Help me with a study plan (long and probably boring)???

Another member started a thread asking a question similar to what I had hoped to ask of the 2+2 community; what is the best way to go about becoming a true student of poker (before his attitude got out of hand…just kidding, Smokey) [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Nonetheless, the wealth of information here is overwhelming (yet refreshing). I have trolled these forums for quite sometime, and I was finally ready to create an account a few weeks ago (had some issues that Mat helped point me in the right direction).

So before I lay out my self-made study plan, I’ll let you know where I am at in my poker playing and ask a few basic questions…

I have been playing poker for about 30 years (started at the age of 5 on my grandfather’s lap in his weekly home games), so have always been around cards and all games for that matter (competitive chess, backgammon, hell...$25/game Stretego and Risk in the old days) [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img] …did well at crazy home games (my favorite was “deuces and jacks, the man with the axe, and a natural pair of sevens,” where 2s and Js were wild, natural 7s automatically win) [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] We played low-hole, roll your own…jacks or better, trips to win…you name it, we played it...3-card guts was another favorite of mine…it was only with the Hold’em explosion that my interests were peaked to learn this new game.

I have been at it for a little more than a year…always play low-level single and multi tournaments ($10-$50+entry), and I play cash games on the $50 and $100 NL tables. This is done mostly online, but I do play back in NY (Turning Stone) every other month or so when I go home; again, I play the $100max NL table and low-entry tournaments for live experience.

I’ve took down a 2,500 person tourney just last Sunday…had a few 1st places before when I was active…feel like I own the $10 single tables, placing in the money about 80% of the time (going to get my stats started soon for more accuracy)….about 50/50 on the $20 single tables, but still large fluctuations there….could win 4 in a row taking 1st, throw in a few 2nds and 3rds, then go 7-8 without hitting the money again…the trend is up, but I think this is where I need to be for quite sometime until I feel I could login and take them down on command like the feeling I get on the $10 tables.

I feel like I have corrected sooo many mistakes I made when I first started…no longer over-value A x<10 offsuit in the early positions, et al….tightened up and play quite aggressive when I do see a flop. I am not afraid to make people pay for the draws…would say that I have an average feel for the game now having played quite a number of hands in my 1st year.

That said, I recognize a number of leaks that I am still trying to work on. For example, playing out of the blinds with a raise and when to raise out of the blinds…reading Slansky’s Hold’em for Advanced Players now and have a better understanding, but still need a lot more time and experience to grasps the concepts until it becomes second nature.

I still need to learn all my odds and % of hitting certain hands (bought Yao's book for this, but not as much math in there as I had hoped...but haven't read it all yet), odds of improving to the best hand, etc, etc…still need to reduce some of my calling and increase my raises (not a calling station by any means, but I think I try to see cheap flops from the middle positions a bit too often with medium 1-gap or suited connectors…)…lots to work on, but at least I have had enough hands that I can see that AJ-off is not the crown jewel I once thought it was…especially with a raise and a re-raise in front of me [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Another leak that is improving is my semi-bluffs. Admittedly, some of my semi-bluffs or cold bluffs did not make a whole lot of sense. Moreover, I was not semi-bluffing at optimal times, so it seems (again, reading H for Advanced Players now and great chapter on this)…never really considered the J top card vs. 10 top card on the semi bluff…as simple as one having more overcards and straight draw opportunities than the other…simple things like this were never a consideration for me before, thus costing me precious bets.

I pulled out about $7K last year from PP with an average amount of play (couple hours a day here and there…much longer on the weekends, etc)…had a $.25 quarter in the account after I lost the $300 I left in there after the withdraw…every time I take a lose like that, I pull back and figure out why. That said, I was not ready to load the account with the $500 I planned to get casual again until I finished some more studying, so I added $79.75 back in the account to give me $80, which I figured to be (5) $10 tourneys and (1) $25NL session. This was a 2 weeks ago tomorrow. I parlayed that into ~$1,400 currently and (before last night’s placing in the 2,500 tourney, I was ranked 184 for the week) : ) So in short, I would say I am just a little better than average but have a long, long way to go until I feel like I know the game…thus the studying begins.


Here’s what I came up with so far...please advise:

I.) Books, Books, Books.

I must confess; I have bought most of the books, but have yet to work through the whole book before I grab another trying to assimilate everything (every time I won a $20 tourney, I would buy a book…told my wife that I don’t have to read them; just buying them has improved my game) [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img] …mostly bathroom work up to this point…while doing some business in the office, I would read a chapter in, say Super System…then after a week or so, I would grab a different book and replace with, say, The Theory of Poker….always hopping all over the place.

Now, I am going to work through one at a time and make note cards…keep a binder of notes…write down every single important concept I need to go over constantly…

I am starting from the beginning (without my list in front of me, I will rough it here):

1.) Theory of Poker (Sklansky)
2.) Hold 'Em Poker (Sklansky)
3.) Hold’em Excellence (Carson? I forget)
4.) Winning Low Limit Hold’em (Lee Jones)
5.) Small-Stakes-Hold’em (Sklansky)
6.) Weighing the Odds (Yao)
7.) Hold’em Poker for Advanced Players (again, Sklansky…noticing a trend here)
8.) Super System (Brunson)

9.) Tournament Play for Advanced Players (yea, you guessed it)
10.) HOHE Part I (Harrington)
11.) HOHE Part II (Harrington)
12.) Book of Tells (Caro)


II.) Software

I will finally pony up the money to register poker tracker, so I can track more games than the 1,000 the free trial is limited to….

I plan to make a series of Excel sheets to track my bank roll; I also want to do some sheets to track certain things like, say, tourney play: # of bluffs, # of semi-bluffs, # raises, #calls, #of re-raises, etc, etc. I want to take some stats from poker tracker, like position and hands win/loss% rates…graph some trend analysis…things like that.


III.) Bonuses

I am still going through the information in the forums, but I want to devise a plan for maximizing bonuses while just starting out again…like to find 2,3,4 sites that are well-respected around here and play the old 0% credit card type of games, moving my money from site to site trying to get as many bonuses as I can to build bank…still looking into this, so could use some help

Also, this rakeback concept is new to me, so going to read up on it this week and see if I can figure it out…which sites…how much…etc…figure all this out before I create any accounts on the poker sites themselves…all new to me still


IV. Misc Ramblings

I want to figure out when it’s time to move up…at first, I was taking it from a money perspective, insofar as once I hit $500, go to $20 single tourneys and $50NL tables; at $1,000, I go to the $100NL and the $50 single table, etc…but I am finding this approach to be flawed, as if I move up too fast, I can’t maintain that level and end up back where I started (with less bank)…so trying to come up with a progression plan, but could use some help there, too.. : )


Also, should I be playing more spread games? I planned on reading my limit books before I even jump into spreads, as there are a lot of strategies (when the three-bet, etc) with which I am not familiar and hate to waste bets. I started with NL because I still haven’t gotten over my hate of the river, given that I usually enter a pot with the best hand or a strong potential to improve to the best hand…of the mentality that people will gladly pay $2/$4 to see the next card that can beat me, but the propensity to call $59.85 to see the next plays into my style of play…but in thinking about, it’s the guys who are willing to pay the $4 to see the next card that will add to my bottom line when I lean how to play spread games….so I should jump into spreads in the not-too-distant future, right?

Lastly, I checked out the ‘Terms and Conditions,” but the link was broke (last time I checked)…some of the acronyms around here are unfamiliar…MP I assume to be middle position, but a moderator posted (OC and MJ and others) some I cannot figure out…like to use the jargon for subsequent posts with hand analysis.

Is Mat and David Sklansky related? I assume Mat is the son of Dave? I did a bunch of searches, but cannot get my queries to yield the answers I seek : )



In short, does my plan seem too obsessive compulsive…things I should change…sites I should check out…books to read…software to play with…things to do…what improvements to my lesson plan can be made at this juncture?