The Well: SEABEAST

[SEABEAST]

Couple of people asked me about doing one of these, and there hasn't been one for a while, so...

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A stranger is being shown around a village that he has just become part of. He is shown a well and his guide says "On any day except tuesday, you can shout any question down that well and you'll be told the answer" . The man seems pretty impressed, and so he shouts down: Why not on tuesday? and the voice from in the well shouts back: Because on tuesday, its your day in the well .

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[thac]

This is amazing. I've been waiting!

-Poker story?
-How many tables do you play at a time on average?
-What do you think makes you different from the breakeven/average player at SSNL/MSNL?

[Unknown Soldier]

when you gonna move up and leave us msnl party regs be? I really think you should [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]


serious question though, why have you stuck to msnl? you're clearly good enough to beat high stakes.

[SEABEAST]

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serious question though, why have you stuck to msnl? you're clearly good enough to beat high stakes.

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Already sort of answered this in poker story but basically I want to minimise stress and maximise how long I can grind before getting sick of the game. I feel an obligation to myself to set up my future and I am looking to do that with the least resistance possible. I feel like the considerable increase in stress wouldn't be worth the relatively minimal increase in winnings, but I still chase fish onto higher limits because it's obviously massively +ev (and fun [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img])

[bubaloo]

your poker story?

lifetime stats/graphs?

biggest leak that most SSNLers have/how to exploit it?

thanks?

[SEABEAST]

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biggest leak that most SSNLers have/how to exploit it?


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Leak is sort of a strange word for it, but I think the biggest problem SSNLers have is their approach to the game. A lot of people seem to see poker as a game of cards, like the way to win is to figure out hand strengths and the best line for each hand in each situation sort of thing. In reality it's more a series of situations which you are looking to exploit, and the way you make money is figuring out what the best way to take advantage of the current situation is each time it is your turn to act.

It's much less about how to play aces or ace king than it is about being able to identify stuff like: that your opponent will fold if you raise, that your opponent will call no matter how much you bet, that if you put in a raise here it makes it very tough for your opponent to continue out of position, etc. Stuff like that, look at the situation overall, not just the cards and the board.

[Michaelson]

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biggest leak that most SSNLers have/how to exploit it?


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Leak is sort of a strange word for it, but I think the biggest problem SSNLers have is their approach to the game. A lot of people seem to see poker as a game of cards, like the way to win is to figure out hand strengths and the best line for each hand in each situation sort of thing. In reality it's more a series of situations which you are looking to exploit, and the way you make money is figuring out what the best way to take advantage of the current situation is each time it is your turn to act.

It's much less about how to play aces or ace king than it is about being able to identify stuff like: that your opponent will fold if you raise, that your opponent will call no matter how much you bet, that if you put in a raise here it makes it very tough for your opponent to continue out of position, etc. Stuff like that, look at the situation overall, not just the cards and the board.

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I love this.

I have two questions with respect to this way of thinking about the game. 1) What provided you with the skills to be able to recognise different the relevant variables in any given spot and respond to them appropriately? Experience, innate skill, 2+2, poker books, session reviews, something else, a combination of things...? I really try to play explotitively in the way you describe, but in game time frequently I'll size up the situation and respond incorrectly one way or the other, but it sounds like you just have a really solid foundation on which you base your decisions. How did you go about developing that?

2) How on earth do you keep track of player's tendencies and the flow of a table playing 9 tables on average? Does that require you to rely heavily on stats?

Slightly different but related question, do you datamine and then try to build reads from known stats, or do you approach new players cold and suss them out just by observing them/prodding them and seeing how they react?

[ama0330]

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How on earth do you keep track of player's tendencies and the flow of a table playing 9 tables on average? Does that require you to rely heavily on stats?

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I was wondering this too

[SEABEAST]

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I have two questions with respect to this way of thinking about the game. 1) What provided you with the skills to be able to recognise different the relevant variables in any given spot and respond to them appropriately? Experience, innate skill, 2+2, poker books, session reviews, something else, a combination of things...? I really try to play explotitively in the way you describe, but in game time frequently I'll size up the situation and respond incorrectly one way or the other, but it sounds like you just have a really solid foundation on which you base your decisions. How did you go about developing that?


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Another really interesting question. It is a combination of intuition/instinct and fundamental knowledge, weighed up mathematically on an unconscious level I think! Sounds pretty pretentious but that's the only way I can think of describing it. Out of the things you mentioned experience and learning to think about the game the right way (2+2 is great for that) are the most important. Obviously we all need to learn the fundamental concepts at first. Then stuff like handreading skill develops over time as you see similar situations over and over and get a feel for how certain types of people tend to play in certain spots.

Once you have these abilities from there it's just a matter of combining the two and knowing what to do in the moment based on intuitive calculations, obviously when you look at nosebleed stakes they all know the fundamentals and have handreading skills, it is largely a battle of instinctive brilliance in the moment - well that and who tilts the least, gets the most time with the fish, and runs the best [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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2) How on earth do you keep track of player's tendencies and the flow of a table playing 9 tables on average? Does that require you to rely heavily on stats?

Slightly different but related question, do you datamine and then try to build reads from known stats, or do you approach new players cold and suss them out just by observing them/prodding them and seeing how they react?

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I think I'm pretty good at filtering out information ie. basically ignoring any "decisions" that are automatic, like raising aces folding 72o etc. I do them without even thinking about it. So even though I might be playing 12 tables, at any point in time I am *really* only playing maybe 1 or 2 hands in my head, and folding/raising every other hand preflop without even thinking about it. Because of this it's not that hard to zero in on what's going on, and get a feel for how opponents play. I don't datamine but I have stats on most people because the Party player base isn't huge. I like the way you put that though - "approach new players cold and suss them out just by observing them/prodding them and seeing how they react". I definitely do that, and I think my style mostly forces people to react to me rather than the other way around.

[BombayBadboy]

Tell me all you know about 3-betting. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Can you give some pointers for SSNL about what you think is important in 3-bet pots?

Thnx for doing this!