In Need of Direction

[depokerman13]

From those with experience and insight... I need help. I find myself all over the poker map. For the last 5 years... I play 3/6 limit online (trade money), play .50/1 no limit at a home game (get crushed badly), play tourneys (positive overall).. home and online from time to time. My problem is I am all over the map. I would really like to focus on one aspect of poker as the strategies obviously are fairly different for limit vs. no-limit etc. Any advice on where to start?... good books, just read every post out there, videos, etc.? I would really like to become good and not feel like I am clueless and spread to thin. I will take any advice I can get.
Thanks.

[swingdoc]

First of all, I only play NLHE and omaha. I personally love small buy-in, single table, NL SNG's to start. It's as close as you can get to learning it all in one place. You learn how to play tournaments (early-, mid- and late- tournament stragtegy), and early to mid levels are played pretty closely to the way you should play NL cash games.

Must reads (in order): Getting started in hold'em by Miller, Theory of Poker by Sklansky, Harrington on Hold'em I, II & III, Hold'em for Advanced Players by Sklansky, Malmuth. If you play live, Caro's book on tells.

To be honest, money is probably a little easier to make in small stakes no limit cash games, however this is more true grinding than poker. Feel free to post questions/difficult hands in the appropriate forum.

[AKQJ10]

There's nothing wrong with being a generalist, and given what you've said there's a good chance that your mindset is such that, if you decide to play only online LHE for the rest of your life, you'll get quite bored.

However, you can and should specialize over a given period of time. Spend the next 3-6 months focusing on whatever's most important to you -- say, tournaments. Play a lot of small tournaments such as sit-and-gos, because those will give you the best read on your results. (Playing a few MTTs isn't bad, but variance can be very high leaving you wondering if you're progressing or not.) Read a lot. Post hands when in doubt.

If you improve in that area of the game, then you'll be encouraged to keep going, and you'll have a bigger bankroll. So maybe now you want to dabble in HORSE -- start at the low stakes and work your way up.

Keep going and you can broaden your knowledge in a way that's fun. You can be unfocused over the course of a lifetime -- just don't be unfocused for the given month or given quarter.

[lucky_mf]

Limit poker seems to be in decline. The best games right now are NL and PL 6-max Hold'em, especially at lower limits. Given this fact I would suggest trying to focus on shorthanded NL/PL.

Unfortunately no book is going to be able to tell you how to play 6-max NL and PL. There are many different styles that can be effective depending on the table.

One style that might not be bad starting out is the one advocated in the 2+2 small stakes NL book (I don't know the title). I believe this strategy calls buying in short (like for 20bb), sitting immediately to the right of aggro players, and limp raising all-in PF (after the aggro player raises) with big pairs (99+) and good aces (AQs, AK), and otherwise playing very tight. This strategy can be effective in today's game where many deeper stack players raise and call raises with light holdings.

I personally found the stuff on NL and Super System to be the most useful, although I have read the Ciaphone (sp?) and Ruben book as well as the most recent effort by Slansky and Miller. Super System advocates pretty aggresive play that is more appropriate for full stacks.

Probably the best course of action would be to pick up either Super System (or read it in the bookstore) or the 2+2 small stakes NL book (depending on which style is more appealing) read, and then play a bunch. There is no substitute for play.

Lucky

[DeuceSeven]

Are you wanting to have fun or get very serious and maybe make some money on the side? If you are serious I would put some work in. I would set up a weekly schedule for a month where you play x amount of limit hands, nl hands, sngs, and mtts. After the month you'll have a great idea on what you want to concentrate on. You have to stick to the schedule, what you'll find is when you have to play one of the above forms of poker you'll want to play one or two forms all the time. Then you know what to concentrate on.

For me I bounced around playing nl full ring cash games, sngs, and mtts. I lost money, broke even, then started making money. About 2 months ago I decided I really wanted to improve and decided to play 400 nl 6-max cash game hands, 4 sngs, and 4 mtts. After 6 weeks and doubling my bank roll I found that I really enjoyed sngs and mtts. So thats what I play now.

[AKQJ10]

[ QUOTE ]
Limit poker seems to be in decline.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's true in the online world. Ed Miller writes, [ QUOTE ]
Clearly online games have gotten tougher over the last couple of years, especially the limit games. Guys that made $100k or more playing limit in 2004 can’t come anywhere near that number now. Virtually all the guys I know who played limit online for a living have now moved to no limit games, even though they play limit better.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's less true in B&M. The Commerce mid-limit games in LA continue to be legendary. Foxwoods and the Borgata, though showing signs of the NL boom, continue to maintain dynamic limit games. On my recent first visit to Tunica, I was struck by how limit continues to hold its own and even have more tables going than NL.

You can build your skills up in limit and get a payoff if you're willing to go to a B&M casino regularly. Just don't expect juicy online mid-stakes games.

[ QUOTE ]

One style that might not be bad starting out is the one advocated in the 2+2 small stakes NL book (I don't know the title). I believe this strategy calls buying in short (like for 20bb), sitting immediately to the right of aggro players, and limp raising all-in PF (after the aggro player raises) with big pairs (99+) and good aces (AQs, AK), and otherwise playing very tight.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm a pretty aggressive proponent of Ed's Getting Started in Hold 'em. One small point -- Ed doesn't specifically mention the limp/reraising, but in an aggressive game and short-stacked I think it's a good thing to do. What's not good is only L/RRing AA and KK.