moving up

[fuzz66]

any suggested reading on varience and expectation.the books i have do not get into these topics that much. 3 things ive learned on this thead 1:the importance of a proper starting bankroll.2: a better understanding of varience[hence the need for a proper bankroll].3: luck plays a bigger role in this game more than i realize, but over the long run, better players will overcome the luck factor. because i strictly play live now, i cannot post any recent hands without being vague on the specifics. does anyone have any advice on keeping hand stats playing live?

[jjshabado]

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because i strictly play live now, i cannot post any recent hands without being vague on the specifics.

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*cough* copout *cough*

Sorry, something was in my throat.

1. Nobody expects a live hand post to look as nice as a converted online hand.

2. You don't need specifics. When I'm talking to friends about hands that happened live, I frequently say things like "there were 3 or 4 limpers in the hand", "I was in mid-late position", "an un-important card came on the turn", "it was a medium pot", etc. Focus on the important details, the rest doesn't matter that much.

3. If you can't even remember that much, make it your goal to get one hand from every session. When a good hand to post about comes up, write it down. There should be at least one hand in the next 3 or 4 that you fold preflop that will give you a minute to jot down the important details. If you feel like an idiot doing it at the table, get up and do it. But write it down.

4. Respond to other people's hands. If you can't even do any of those 2 things reply to other people's hands. Note, that this is nowhere near as good as posting your own.

5. Make up a hand, and talk about how you would play it. If you little to no imagination grab a deck of cards deal yourself two, pick a scenario (you're in late position, UTG raised, two people called, what do you do? sorta thing) and then deal a flop/turn/river deciding what you'd do at each point.

There, now you have lots of options.

[Harv72b]

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any suggested reading on varience and expectation

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Most books I've read at least touch on the subject, but I don't know of any off the top of my head which deal exclusively with variance and expectations. Maybe "Zen and the Art of Poker" by Phillips, which is based more on ways to handle such things mentally.

Seriously, though, browsing through the Beats, Brags, and Variance forum on here should at least give you an idea of what you can expect. And prepare you for the worst.