STTs from the beginning!

[abuljooj]

I've been lurking around here for about a year now, occasionally posting something. For the last year I have been attempting to play online poker as a second source of income. I've only managed to successfully play one table at a time, and i did most of my playing at Empire Poker which unfortunately has fallen back into the hands of party. I never really managed to build a nice BR or consistently keep playing. Usually just ended up cashing out some of the money, and eventually losing the rest playing cash games.

I think my problem is that i lack a little bit of guidance, and obviously lots of discipline. So here is what i'm asking of all you Pooh-bahs and carpal/tunnels out there, I want to start successfully playing STTs all over again, and go about it the correct way. I'm assuming i gotta get me a copy of SNGPT and PokerTracker before i can get started. I'll only have a few hours to play, a few times a week, so i'll definately need to multitable. What i'm asking for is to become someone's protege. If any of you would be willing to take me on as their student and share their wisdom with me, i would be forever grateful, and we could of course discuss some sort of compensation. I've read most of the poker books that are out there, but need to sharpen my skills on the subtle intricacies of SNGs, and how to succeffully beat them. Feel free to PM me if you're interested but don't want to post your response on here. I'm going to go ahead and assume that no one is going to take me up on this, but after reading runner4life's pooh-bah post and him mentioning how Jman taught him, i figure its worth a shot to see if i can also be so lucky!

Thank you all regardless for sharing your wisdom with the less knowledgeable like myself.

~George

[sonneti]

Read the FAQ and just post hands like everyone else, you won't get better advice anywhere for free! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Nick Rainey]

I like your courage to post. I would love to help you, but I am on the road coaching some pro tennis players. Get Mutli Table Helper and Pokertracker and goto pokermods.com. I have a 3 monitor set up at home, thing just looks sweet, and people think its the coolest thing when they come over and see it for the first time.

[AMT]

i always encourage personal help when available, but this forum does help a great deal. I also suggest PAhud for a serious multi tabler if you play at least 4 tables (the more you play, the more worth it it is).

[runner4life7]

whlie it was nice to get to know jman both as a friend and visit him drunk tonight, which i still am, the most important thing is your desire to learn and if you are willing to put in the time to study. Post hands you are unsure of. Get sng power tools and get read to start studying [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. Post many hands and good luck.

[oddsock]

I don't post very often, if only for the fact that I feel I have nothing to add and, in any event, I play 2/4 + 3/6 5CD on PR+skins most of the time but one thing that rings true is the bit about doing OK on STT and losing on cash games.


If you truly want to make an additional income on STTs then concentrate solely on them. I go through periods of playing STT at 11-33 (occasionally higher but not often) levels and do OK (played about 3000 of them with a solid ROI in the last two years) - I don't supermulti but I may play 4 at a time but probably an average of 2. I play a solid good "standard" game, I pick out the monkeys early on if i can, I aim for 1st most the time and will risk 3rd if I have a proper crack at the top position, I dont dwell on suckouts if I believe I played the hand correctly, if I played like a gibbering baboon I stop and analyse what I did wrong. Simple stuff really.

If you are consistently and steadily losing money playing STTs then your leaks should become obvious once you start analyzing your games.

However - I suck bad at cash NL games. I'm just not very good and, even worse, I know why- not aggressive enough with good hands, I get annoyed easily if I get sucked out on, I sometimes get suckered into playing mediocre hands. Either way, it's a lot of sucking. I would normally go cash if I had just had a bad run of STTs to "make up the money" - which isn't very clever to begin with. It brings out the gambler in me whereas STTs bring out the gamer in me - and I want to be the best at the game.

What I'm getting at is play to your strengths - if STT is where you consider yourself best - stay there. There is a lot of science to the game and every game I lose (and even ones I win) i can normally easily pinpoint mistakes that I make. Don't lie to yourself and don't let your ego ruin you - take pride in your play even if you got screwed in a vital hand by some idiot however annoying it is at the time.

If this all sounds like crap then I apologise but I just took recognition in what you said.

[abuljooj]

I see what you're saying, and thank you for the advice. I also feel that this truly might be one of my biggest leaks. In your own words, i need to be more of a gamer than a gambler, and quit messing around with the cash games.

I just lost a nice chunk in AC this last weekend, mostly for hotel, so i'm currently in the process of building up a $250 BR to start playing the $10s at party, and some extra cash to get SNGPT and poker tracker.

i think i'm going to start out just doing 1 table at a time, eventually going up to 4. I doubt i would ever want to do any more than 4 at a time. I have a copy of the "how to beat PP $10 SNG" that i found on this forum, but i wonder if that is the best strategy to follow, or if there is something better and more complete out there. Also i believe that was written before the structure change, and i'm not sure if there was some sort of updated strategy somewhere, or how the strucuture change would, if any, affect the original strategy. any advice?

thanks again

[Jshuttlesworth]

[ QUOTE ]
I like your courage to post. I would love to help you, but I am on the road coaching some pro tennis players. Get Mutli Table Helper and Pokertracker and goto pokermods.com. I have a 3 monitor set up at home, thing just looks sweet, and people think its the coolest thing when they come over and see it for the first time.

[/ QUOTE ]

***END HIJACK-BRAG***

[The Young Gun]

[ QUOTE ]
I see what you're saying, and thank you for the advice. I also feel that this truly might be one of my biggest leaks. In your own words, i need to be more of a gamer than a gambler, and quit messing around with the cash games.

I just lost a nice chunk in AC this last weekend, mostly for hotel, so i'm currently in the process of building up a $250 BR to start playing the $10s at party, and some extra cash to get SNGPT and poker tracker.

i think i'm going to start out just doing 1 table at a time, eventually going up to 4. I doubt i would ever want to do any more than 4 at a time. I have a copy of the "how to beat PP $10 SNG" that i found on this forum, but i wonder if that is the best strategy to follow, or if there is something better and more complete out there. Also i believe that was written before the structure change, and i'm not sure if there was some sort of updated strategy somewhere, or how the strucuture change would, if any, affect the original strategy. any advice?

thanks again

[/ QUOTE ]

Following a guide is not the best way to go if you serisouly want to learn. You need to understand WHY you are making the actions you do.