People droping out of poker and which book to read next

[Warren Whitmore]

Between this forum and the books forum a lot of people have asked questions of this sort. It seems there is a flaw in their logic. Asking random people who you dont know questions about poker is dangerous. "The only thing worse than not knowing things is knowing things wrong." John Steinbeck of mice and men.

Doing well in any subject involves various weightings of aptitude, education, and experiance. In poker I think it is about equal amounts of each. To do well (2 standard deviations above the mean in the case of poker) you need to be 2 standard deviations above the mean in all of those catagories. There isent much you can do about aptitude, you either have it or you dont. Experiance comes with time spent at the poker tables. It is this Experiance segment that most people get wrong in my observation. Without maximizing the experiance you can not get the education.

In most self help type books from how to win friends and influence people to success they all say the same thing. In order to get better at anything you must improve by small amounts every day.

To improve you must get help. Poker does not come naturally to very many people (think 4 standard deviations above the mean for aptitude here). Therefor you must get help from other people. I will tell you how I did that and than you can copy me or come up with a plan of your own.

I started my poker playing at 5:10 seven card stud. The only book I had read on poker at that point was Roy West winning at low stakes 7 card stud. I knew immediatly that I was making hundreds of mistakes per session because I was only earning about $10 an hour.

I payed very close attention to my opponants and made a judgement as to who was the best player in the game. When I was done for the day I pulled that person aside and said something to the effect of "I believe you are the best 5:10 stud player in this room. May I buy you lunch in exchange for some advice."

Most times the person would be flattered and accept. I would then enquire about the play of some of the hands the person was involved in and then more importantly I would say "how did you learn to play poker". The superior player would always mention 7-card stud for advanced players and the theory of poker. From that point I studied all of the two plus two books as well as I could.

That is just the start though I still interview every player who I deam to be better than I am. This happens everyday. It does for you too. Unless you are the best poker player in the world you will be playing against people who are better than you from time to time. Don't let them get away! Those are the people you need to interview.

When you tell someone they are a better player than youself and than ask for help you will surprised at the percentage that are willing to do so. I always start by offering them lunch first at the restaurant of thier choice. I than ask the favor of them to please critique my play the next time we are at a table together and than inform me of my mistakes after the game or if one of us leaves first to take a break and discuss some hands.

When I play online (which is most of the time) I do the same thing. I send my email to the 10 best players on the site and contact them and discuss hands after the session is over. Most times they appreciate this if you are good enough to know that you can learn from them. They are good enough to know that they can learn from you.

Now you might be saying to yourself thats a lot of money to pay someone for advice. It is not though for that $50 meal you are going to get correct advice more often than not. You can than cross reference that information with the two plus two books and see if there is any conflict. If there is you can ask about in the books forum and the authors are excellent about clearing up foggy points.

I play in the 30:60 to 50:100 range mostly these days but I use the same technique that I used back when I started at 5:10 because it works. You must be a better player each and every time you play if you want to move up in limits. To do that you need good solid advice.

[RiverMel]

Not to be cruel, but, what exactly was the content of that post, other than: "Ask better players how to play if you want to get better."

And, by your own test, aren't we supposed to *not* trust your advice?

[Warren Whitmore]

Yes to both

[benfranklin]

[ QUOTE ]
Not to be cruel, but, what exactly was the content of that post, other than: "Ask better players how to play if you want to get better."

[/ QUOTE ]

I think that you missed the content, which was: "Ask better players who are 4 standard deviations above the mean how to play if you want to get better."

Also that you can take a bunch of players who are 4 standard deviations above the mean to lunch and find out that the best way to learn 7 card stud is to read 7CSFAP. If you don't trust this advice, then you will probably end up on these forums, where a random group of people will tell you that that the best way to learn 7 card stud is to read 7CSFAP.

I enjoyed your post--thanks for taking the time and trouble! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[NLSoldier]

I thought your post was cool too and i dont know why these guys feel the need to be playa hatin'

[DVO]

Agreed. Good post.