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#1
05-25-2005, 05:50 AM
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I\'m Out/Some Thoughts (long)
I’m taking a break from poker indefinitely. It became too much of my life, leaving too little time for things like school, recreational activities, and most importantly my fiancé. To those who I knew, good luck at the tables, you all have the potential to be great if you aren’t there already, and you know who you are. I thought I’d leave this forum with some of my own thoughts, which may or may not help you; I guess you’ll have to decide that for yourself.
Who Am I? If you don’t know who I am, I started off with random low limit SNG’s, then worked my way up the limit ladder to 3/6. I moved back to $50 SNG’s in December after reading an infamous post by J.A.Sucker talking about the cash machine that SNG’s are. Learning took about a month: after some mild success in the $50’s, and breaking even over my first 300 $100’s, I went on a massive tear over 1250 SNG’s that never really ceased first 4 tabling then 8 tabling at the $100 and finally the $200 level. It’s been fun, and I’ve made a bundle, but unfortunately those days are over for now. SNG’s in general/The push SNG’s are pretty simple. We all know tight early (where small increases in ROI can be gained by getting properly tricky, ie w/ Gigabet), and aggressive late (which accounts for most of our ROI). There’s only one move in SNG’s that accounts for most of our ROI, the push; it’s like if we spent most of our time studying just the check raise on the turn in limit holdem. Master the push, and the rest is just details. There’s a reason saabpo was +EV, but not as much as a thinking playing could be; I believe a properly trained saabpo could be +EV in the 100’s. Where the money comes from As in any form of poker, your money comes from other players making more mistakes than you. Fortunately, in SNG’s, your opponents make a ton of mistakes, and costly ones too. I’m talking about the $200 level – don’t even get me started on the $100’s or anything less. There is no player out there who does not make mistakes, and if they say they don’t, they’re lying. I’ve seen leaks in the games of every player I’ve played, some bigger than others. Your goal is to make your leaks smaller, and have less of them. The question is, how do you do that? Read on. Read 2+2 – the right way When you look at a hand, think about what you really would have done in that situation before you read the replies. After that, try to understand why you agree/disagree with what was said, because only then will you truly begin to change your thinking on the situation. I used to just skim through everything without thinking; then one poster I was talking to challenged me to just look at the hand and say what I thought before giving the responses. It seems simple, but it made me realize how much more I can learn by really thinking about it. Know Your Posters There’s a lot of crap on these boards, and many posters don’t have much of a clue. Find the best posters; it’s not too hard, they’re usually the ones playing the $100s and $200s making a profit; those who aren’t good won’t last for long. There are a few exceptions to this, but those should be apparent. The problem is that most posters that are good understand that posting is definitely –EV for them, as there’s little for them to gain here, so you’re not going to see much posted by them. When you see a good poster post, read what he says, think about why he said it. If you disagree, think about why, because more often that not you’ll be wrong. That’s not to say you shouldn’t question their plays, because even the best posters get things wrong. Get Used to Being Wrong As said before, you’re going to make a lot of mistakes – everyone does. What determines whether you’re going to be a great player or not usually is based on your reaction to when someone says you’re wrong. Do you brush it off and ignore it? Do you fight back with a blind fury of defenses? Or do you actively take in what they say, consider it, and figure out why one of you is not correct? One of those is going to help you learn, the others will keep your right where you are. Review your games Sometimes your best teacher is yourself – you can spend far more time helping yourself than others would be willing to spend on you. A lot of you know the theory of this game, but when it comes to application you fall through. Randomly take games, usually ones where you’ve made it ITM as bubble play and ITM play is the most importantly, and look at all of your decisions – did you make the right ones? Did you choose wrongly? Why? Obviously you still will make mistakes in even reviewing your games, but you’d be surprised at how many mistakes you can find using your own knowledge – then post hands you can work out on your own, or talk to friends about them. Make Friends Over my relatively short 5 months here, I’ve gotten to know quite a few people, and they’ve been instrumental in my learning. It’s one thing to post a hand, pray that someone with half a clue posts their thoughts and even gets it right; it’s quite another to actively discuss in real time with someone. Be forced to immediately defend yourself and give reasons for what you did, rather than blindly reading over responses and thinking “in this one situation, I played wrong” because more often than not, you’re going to do it again anyways. Friends are important to improving your game. You (Still) Suck Perhaps the #1 problem of a lot of posters/lurkers here is that they think they have it figured out, and as such have decided to stop really taking in information. Believe me, you suck. All of you – everyone here has so much to learn. Granted some of your suck less than others, but there are still numerous mistakes in everyone’s game. You don’t know the game well enough, you don’t know all the push/don’t push spots and why, you don’t know how to play early well enough. Possibly the most important piece of advice here to the more experienced players, which most will probably ignore anyways, is “don’t stop learning.” A Few Things About Stats How you keep stats, or even if you keep them, is really up to you. Some players can handle constantly plugging and checking how well they’re doing; others cannot take it, and it becomes a leak. This is something that you must decide for yourself Note that there is a learning curve to SNG’s, meaning that your later stats will most likely be better than your earlier stats in terms of true ROI (not actual). If I started playing SNG’s, assuming I was learning, and played 1,000, my true ROI over my last 500 will surely be higher than my first 500, so my ROI’s going to be lower than it should be. How do your remedy this? Start over! There’s no shame in starting a new spreadsheet, or just starting from your last 300. After all, you were a different player back then, so those stats are only skewing your data anyways by keeping them. Bankroll It depends. Profit wise, give me 20-30 buy ins so I can maximize my EV, but you really feel the swings and absolutely MUST be prepared to drop down if things go bad. Emotionally, 100 is a fantastic cushion, and while it is a little excessive, it’s not as much as most people think. Dealing with Downswings I’ve never had a downswing after my first 300 SNG’s. Just a constant upswing that’s occasionally been less of an upswing. This attitude has allowed me to be very emotionally detached from my downswings. I expect these swings to come – I anticipate them. Every time I’d lose a few buy ins at the 100’s or 200’s, I’d say, here it finally comes, that big bad swing everyone talks about. The swings came and went, including one lovely $7k one at the 200’s. Having a large bankroll definitely helps, as you don’t have to move down in the middle of one. If you feel like your play is being affected by a swing, like you’re missing some pushes or pushing too much or anything is off with your game, STOP. Instead of playing, review the last 8 or so games you just played. Look each one other, at what you did wrong, why you did what you did, etc. Learn where your weaknesses are, learn if you really were on tilt. There were many times where I used to be convinced I was playing awfully and would stop. Upon further review of my games, I’d find that I was just put in a bunch of tough spots and marginal decisions that went wrong; a lot of the swing wasn’t even my fault. This would give me the confidence to pick it right back up. Viability Those of you who know me know how much I talk about the long term viability of SNG’s. In these things, a good player has a massive edge over a bad one, while a great one only has a small edge over a good one. Bad players are our bread and butter, and they cannot last forever. The sharks will grow in numbers, and the fish ponds will shrink. It’s going to take a while, maybe a year to a few years, and it’s not like the SNG world is going to come tumbling down. Profits will decrease slowly but substantially over time, and it’s going to be more profitable to play another game. I’d suggest you have a backup game planned that you have some decent knowledge of for when that happens. I wish you all the best of luck. -Mike GramiHiaus/Elektrik/forever_win/MyGirlzHotter/Sanmi 
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#3
05-25-2005, 06:04 AM
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Re: I\'m Out/Some Thoughts (long)
[ QUOTE ]
Viability Those of you who know me know how much I talk about the long term viability of SNG’s. In these things, a good player has a massive edge over a bad one, while a great one only has a small edge over a good one. Bad players are our bread and butter, and they cannot last forever. The sharks will grow in numbers, and the fish ponds will shrink. It’s going to take a while, maybe a year to a few years, and it’s not like the SNG world is going to come tumbling down. Profits will decrease slowly but substantially over time, and it’s going to be more profitable to play another game. I’d suggest you have a backup game planned that you have some decent knowledge of for when that happens. I wish you all the best of luck. -Mike GramiHiaus/Elektrik/forever_win/MyGirlzHotter/Sanmi [/ QUOTE ] First of all, great post & good luck with whatever you turn your hand to now. Specifically I'm very interested in your points on long-term viability. For lots of reasons I think SnGs are incredibly fish-friendly (more so than virtually anything else other than MTTs). If you think SnGs are going to dry up, is that beacuse you think OLP as a whole will dry up?
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#4
05-25-2005, 06:18 AM
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Re: I\'m Out/Some Thoughts (long)
Really good post, and it made me wish I actually had known you. At least I had the pleasure of reading your ideas this once, though.
I agree that the best posters often find little reason to post and every reason not to, so I have to reiterate my thanks to those who do, and hope new people continue to come in and share their ideas and knowledge as the old ones drift away or find less and less reason to share. I hope you're wrong about SNG's ever drying up, but whether they do or don't, your suggestion to have a back-up game makes a great deal of sense.
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#5
05-25-2005, 07:28 AM
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Re: I\'m Out/Some Thoughts (long)
[ QUOTE ]
If you feel like your play is being affected by a swing, like you’re missing some pushes or pushing too much or anything is off with your game, STOP. Instead of playing, review the last 8 or so games you just played. Look each one other, at what you did wrong, why you did what you did, etc. Learn where your weaknesses are, learn if you really were on tilt. There were many times where I used to be convinced I was playing awfully and would stop. Upon further review of my games, I’d find that I was just put in a bunch of tough spots and marginal decisions that went wrong; a lot of the swing wasn’t even my fault. This would give me the confidence to pick it right back up. [/ QUOTE ] Along with a lot of other stuff in the post i think this is good advice.
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#8
05-25-2005, 10:51 AM
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Re: I\'m Out/Some Thoughts (long)
Mike,
It was good to get to know you recently. You're a good guy, a good poker player, and a good fiancé. Great post and all that stuff. More importantly, best of luck in all your future endeavors. I hope to hear from you even though you're not going to be playing cards in the near future. Godspeed, citanul
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#9
05-25-2005, 10:56 AM
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Re: I\'m Out/Some Thoughts (long)
Can someone put this in a different category. I thought this was for active players. not some gd farewell and success story. i don't care who he is, he is a quiter. another man taken down by a bitch, that does not respect his drive to succeed in poker. gl man. hope you find happiness
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#10
05-25-2005, 11:15 AM
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Re: I\'m Out/Some Thoughts (long)
Nice post, Mike. You're going out in style, for sure. Good luck with the impending marraige.
[ QUOTE ] I agree that the best posters often find little reason to post and every reason not to [/ QUOTE ] Regarding this notion, I recently read this post by one of the most thoughtful persons that posts on this board. Food for thought... [ QUOTE ] so I have to reiterate my thanks to those who do, [/ QUOTE ] Me too, thanks all.
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