Most effective way to learn?

Hey there, a beginner poker player here. I've been following CardsChat's 30 Day Poker Training course and briefly looked at Jonathan Little's stuff before. I've played online poker on-and-off for a number of years but at a casual/gambling level. I'm trying to really learn the theory and meat behind it but I'm not sure what the best way is to practice.

After each lesson, I feel as though I'm understanding the material at face value but I'm not sure if just playing through hundreds of 0.01/0.02 hands is the best way to actually learn. I don't feel as though I'm applying what I'm learning very well. It feels like just memorizing the playing charts might be a bigger bang for my buck right now. Even then there are only so many (i.e. how to play UTG, or if I raise first or am raised first).

Anyone have some tips as to how to practice effectively?

join all the freerolls here and keep practicing your regular games too,
some people learn best by reading, and some by watching others play. you can watch many streamers for free
and on youtube too. I can tell you it isn't a fast thing, it can take years.
asking questions in the learning poker section will also be a big help.
best of luck dewie, and don't get discouraged.

i learned by playing a lot, i think it´s the best way to learn

If you have the opportunity to take a poker course, it would be great, because in addition to theory, you would also learn to analyze your games. Now many say it's a mixture of studying and playing the game. Then you are on the right track!

Thanks for all the replies. Hoping this will be a great journey...

Save some money and play tournaments with buy-in between 7USD and 15USD, there you will find opponents who are more intelligent when it comes to playing, in cash tables of 0.01/0.02 you will only find many fish that will make you lose your mind and who don't mind losing her money.

Playing in NL2 is not very adequate. I would advise playing in NL10 - there is already a more logical game

bigdewie said:

I'm trying to really learn the theory and meat behind it but I'm not sure what the best way is to practice.

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Put learned theory into high-volume practice... If you practice with real money you will need a lot of them…

bigdewie said:

After each lesson, I feel as though I'm understanding the material at face value but I'm not sure if just playing through hundreds of 0.01/0.02 hands is the best way to actually learn.

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If you beat NLHE2, so, that mean you are pretty good... If you want to change the limits, you will need from a big bankroll.

bigdewie said:

I don't feel as though I'm applying what I'm learning very well.

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Theory is not like practice.

bigdewie said:

It feels like just memorizing the playing charts might be a bigger bang for my buck right now. Even then there are only so many (i.e. how to play UTG, or if I raise first or am raised first).

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What about postflop?! If you are good there, nice, well done!

bigdewie said:

Anyone have some tips as to how to practice effectively?

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Well, i practice at PS with play money; (some freerolls); there are all kinds of players, which they call with any two; there is good place to train the mental form; fold form and so on... If you beat them, so that's mean you are really, really good. They are little bit a diffrent from the players at NLHE2, but those players also make a calls with trash.

(CC course and J.L. are exellent to learn from. There is more...)

There's nothing better than practice.

Acechador said:

Save some money and play tournaments with buy-in between 7USD and 15USD, there you will find opponents who are more intelligent when it comes to playing, in cash tables of 0.01/0.02 you will only find many fish that will make you lose your mind and who don't mind losing her money.

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this makes no sense at all.

how is op going to beat better opponents if they can't beat the bad opponents?

Simply playing will only get you so far. It is what is often referred to a "naïve practice" because you will just carry on doing what you've always done, without any awareness of the mistakes you're making or the improvements you could be making so much faster.

Also, the suggestions above about playing higher stakes are total nonsense. As a new player you should obviously start at the beginning unless you have a huge amount of expendable income. Yes, you will remove some of the worst plays (not all) against you, but you're naturally going to be playing against a better average quality player. What sounds easier, playing a 9 handed table at micro stakes where 2 players are reasonably good and 6 players are terrible and going to get lucky some of the time, or playing a 9 handed table where 6 players are reasonably good (or very good) and 2 players are terrible and going to get lucky some of the time?

As a total beginner, the best bang for your buck will simply be studying ranges. If you're just playing cash, this is much simpler as you only really need to focus on 80-100bb ranges. My suggestion would be to focus on BTN and CO opening ranges first, followed by BB defense against BTN, CO and SB.

Study for a couple of days and then play, focusing specifically on those ranges. Then REVIEW YOUR SESSION. There is almost no value in putting in the effort to studying the ranges if the moment you sit down at the table, you revert to how you were playing before. Make a note of the hands that you played that you shouldn't or didn't play that you should have.

Once you have got fairly comfortable with your ranges, then you can move onto post flop play. There is a lot of free content out there on YouTube, I would focus on reputable training sites like RYE, Poker Coaching, or Upswing, rather than random guys, but I always find using a structured course is much more beneficial. Note that it is really important to get your ranges pretty good before you move on to post flop, because if you don't, you're going to find yourself in a load of spots that don't make sense because you're playing a hand that you shouldn't be, or you have no idea what your opponent's range should look like.

Good luck on your journey!

The best way to learn these games is to practice...)))

I can find fault with everyone's prescription of what to do from Little and Moshman to folks on the board but I would suggest you don't blindly follow a "guru" or follow streamers unless they're specifically teaching you how to play whatever level you're actually playing.

I would only suggest that whatever you decide to go with to look for some type of consistency that you can depend on and that guru comes with some type of explanation of WHY you do something in certain spots and what to look out for when things don't go your way and its something that you can acutally do on that level.

bigdewie said:

Hey there, a beginner poker player here. I've been following CardsChat's 30 Day Poker Training course and briefly looked at Jonathan Little's stuff before. I've played online poker on-and-off for a number of years but at a casual/gambling level. I'm trying to really learn the theory and meat behind it but I'm not sure what the best way is to practice.

After each lesson, I feel as though I'm understanding the material at face value but I'm not sure if just playing through hundreds of 0.01/0.02 hands is the best way to actually learn. I don't feel as though I'm applying what I'm learning very well. It feels like just memorizing the playing charts might be a bigger bang for my buck right now. Even then there are only so many (i.e. how to play UTG, or if I raise first or am raised first).

Anyone have some tips as to how to practice effectively?

Click to expand...

the best way to learn is to play play play and play again and if you don't play then study

focus on it like your life depended on it, try to always improve, always study, talk to friends about it, try to play as many times as possible, try to get bigger and bigger classifications on tournaments, make it more like a work and less like a hobbie