Cross Posted on MTT

[Jason Strasser]

Wrote this for MTT, but it applies fairly directly here. I'm curious what starting cash game players thing of it.

I go golfing about once every three of four weeks and I am abominable. I bought these clubs with some poker money and I go out there and sit there with my fancy driver and nice Calloway irons and I stink up the golf course. Some days my driver will hit a screaming ant-killing drive, some days it will hit pop fly’s to center field. When I’m on the fringe, I take out my fancy chipper and scald the ball over the green.

I often go out golfing with my friend Kyle, and he is less coordinated and athletic than I am, but he beats me up. He has a little more experience golfing, but there is no reason this fat slob should be beating me in golf. He plays a very interesting game, though, he only really hits clubs that he’s comfortable with. He’ll usually tee it up with a 3-wood or even a 5-iron. He makes the bump and run shot when it’s clearly better to try to loft the ball onto the green. He will hit a 6-iron for his second shot on a par 5, even though he should be hitting his fairway wood or a lower iron.

We play for little money, but I feel like I’m well on my way putting his kids through college. I go out there, try to use the correct club and fail. He goes out there hitting half his damn shots with a 5-iron and destroys me.

So, what’s the moral? Part of the reason I do not like this MTT board is that when a low-limit hand is posted, people make decisions taking into account their terrible competition. They adjust, correctly, to 5$ online NL holdem competition, and make plays that will work all day against them (make top pair and check raise!!! Play very tight early so that all the idiots beat each other up!!! Etc.). It’s like Kyle with his damn 5-iron. He can beat a terrible golfer (me) with this strategy.

However, when it comes to improving, you are not going to get very far with Kyle’s strategy. Until he takes out that big driver or learns to find the stroke with his low iron, his ability to improve will be stunted. I could probably compete with him if I got good with one club and hit most of my shots with it. I would however, never get that much better. I’d only get as good as my five-iron would let me.

You don’t want to be a $5, $10, $200 player forever. You don’t want to be just a tournament player forever. You don’t just want to understand NL holdem forever. You want to be the best at everything. That should be your goal, at least. Part of being good is adjusting to your competition. But people here are often too caught up with figuring out how to beat lowly idiots then actually making progress in their game.

People always ask me how to get better. I took a strategy where I broke the game down to its simplest form (IMO): heads up poker. When you play someone heads up, decisions are a dime a dozen, and if you have holes than players will exploit them. You also get practice hand reading and figuring out your opponent. If you want to get better, find someone better than you and play them heads up. I spend a decent amount of time playing HU versus friends and poker acquaintances that want to improve. I also ask players better than I am to play me heads up. There is nothing better than just being beaten by a better player.

By no means am I telling people to stop talking about adjusting to poor players. I’m just telling you to open up your damn eyes to the bigger picture. It’s gotten to the point now where when I play any online tournament (with a few exceptions) the competition is just terrible compared to my usual 10-20 NL game. It is not hard transitioning down this ladder. When people say that tournament players are good at exploiting bad players, they are right. But give me a break, I’d take any top overall poker player over any ‘tourney expert’ in a tourney. For those WPT freaks out there, I’d put my money on a Chau Giang, Eli Erezra, Chip Reese, etc. type player over anyone you’re seeing on TV. The skill of beating bad players that tournament experts have is common sense for anyone good at poker.

So, whats the point of all this. As you browse 2p2 try to get better, but in a broader sense. Don’t get too caught up with how to win your small-buyin multis as you get started in poker, figure out how to play good poker. Even if you aren’t directly applying the knowledge because the players you are up against are terrible FPP players, you need to spend the chunk of your time on two plus two learning poker.

The second point is that—and I hope this doesn’t flood my PM box—is that the best aspect of two plus two are not the posts themselves, but the posters themselves. Having MLG, El Diablo, and whoever else to have a quick debate is invaluable. I have better discussions over aim then I ever have on 2p2.

Get to know better players. Pick their brain. Beg them to play you heads up. Send them hands and ask them to give you their thoughts. But most of all, don’t get used to your five iron.

-Jason Strasser

[The_Bends]

I mostly agree with the point you're making. Not to stray to far off poker but my golfing buddy destroyed me for years by putting from around the green. He was good at it, much better than I was and could reliably get down in three shots from anywhere close. I persisted with chipping, both lofted and bump and run and although sometimes I'd get down in two and gain a shot most of the time I was mis-hiting and taking 4 or 5. Still time passed I got better, the courses we played got harder and my buddy found he had to chip, which he simply couldnt' do. I beat him easily now even though our long games are similar.

As this applies to poker at SSNL there are so many pitfalls that can send you into the confort zone. Bonus whoring is one, which makes you look like a bigger winner than you actually are, leading to complacency. Multitabling is another, boosting proffit at the expense of a few bb/100. However it also cost you a significant amount in your level of analysis as you rarely have to think about a hand before moving on to another table.

However I really think that while there are many things you can do to help improve your game at a low level (post hands, discuss theory etc) you really are limited. If you look at 95% of the NL25 hands posted on here the desission is very simple simply because you can't credit your opponent with anytihng more than a basic understanding of the game. Lots of my responces to this post go 'well yes it looks like a set but it could also be Ax, Kx, or a stupid bluff so given the odds you have to call.' The only way to truely move your game on is to move up a level and test yourself in better conditions. The higher ability of players at each level forces you to revaluate your game in light of the harsher conditions.

You can liken it to goldfish in a pond. Goldfish have unlimited growth potential but if they stay in a small puddle they can only be small. As the move through bigger ponds they too become bigger.

So your golf analogy is good but limited. In golf you truely can learn all the shot the pros play on a horrible course against an awful opponent. In poker you can't. Thats because poker is a combination of your actions and your opponents actions not events in isolation.

EDIT - First sentence made no sense

[JustToast]

Very interesting post.

We're often caught up in the functional (two plus two equals four) thrashing of the donks -- particularly in SSNL cash. Moving up always forces adaptation, but suggesting HU play is interesting.

Thanks for the brain food.

Oh, and the best way to improve your golf is to practice more than you play (particularly the short game). [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I'm still a better golfer than I am a poker player.

[UOPokerPlayer]

Everyone needs to really read this. It applies to almost every post made. The best way to improve your winrate is to become better at poker. Too often the focus here seems to be winning one hand, or beating one level for some magic ptbb/100 rate; not on playing better poker. The broader sense is spot on, I don't want to be playing the 200 tables forever or even no-limit hold em tables forever.

I've exchanged hands with players here and had a couple chat sessions, but overall pretty minimal. I wish I knew of a better way to get hold of players better than me for more of the same.

[JustToast]

Bump incase anyone missed this one.

[vanHelsing]

i love this post!

[sourbeaver]

Love the analogy.
I've been 5-ironing my way through low limits and just lately I've started expanding my vision.
It's like learning to play all over again, but it's worth it.

Great post.

I know I get too used to the tight passive play that destroys the 25NL tables. I do know that I will have to change this kind of play once I move up a bit and people start actually thinking.

[gunslingner]

Great post!

Yeah, by the way I started to REALLY enjoy PLAYING POKER only after i moved up to NL100 game on party(still, mostly idiots though).