Poker School Online?

[betgo]

I asked there if there was anywhere else where there was advice by pros, and someone mentioned 2+2, which is how I got here.

I never saw the point of their tournaments, but they do have some resourced, and the charge is not huge.

[Cactus Jack]

Here's another idea, which is sure to get a lot of flack. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

My first month of playing online, I played at the monopoly money SNGs on Party. (I didn't have a bank account at the time, due to some personal circumstances.) Believe it or not, I learned a lot without investing any money. I borrowed poker books from the library and read every evening. On my days off, I played for play money all day. I really did this for an entire month, and it was very, very good for me. If you can beat guys who have nothing to lose, you'll do very well when they are still playing as if they had nothing to lose, ala low buyin anything.

You can learn this game on the cheap.

As for your being wary of cash games, this I don't understand at all. You didn't give any reason for this, but I'm curious.

Perhaps it's possible to become a very good tournament player playing only tournaments, but it would have to be a very, very long road indeed, hard on the bankroll and the confidence and the mind.

We should try to understand why you are reluctant to play cash games. Hell, even if you sit at a table and play nothing but AA and KK you're not going to lose much, if any. But, if you're goal is to learn the game, you'll learn a lot. A lot more than you'll learn playing even the lowest SNG or MTT because there's virtually NO pressure with the former, in comparison to the latter.

Learn to crawl then walk then run. Successful tournament play if far harder than playing limit poker. The skill set is multiple times greater. The pressure is greater. The risk of ruin is enormous in comparison. Anyone disagree with this?

CJ

Ok, I have read and given serious thought to all of the replys in this thread. Thanks again for the excellent advice.

I have decided against Poker School Online. Let me tell you the plan I have come up with. It is an amalgamation of various suggestions given here.

1. Every Monday Wednesday and Friday I play in a $1.20 Poker Stars 45 man SnG. - I have alloted two hours for this. If I bust out of the SnG before the two hours are up or if it ends before the two hours are up I am going to spend the rest of the time playing the .01/.02 micros at Stars. (I decided to give it a go)

2. Every Tuesday Thursday and Saturday I spend the alloted two hours posting hands here, reading the forums and reading the recommended books. Once I figure out what the acronyms mean [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

3. Either Saturday or Sunday ( I havn't decided which one) I am going to play a freeroll MTT on Bugsy. This will at least give me some experience with the format and the play there is better than stars for freerolls.

4. One Weekend a month instead of the Bugsy freeroll I am going to play a $2.00 or $3.00 MTT on Stars. This will give me some experience with money MTT's without too much exposure.

So thats the plan. Anyone have any comments or suggestions? I figure it will take me about $18.00 a month assuming I lose every one that I play.

[McMelchior]

Make a weekly post of your results, thoughts and progress in this thread.

Best,

McMelchior (Johan)

A lot of sites also offer freeroll MTTs a few times a day. While they're often filled with horrible players, they're also a good opportunity to get a feel for MTT play. I was actually very successful at the freerolls prior to starting to play for real money. There are some players that start their bankroll this way - by winning a freeroll that leads to a game with a cash prize.

If you can play in some real money games as you've scheduled out then that should be a great experience. Real money players are a great deal different than freeroll players as there's really something to win or lose. I wouldn't advocate only freerolls to anyone wanting to really learn, but taken for what they are it's good exposure to MTTs.