What? Your not beating the game for 3BB/100 hands?

[Sarge85]

Disclaimer - This post is intended to be illustrative and not demeaning to the people I've highlighted. I'm trying to show that everyone started somewhere. The fact is I have a great respect for each of the posters, and how they approach the game

Ever feel like you’re the only one reading the forums, that isn’t beating the game for 5BB/100 hands, or 4, 3 or even 2.0 BB/100 hands?

Think your questions are silly or beneath the wisdom of many of the fine posters here?

I’ve got news for you – even the “heavy hitters” started somewhere – and frankly that’s reassuring.

I enjoy going through the archives. Many of the “old timers”, no longer post here in Small Stakes, either because they’ve moved to a bigger game or just choose not to, but fortunately if you look hard enough you kind find some of their first posts.

Consider local legend – David Ross. You know the player who documented his year playing online and made a living doing it. Surely he had “natural skill” and knew the about streaks, and good hands, from the get go…. Or did he?

Check out David’s first post:

http://tinyurl.com/3mvth Turns out even the “experts” hit streaks too…. David’s playing the $2/$4 game here – not the $15/$30 game he’s playing now….We all start somewhere.

http://tinyurl.com/4rqkp How about this one – not every great poker player knew instinctively how to play good hands. This was David’s first topic he started….

One of my favorite poster’s is Joe Tall – who I think is playing a $15/$30 game as well (maybe higher?). I consider JT to be a real student of the game, even at the level he’s playing at, and it comes through well in his posts. At the same time I consider JT to be a real teacher of the game as well. Anyone who has read these boards surely has picked up something wise from JT.

Again – even JT started somewhere – how about the $2/$4 at Paradise…

http://tinyurl.com/45qnc One thing you can say about JT – looks like he was always aggressive…

If it ever seemed like there was a poker prodigy – it would seem GuyOnTilt would fit that bill. As far as I can tell he’s playing $15/$30 or higher. One thing I have always liked about GoT’s posts is that he’s not so much hand specific, and seems to be much more concerned about the type of hand your playing, and putting your opponents on a range of hands to help dictate what your action should be.

Like JT – GoT is/was a student of the game, and laid out a roadmap for himself – check out his first post:

http://tinyurl.com/5e298

http://tinyurl.com/48pgh This is GoT’s second hand he posted. I really like all the questions he ask about the hand. But again – GoT wasn’t necessarily a poker prodigy, just a damn good player who study and played a lot, and asked a lot of questions to get better at this game.

BisonBison – The inventor of the hand converter, and several fine PokerTracker posts. From as far as I can tell Bison is pretty much playing $3/$6 now – maybe some $5/$10 mixed in. But like the majority of us – Bison started at the micros – and like most of us – had some pretty basic questions. Bison had a handful of posts prior to this one, but I think this is the first hand he was asking for help on. And Irony of Ironies – check out his last sentence…

http://tinyurl.com/3otrj

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

[MoreWineII]

Heh, good stuff.

[private joker]

This illustrates the paradox of sample sizes. You need many thousand hands to determine how you're truly doing, but by the time you play all those hands, your skill level has changed tremendously. So it's virtually impossible to know how you're doing at any level. I doubt bison went 30k hands without raising pocket queens preflop.

[digdeep]

Excellent post Sarge. Quite interesting to know that some of the excellent players on this site were once in the same place that many of us small stakes players are currently. Just shows that everybody goes through the learning process, though some faster than others.

It is amazing to me to see the dates on these players first posts, and know that they are now very successful at the higher limits.

[Joe Tall]

Joe Tall – who I think is playing a $15/$30 game as well (maybe higher?).

Yes, I play up to 40/80 live and online and started playing 2/4, 3/6, 3 years ago.

If you look back at my old post, it wasn't my aggressiveness that I grew on; it was the responders to my posts that helped my focus my aggressiveness. I got real lucky to post daily here when the likes of majorkong, Clarmeister, Ulysses, Homer, JTG51, Bob T., bernie, and many many others set me straight.

I am still a student of the game and I love to learn and think about poker on a daily basis. I try to give back to the forum as much as I have recieved.

Now I play for a living but only because poker was good enough for me to leave a job which I had to leave.

Good luck and take care, Sarge,
Joe Tall

[bisonbison]

Bison is pretty much playing $3/$6 now – maybe some $5/$10 mixed in.

Nope, pretty much all 3/6, with the occasional day of 8-tabling .5/1 to recharge my batteries and see what I can do.

[sfer]

Did you ever find slavic's hand parser? If not, Wendell can give you a link. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Sarge85]

[ QUOTE ]
[If you look back at my old post, it wasn't my aggressiveness that I grew on; it was the responders to my posts that helped my focus my aggressiveness. I got real lucky to post daily here when the likes of majorkong, Clarmeister, Ulysses, Homer, JTG51, Bob T., bernie, and many many others set me straight.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wonder how many players are aware the Archives even exist.

Truth be told, it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to find some real good posts stored on 2+2 servers.

The style of posts and posting seem to be a little different "back then", but I'm amazed at the familiarity as well. That- along with the cander of Dynasty, Ulysses, Louie L... it's really quite something.

Thanks again,

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

[private joker]

[ QUOTE ]

I wonder how many players are aware the Archives even exist.

Truth be told, it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to find some real good posts stored on 2+2 servers.


[/ QUOTE ]

And now your spelling error in the title of this thread is forever stored on the 2+2 server, thus poisoning the good name of Knoxville, Tennesee. (The place of my birth, I'll have you know).

Go Dawgs.

[Emperor]

You want some good posts from back in the day on limit poker do a search on Jim Brier...