Why Can't I Beat 2/5 Live? A New Players Log.

[derick]

Hello Again My 2+2 Mentors!

I need help examining what I should do to get better.

Thanks for all your help so far. I probably would have had less than 1% chance getting this far if it wasn't for you guys and the books.

Background: I've been playing seriously since August 2004. So far I've played 15,000 hands on poker tracker and only in the last 5,000 has my bb/100 been positive. But I'm starting to get better thanks to your help so over the last 5,000 hands my average has been 2.0bb/100hands. My VP$IP is 18%. My Preflop Raise is 9%. My aggression factor is 3.4 postflop.

I don't have a mentor except you guys so I'm trying to learn by reading books and using this forum.

I've had to read SSH *seven* times and I've read HEPFAP *four* times and I still need to read them a lot more times! Is this normal for you guys? I'm not an idiot but (my degree is in Computer Science) but I find this stuff very tough.

I've also read about 15 other books. (TOP, Caro's Book of Poker Tells, Middle Limit Hold'em, Poker Essays I, II, III, SS, ITH, WLLH, HoH, Ciafone's No Limit and Pot Limit. I've read some bad books too like... Championship No Limit and Pot Limt Hold'em, Killer Poker, Killer Poker Online, Ken Warren's Big Book of Poker and Phil Helmuth's Play Poker Like the Pro's (and some even worse books that I won't mention). I picked up Tournament Poker for Advanced Players and Improve Your Poker that I plan to read between re readings of SSH and HEPFAP.

I find I love playing live much more than online.

I'm a IT guy so I think it's good to not be jacked in while I'm off work.

My records show that I'm winning 2.0 BB/100 on-line but losing about -1 BB/100 Live.

Reasons Why?

Rake: The rake in the 2/5 game at the Brantford Casino is 10% of the pot up to a Maximum of $5, Usually pots are about $40 so they rake of $4/hand. This is $400/100 hands or 80BB/100. If you win 10% of hands dealt then your rake is 8BB/100. If you win just 6% of hands your rake will be still be 4.8BB/100. If you tip $1/hand when you win 6% of hands you are playing $6/100 = 1.2BB/100.

So Rake 4.8 + Tip 1.2 == 6 BB/100 that you need to beat live VS about 3.5 BB/100 online.


Suggestions!!

Help! I love live poker but the rake seems to make it unwinable for me at 2/5.

It would take the equivalent of beating an online game of more than 3.5 bb/100 just to make 1bb/100.