What is the best way to use these forums?

[johnnybeef]

I'm curious to hear from many of you how you have benefitted from the 2+2 forum. I'm not interested so much in results but rather what you have put in and what you have taken out of the discussions. For instance: I live in columbus ohio where i have found enough decent games to pay my way through college. I don't post too many hands on this sight. Most of what i have put in would be critiquing others play as i feel that many of my mistakes are made in the heat of battle and i usually can analyze them on my own. Something that i have taken out of here is the strategy necesarry to become a winning sng player at the lower levels as i am now beating them at a somewhat consistant rate (previously i was a losing online player, and i am still slightly below even for my career). I hope that through this thread many of the newer 2+2ers like myself will learn to maximize this forum's effectiveness by learning from many of the people here.

Johnny

[Bluffoon]

The best thing that I did was find someone to exchange hands with and analyze and discuss each other's play.

[Scotch78]

Posting hands is an absolute must. The more internal resistance you have to doing this, the more necessary it is. Post hands! That said, I used to spend 2-3 hours a day thinking about other people's hand posts, and that was what improved my game the most.

Scott

[Switch]

I've been playing poker for about 2 months..(2 - 4 tables)....have read "Winning low limit holdem" by Lee Jones...twice.. glanced through Small stakes Holdem by Slansky and Malmuth....the last table i was at was INSANE....people betting everything....Capping......a pair of sixes wins the 50$ pot...I began to salivate thinking I'm going to make money tonite...no way.....didnt happen....i was at the table for 7 hrs....barely could get a hand...when i did my Flop didnt hit....Should I have lafet??

Thnx Switch

[reddred]

Playing against very agrressive, loose opponents can be very dangerous. We have all had those times at the table, where the betting is insane and none of your premier hands will hold up cuz Cally McCallerson is going to ride his J5 offsuit to the river and beat your KK with 2pr(then say he only played it b/c he was in the BB). Bottom line is, it's very easy to switch tables online, and when your getting that vibe that things just aren't going right for you at this table, just leave. The time you spend trying to win back the 100 bucks you quickly lost at a bad table, you could spend finding and badly beating another table that better suits your style, and maybe has a hotter seat.

[Zetack]

[ QUOTE ]
Playing against very agrressive, loose opponents can be very dangerous. We have all had those times at the table, where the betting is insane and none of your premier hands will hold up cuz Cally McCallerson is going to ride his J5 offsuit to the river and beat your KK with 2pr(then say he only played it b/c he was in the BB). Bottom line is, it's very easy to switch tables online, and when your getting that vibe that things just aren't going right for you at this table, just leave. The time you spend trying to win back the 100 bucks you quickly lost at a bad table, you could spend finding and badly beating another table that better suits your style, and maybe has a hotter seat.

[/ QUOTE ]

Playing against very loose, very agressive players is tricky since all your normal reads become suspect. And its frustrating as hell when your hands don't hit and your draws don't get there. And I am fine with somebody seeking out styles of games that they are most comfortable with, hey its a free country and poker is, after all, a game.

Having said that, very loose agressive games are the most profitable, juiciest games around and my recommendation would be to play em anywhere you find em, learn to like em rather than running from then because you are outside your comfort zone.

--Zetack

[Zetack]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm curious to hear from many of you how you have benefitted from the 2+2 forum. I'm not interested so much in results but rather what you have put in and what you have taken out of the discussions. For instance: I live in columbus ohio where i have found enough decent games to pay my way through college. I don't post too many hands on this sight. Most of what i have put in would be critiquing others play as i feel that many of my mistakes are made in the heat of battle and i usually can analyze them on my own. Something that i have taken out of here is the strategy necesarry to become a winning sng player at the lower levels as i am now beating them at a somewhat consistant rate (previously i was a losing online player, and i am still slightly below even for my career). I hope that through this thread many of the newer 2+2ers like myself will learn to maximize this forum's effectiveness by learning from many of the people here.

Johnny

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the greatest benefit from these forums is not how to play individual hands, but the meta lessons about the game that you begin to understand.

Things like just how long the long run is. That you can very well have bad runs of cards that last 10, 15, 20 thousand hands. And conversely that you can have very good runs of cards that last that long.

Its very common to go, I had great results for 10k hands, that's a lot of poker--that's got to mean something. Its only when you hear it again and again that its not and that it doesn't, that that you really come to accept it, when you hear many very good players at many different times talk about their loooong streaks.

Most beginning players don't get just how swingy the game is and just how much variance there is.

Really getting those kinds of lessons I think is the best benefit you can get out of this forum

And then of course there's the actual how to play part. Analyze hands, either your own or others. Post your thoughts, you'll quickly figure out which regular posters really have their [censored] together--see where your thoughts differ from theirs and learn from it. You may find that things that seem obvious to you are completely incorrect...or you may find that you are already on the path to advanced thought.

Good luck.

--Zetack

[johnnybeef]

since i didnt get as many peoples responses as i would have liked, let me ask another question, what are the best types of threads to look at?

[Sundevils21]

[ QUOTE ]
thinking about other people's hand posts, and that was what improved my game the most.


[/ QUOTE ]

me too.

[Sarge85]

The boards are "Cliff Notes" to the 2+2 books.

Sarge[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]