of important hands to see where you made mistakes and where you made good plays and why) are just as important as actually playing the game itself.

Of course studying in the sense of just dragging your eyes across the pages of a book while the TV is on is not going to help you very much; you need to think about the game, and think about what you're reading (there's a lot of crap out there, even in some of the Very Popular poker books) - if you "study" in this fashion, you'll notice a trend of diminishing returns. But the key imho is to always remain cognizant of what you're trying to accomplish with each move; Poker is an incredibly intricate and beautiful game, and if you think only in terms of "This is a Group Five hand, so I shouldn't call a raise from early position" , then you're probably missing a lot.

[Rozez]

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But it would seem to me that practice (reading books, doing exercises, thinking about the game before you play) and review ("watching the film" of that day's game - i.e. going over the hand histories of important hands to see where you made mistakes and where you made good plays and why) are just as important as actually playing the game itself.


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I think this is exactly how it is. It's important to analyze your decisions carefully after a session. Of course a good poker player is always seeking to learn more about the game but I think the best way to learn is to play more than a half the time spent on the game itself.
After all, poker is game where you don't get results just like that. An athlete might practice several years for the olympics and then his performance could be over in ten seconds. Fortunately, this is not the way it is about poker. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
I think one of the most fascinating things about poker is when you've read about some specific topic from a book and then you see it happen on your own game. I believe this is one of the best ways of learning.

[CaptObvious]

Personally, I think when you've "arrived," or read to much, you're farther off from "being there" then you realize. At that point, relaxing from studying is even more detrimental because you're probably making assumptions about your style and/or playing that may not be accurate. You may just be at particular plateau in regards to playing where you keep reading things, and not matter what it just seems like it's things you've already studied. If your records show you've been a consistent winner, chances are that your progession through higher stakes, is going to even more work then before to make those minute changes in your play, and to fix your leaks.

The game is not a matter of ego, in that sense, but, a process in the quest for knowledge about one particular facet of gaming.

[Zim]

nm

[Schwartzy61]

If you can quote the book but can't identify an example of something in the book during your play, you probably study too much and don't play enough.

It's similar to the "Driving Range" golfers who spend all that time beating balls at the range but never take it to a real course. What good is all the practice when you NEVER play.

I would say, read the book(s). Sit down and play 1k-2k hands. Then go back and read the book. Sit down and play an additional 8k-9k hands. Look over how you're playing see if you are applying the concepts. Re-read the book, sit down and play until you have 50k total hands. Evaluate your play and see how many of the concepts you are accurately applying. Re-read the book again. Sit down and play for 50k more hands, repeat forever rotating various books...