Improving One\'s Game
 

Recently I have not been able to win for the life of me. Therefore, after losing 45 BB over 6,000 hands, I've decided to stop playing temporarily and re-learn poker (it was a struggle to be only 45 BB down).

Ed Miller states in his book, Small Stakes Hold'Em that games of chance mess with human learning and should be looked at in a theoretical sense. I want to be good at 6-max LHE and eventually NLHE. In both games, reading players is very critical to being successful.

How should I go about improving my game?
My thoughts are, keep reading this forum and responding to hand histories and read Hold'Em for Advanced Players. Are there any other good books that I should consider?

I ordered the Psychology of Poker also. I figured that maybe if I understand the type of thoughts that go on through player's heads, I'll be better off. What is the general consensus on this book?

I'm constantly itching to deposit my money back into Stars. Although I believe Miller's take on learning games of chance, I also think experience plays a big role. Should I deposit money back into Stars and start playing again?

I just want to figure out whats the quickest and most efficient way for me to become a good poker player.

Re: Improving One\'s Game
 

I hope the moderators take this in the light in which it is meant and not as a spam, since the op ask for input.

I recently went through the same type of thing and I wish it was only 45 BB's. So I decided to start over. I cleared out my PT and went back to $.25/$.50 NL. Promised that I would stay there until I turned $100 into $1000 or 10 buy-ins before I move up to $.50/$.1.00 NL. The other thing that I did was sign-up for cardrunners.com . I have always known that I am a visual learner as most adults are, but this has been the greateast investment that I have ever made in poker.I own every book, PT, Pokeroffice, Poker stove....etc.. but cardrunners has me in just a few days winning 16 out of 17 sessions at 25BB/100. I know small sample and all of that, but this is different poker than I have ever played. Now multi-tabling (2 or 3) is easy because I know what I am looking at.

Re: Improving One\'s Game
 

eh, I dont feel like paying any money. All the books i'm getting are from Star's FPP store.

Re: Improving One\'s Game
 

[ QUOTE ]
eh, I dont feel like paying any money. All the books i'm getting are from Star's FPP store.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL. GL.

Re: Improving One\'s Game
 

??? What books then do you suggest i read?

Re: Improving One\'s Game
 

45BB is nothing. put in 20k hands and then we'll see.

Re: Improving One\'s Game
 

I am amused by your post .. such ambition and yet something fell not quite in place.

Oh well I will take the liberty to put down some thoughts down on paper for you ...

First of all try to find out what variance and standard deviation means in poker, especially limit poker (and samplesize btw). These are some of the most important concepts to be familiar with as a pokerplayer. (And when you have done that please tell us if a 45BB downswing is something you sould be complaining about)

After that I suggest reading The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky if you haven't read this book yet btw.

Re: Improving One\'s Game
 

I do understand statistics.

Since May 1rst, 2006, My winrate is -1.49 BB/100 over 5138 hands. This is because i played one night and made $60 at $1/$2 but it was on a different computer so i didnt import the hand history. My actual BB/100 is less than this. My SD is 17.8033 BB/100

Before May 1rst my BB/100 is 3.29 BB/100 with a SD of 16.6282 BB/100 over 6029 hands.

Performing a 2-Sample T-Test with an alternate hypothesis that the winrate before does not equal winrate now i get a p-value of 1.160025*10^-47 or approximately zero. t=-14.57546988 with a df of 10614.68117

There is something that went wrong with my game. It is not bad variance

Re: Improving One\'s Game
 

5000 and 6000 hand stretches are essentially insignificant over the long run. It takes a very long time to see if you are truly a winner..

Re: Improving One\'s Game
 

45 BB? That's a bad day at the office.