wooooooowwwww cant believe this thread is still going on... its been over a year since i originally posted this. First off, i'm glad to see that my post has helped a few people that are in similar situations that i was in. Also, i would like to apologize that I have not been apart of this forum basically since then. I received an email alert that this thread had been updated and was absolutely blown away.
As for an update, a little over a year later I am currently up in the neighborhood of around $25k in career winnings, including a 2nd in a $26 mtt a few nights ago for a little over 5k (my biggest score yet).
Being over a year since my last post, I can definitely say that I have learned a ton in the process. I read over my original post and honestly did not know how credible the knowledge would be considering i was still pretty fresh in my poker career. That being said, i think most of the points in the post are still pretty spot and would still recommend just about everything for the beginning player. Although, a few of the points I would like to touch up on/rehash.
I talked a lot in the original post about switching games a lot. This has been pretty huge in my poker career. I have played a wide variety of games and am still always looking out for the most profitable game that i can find. Im always looking on
sharkscope leaderboards or anything else to see who is beating what games for what amount of money. I think overall its not a great idea to be switching games too much because I think its a lot better to really be superior at one game, than mediocre at a variety of games in terms of money, but if i was stuck back in the 9 mans that i was playing at the start of my career then I almost certainly would not have been as successful as i am now. I have made a switch from pokerstars to full tilt, from sngs to omaha cash games, back to sngs, to mtts and everything else but feel it is valuable to find a game that you have sort of a niche in (also, i get bored as hell playing the same game).
Not to ramble on about previous topics a whole lot but I still use the bankroll strategy that i posted before and feel that I can safely play without having a huge chance of going broke, while allowing myself to move up in stakes progressively.
Also, I see there is a lot of talk about Moshman's book here. I just want to say that it's not outdated or anything even though it seems that books are becoming obsolete to the online training sites, and it is still always my highest recommendation.
Retouching on variance/upswings and downswings, some people have a really hard time handling them. Everyone has them, and they are almost unbearable to tolerate. When you're on a downswing you don't feel confident in your game and start thinking that you may be a bad player. On upswings you think you have the game figured out and its easy money. It's very important to stay level headed and try think realistically during these times. When i'm on a downswing i tend to study more and play less. I look for any leaks that I may have, and it also helps to reassure myself that I am still playing good and just running bad.
Now i'll try to give some more advice that I have learned in the past year or that I didn't cover in the first post.
First, I would like to say how important studying is, rather than just playing and assuming that you'll learn on the go. I would legitimately recommend studying 75% of the time and playing the remaining 25% of the time when you first start off. This will greatly help you get past the learning curve and increase your profits. Reviewing hand histories and running them through sng wiz is a crucial part of improving your game. Look for different spots and what ranges you should be doing with what rather that just looking at a hand history and seeing a check mark or x (note: sng wiz is for sngs only but, if playing cash games it is still important to review hh's and use pokerstove or the like).
One of the biggest problems with a lot of players is moving up through stakes or beginning to play scared money. When I was moving up stakes I got to $25 and $40 games and it was sort of a big deal to me because this is a lot of money to me. The best way that I have found to cure this problem is just to treat poker like a video game. If you start thinking of the money as points rather than actual value it really helps the fear of losing the money. I am not recommending to play reckless, but being scared to play because of the value of the buy in is not a good way to make money. I have a lot more success just treating it like a video game and only counting it as money when i need to withdraw.
that is all i can think of for now and will try to add to it a little later if anything comes up. Also, will try to check back to field any questions or comments that you guys have.
...Always wondered how people recover from those and still believe they are good players and still do play good :s?!
