Two Plus Two Newer Archives - LC: Pooh-bah post (long)

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LC: Pooh-bah post (long)

Hey 2+2, just wanted to share with your my poker background and also some useful tips for less experienced STTers. The advice I'm going to offer in this thread probably isn't valuable to anyone playing higher buyins, but it should be good for newer players. These tips have really helped my game improve over the last year.

I started playing poker about 5 years ago in friendly ultra low stakes NL games ($20 buyins). I got into limit playing 3-6 with a group of really talented individuals who normally played 20/40 and were winning players at it. Sufficed to say that I got crushed some of the time, but in general broke even or so and I learned a lot. Over the years, I've played a bunch of limit omaha hi (my fav cash game), especially on pacific about 2 years ago playing 5/10 or 10/20. Unfortunately the game is pretty much dead. Around this same time, I started playing higher buyin sngs ($60s on party). I knew pretty much nothing about sngs and while I don't have my results from the time period, I was definitely not a winning player (I rarely got 1st I know that) and at best I was a break-even player. I was way over my head and practiced pretty poor bankroll management. I would run up $200 deposits into 1k-2k playing 3-6 limit and then jump into higher games and get destroyed. The whole process was pretty disheartened and I began to learn the value of bankroll management.

My second beginning in sngs happened last December after depositing on stars with the intention of playing Rolf Soltblom's (sp?) min buy in strategy for PLO. I got pretty crushed and was left with about $80 in my account. After playing $10 regs for a bit, I was left with even less my account and decided to switch to turbos. I did not have any knowledge of ICM or have any idea about starting hands or just general sng strategy in general (other than get more aggro in position/when it's SH which I knew from limit holdem). At about this time, I started talking to scotty12 about sngs on a very basic level. I got some recommendations from him about starting hands, push/folding scenarios, etc. I came back to play 6.50s and 16s on stars and did decently. Since then I've been on party, FTP and now back to stars. I don't put in that much volume, but in the last year I've made around 8k. I was a winning player throughout that whole period since I changed to turbos and started discussing sng strat with Scott. Anyways now I feel that my game is pretty solid (I realize there are areas where I need to improve my game, but I am now playing with tons of confidence, I am insanely nitty about bankroll management and am overrolled for the games I'm playing). I am 12 tabling now and have been for a while.

Anyways, here are some general tips that have really helped transform my game and make me a better and more confident player.

-make videos and put them up for review on 2+2
-coach someone/teach someone how to play
-review several HHs as often as possible, even if you don't think you have leaks
-PM ppl and ask to exchange HHs (this has helped me soo much).
-Get to know ppl at your level and add them to aim/msn/whatever. Having a bunch of ppl in similar situation able to discuss hands at length is really valuable.
-Be willing to take breaks when your game feels like it's going nowhere/when you've ran badly a lot recently, it might not just be variance
-software is so critical
-get coached
p-ost a lot of hands and read a lot of 2+2 (give advice on lower buyin threads and read higher buyin ones as long as the ideas discussed don't confuse you and make your game worse)
-make prop bets, or try to win bonuses given from poker sites to motivate you to play
-have other hobbies other than poker to keep you sane (I can count cards and have a blackjack team that has been very profitable. I also snowboard, shoot pool and love reading philosophical works and books about drug culture)
-table select if possible and where relevant (you don't need to table select at micro limits obv or if regs are just marginal)
-make an effort to accurately figure out villain's push/call ranges and adjust accordingly.
-play other poker games when you get bored or want to tilt off a bit of money (micro limits).
-move down when your confidence takes a hit, esp during a downswing, the losses will hurt less and you should perform better.
-Don't make your 2+2 name the same as every SN you have on every major poker site.
-Learn the nuances of ICM and practice with it continually. Play around with it a lot.
-learn about and practice good bankroll management. If you're not confident in the games you're playing, you're probably playing way too high. Shot taking is ok if you can live with a loss. Rebuilding from scratch is a horrible experience and should be avoided.
-multitabling really helps me avoid tilting b/c I do not sweat every result very much at all.

I know this is a super long post. Usually I can't articulate myself very briefly and I don't want to miss out on anything. In general, I am very grateful to 2+2. It is an amazing resource and was really my jumping off point to becoming a better player. I read almost every post and make an effort to post my opinions when it hasn't already been said. As Scotty said, don't quote ppl or write 1 word responses b/c your opinion might not be clear to newer players. Thanks to all that have posted on my hands and watched and critiqued my videos. Thanks most of all to Scott though who really got me into sngs and is always there to listen to me bitch about downswings and variance. It's sometimes a tough game to deal with and having someone to exchange ideas with and vent to is really critical. Also thanks to Sence. I really have a great time discussing hands with you and enjoy talking to you daily. Having really good friends that you can talk about all aspects of the game (as well as other things) is crucial and I can't thank you guys (and 2+2 in general) enough.

I just wanted to get my thoughts out and give back to the community.