Is it this easy?

[Compit]

As part of the WSOP/WPT TV crowd coming into the game of poker over the last year or so, I got caught the poker bug and have done a fair bit of reading and study trying to improve as a player, primarily NL and O/O8.

I could only be considered a duffer at this point, knowing only what a person might learn perusing forums like this one, and browsing Sklansky/Malmuth books. My experience with live action play has been limited to the odd 5/10/25 buy-in multi-table tourney at UB.

That changed this weekend. With nothing else to do my brother and I went to AC Saturday on lark and played low limit Holdem (2-4 limit and 1-2 NL at the Tropicana) for two days. I finished up $450, which could have been much more had I not started to mess a round once I became confident. Having returned home I opened an account at Pacific and have played every night after work (2-4 HE). In three days I am up another $450.

I really am an unsophisticated player. I just do the basic math and make standard raise/check/call/fold in every hand. I only break even with the fancy stuff, if that. But it has seemed to me thus far that even this small amount of knowledge is guaranteed to make me a winner every session, as there are always 4-5 players at the table who have no clue whatsoever as to how the game works. I hear talk of variance but I cannot conceive how I could lose money at these tables. I have not had an especially good run of cards or luck, and have absorbed my share of bad beats (lost the biggest pot of the night last night with bottom quads, and lost with bottom straight flush in AC).

So I would like to know, are my results an anomaly, or merely a symptom of playing the worst players on the 'net at Pacific at the lower limits? It looks like an easy $50-200 a night to me. Is this an unreasonable expectation? Also, at what limit do the completely clueless begin to disappear?

[thirddan]

your results are not an anomaly but they are probably the result of small sample size. It is not possible to win every session, no matter how good you are. I have been at pacific for a while and have good days and bad days (down about 50BB at 5/10 in last two sessions [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]) Your results are most likely the result of a better run of cards than you think...Not that the games are unbeatable, because they definitely are, its just that every game, no matter how bad, has variance in it. Its just that you haven't been playing long enough to see the other side of the swing...

[bdk3clash]

I'm a lot better player than you are, and I lose all the time. Limit hold'em is a really, really swingy game--you'll have big swings up, and big swings down. If you're a winning player, the swings up will add up to more than the swings down.

Your view of the game ("an easy $50 to $200 a night") is entirely unrealistic. In the short term, anything can happen. It's imposssible to say whether you are a winning player at the limits you're playing, but I would guess you've experienced a short-term run of good luck at the beginning of your poker career. While such a run is always fun, it's nothing to draw any conclusions about.

Welcome to the forum.

[MAxx]

Unreasonable expectations! You will have nights where you play your A game and drop a benjamen or two. Mr variance is in the next room, and he is looking forward to meeting you.

Good luck

[Bez]

How much is a benjamen?

[USCSigma1097]

This is the easiest question to answer i've ever seen on these forums...

NO.

Sigma

When I first started playing about two years ago, I knew nothing about nothing. I deposited $50 into poker room and sat down at a 5 max 1/2 table. I played like the uber-maniacal fish you see at party sometimes. I raised everything, played any face card, and ace, any two s00ted, any connectors... Somehow, I won a lot of money, very quickly. I thought to myself "it can't possibly be this easy can it?" I ran my bankroll up to $500 and started playing 2/4 and 3/6. Needless to say, reality soon set in and I lost it all rather quickly.

I'm not saying that you are an uber-fish like I was, that wasn't the point of the story. Just relaying my own experiences that reinforce that short term results mean jack. And as soon as you start thinking that it is that easy is when reality sets in.

[Mike28a]

Benjamin Frankin is the non-President whose face graces the US one hundred dollar bill (a C-Note)

[Bez]

Thankyou - my knowledge of American banknotes is somewhat limited.

[scotnt73]

welcome to the forums. if youll watch the forums for about 2 weeks youll notice at least 1 or 2 posts a day stating i got a free 20$ from so and so ran it up to x dollars in 2 weeks. now im down to 3$ and playin .01/.02 and im still LOSING! whats goin on? this is a very common occurence. its happened to most of us. when the cards turn on you youll learn then if you are going to be a fish or a shark. the fish tell themselves they are winners and keep donating and the sharks read books and post here.