Poker School Online?

[schwza]

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3. Play cash games and work my way up to MTT's

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based on what you wrote, this sounds like a bad idea. i'd do some careful thinking before you decide to do mtt's also. limiting yourself to the $15/month you would've spent on pso might not be a bad idea.

there are probably a number of sites out there that have very cheap MTTs if you decide to go that route, with widely varying field sizes. i know stars has tourneys in the $1-3 buy-in range that have several thousand people. dynamite poker used to have a lot of tournaments around that range with more like 50-100 players, but that was a couple years ago so they might have gone under by now. if you start a thread i'm sure you can find out.

[locutus2002]

Poker is a game played for money. I think you have to play for money to provide the right incentive structure for proper play. That basically eliminates playing for "league standing". I agree with blackaces, although he does seem to have an axe to grind.

The hand history is a major flaw in the software which they have been reluctant to fix, but they have always accomodated me with HH from tournaments on request.


Bugsysclub:

There is less profanity on the site (people take their beats better in general)
The manager will interupt the chat if they detect a problem
There aren't players with 7 accounts dumping chips to themselves or their friends.
Their pro friends aren't going to take over their tournament situation at the end, like on other sites.
I lost my connection heads up on the final table and the player waited the max every hand til I got back (10 minutes later) (1 million chips down to 200,000). (1st $3000, 2nd $2000). I didn't recognize or know the player.

Basically a nice environment to play in. It's also small enough that you can recognize players and have a history of their play.

What I would recommend, honestly, is to make a small deposit at a site that has micro limit games. PokerStars has 45-person sit n' go MTTs that are $1.20 which is where I started off and they also have the larger micro limit MTTs that draw fields into the thousands and are only $1-3 buyin.

What you might consider doing is playing a few games and posting your entire hand history here for some input. Some of the more experienced players can easily spot leaks in your game and areas where you should focus that way. You'll often find at least a couple experienced players willing to help.

Your weariness of cash games is warranted. When I first started playing I decided to try my hand at some of the NL ring games and quickly dropped entire buyins with absolutely horrible play. This is expected of someone without experience and you definitely run a risk of losing money playing in these games. I found that the $1.20 sit n' go games would limit my expenses to something that I knew was fixed and still allowed me time to play and learn. Plus it was an easily affordable expense. Even if I played a few games each day it was something that fit my budget and wasn't going to break me. I see you are concerned about playing within your limits. Play whatever fits your budget best.

[schwza]

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What I would recommend, honestly, is to make a small deposit at a site that has micro limit games. PokerStars has 45-person sit n' go MTTs that are $1.20 which is where I started off and they also have the larger micro limit MTTs that draw fields into the thousands and are only $1-3 buyin.

What you might consider doing is playing a few games and posting your entire hand history here for some input. Some of the more experienced players can easily spot leaks in your game and areas where you should focus that way. You'll often find at least a couple experienced players willing to help.

Your weariness of cash games is warranted. When I first started playing I decided to try my hand at some of the NL ring games and quickly dropped entire buyins with absolutely horrible play. This is expected of someone without experience and you definitely run a risk of losing money playing in these games. I found that the $1.20 sit n' go games would limit my expenses to something that I knew was fixed and still allowed me time to play and learn. Plus it was an easily affordable expense. Even if I played a few games each day it was something that fit my budget and wasn't going to break me. I see you are concerned about playing within your limits. Play whatever fits your budget best.

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this sounds like really good advice.

If you can afford $18/month, you can learn to play on Stars. I can understand wariness of cash games. I suck at them. Basically, play either a $1+.10 MTT or a $1+.20 45 player SnG every other day. Make note of hands that you have a particular problem with or question about (sometimes even if you win, you might want to know how to get more chips out of a hand). Spend your off days posting these hands here, reading these forums, and reading some introductory poker books (HOH 1&2 and others that someone else could better recommend). Unless you are currently unemployed, this should keep you fairly busy poker-wise. One MTT should take an average of a couple of hours (yes, you will bust out 5 mins in sometimes, everyone does). Also, if you want to play more often, the first time that you place in the money you can use that for another buyin (or 2 or 3). However, for this to work, you have to be willing to stop playing each day once you bust out, but you can keep studying during that time. For the past couple of weeks I've spent more times reading these forums than playing. However, I've also won more money that I ever have before.

Good luck,
Will

P.S. I think that an online school that you have to pay for isn't worth it. You don't need unlimited tournaments to play in, unless you have an unlimited amount of time. Also, if funds are tight, go sit in Borders and read the poker books, or check them out from your local library (use interlibrary loan if your library doesn't have them).

[lacky]

as far as learning cheap, you can't beat micro limit cash games, you just can't. You can play .01/.02 limit on stars, and they don't even rake it. Your playing for free. After youve worked through the concepts and feel comfortable in most situations, you can move up in very small increments. When I learned, 2/4 was the smallest game you could find, which was expensive learning. Even if you had a horid start and went through 500 big bets at .01/.02 before catching on, it's $10.

You should rethink the cash game approach IMHO.

Steve

[betgo]

It has a Daniel Negreanu forum, where Negreanu answered questions, mostly on NLHE tournament play. Negreanu hasn't participated in this forum in a year, since he started winning major tournaments. However, it might be woirth joining for a month to read his commentaries.

Most of the people other than desingated experts on their forums are not at the level of 2+2 forums. I submitted one hand where everyone was saying I should have played it more aggressively. Then Negreanu commented and said he loved my flop bet, and he was sorry I lost the hand, but I played it perfectly.

[runout_mick]

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would it be better to just plow my way through a bunch of bad play in low buy-in MMT's.

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Play the low buy-in/freerolls. If you can't beat these players, you won't have a prayer playing "serious" players.

Once you're good enough, move up.

Don't pay for a "poker school", it really sounds like a ripoff...

[betgo]

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Play the low buy-in/freerolls. If you can't beat these players, you won't have a prayer playing "serious" players.

Once you're good enough, move up.

Don't pay for a "poker school", it really sounds like a ripoff...

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Have you used this? How do you know it is a ripoff?

I never played in any of their tournaments, because I was playing for serious money by the time I checked it out.

However, they have online versions of some books, as well as various instructional material. As I mentioned, there are forums where an expert answers questions. I don't think it is that bad a deal for the price.

[runout_mick]

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Have you used this? How do you know it is a ripoff?

I never played in any of their tournaments, because I was playing for serious money by the time I checked it out.

However, they have online versions of some books, as well as various instructional material. As I mentioned, there are forums where an expert answers questions. I don't think it is that bad a deal for the price.

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I have never played there, and only said it "sounds" like a ripoff. As for the forums with expert advice, THIS is a forum with expert advice... and it's free...

I lost $500 in the first few months I played online trying to learn before I discovered freerolls. Several months later I discovered 2+2. I quickly made up my losses by taking freeroll earnings, and playing them up through the limits.(within 4 months).

I now maintain a healthy bankroll and am steadily moving up limits, all thanks to the decision to never deposit again. It made the need to learn paramount, and I think I improved faster as a result...

Just my opinion, but this was by far the quickest and most effective means (for me) of learning both the basics of poker, and the basics of bankroll management (equally important I feel).