How long did it take you to become a winning player?

[ginko]

Its very very easy to win at low stakes. Play tight, bet when you have a good hand, check/fold when you have a bad hand. Be agressive.

Thats just the beginning though.. it gets a lot harder when you move up stakes and face tougher opposition.

[BK1248]

for some people it only takes a few months, and others it takes a lifetime/never. I read all the books and played 2-4 and 3-6 in early 2000's and eventually made the move to 10-20 and took it very seriously . In 6 months id say i was one of the best players in the 10-20 at foxwoods just by playing tight ( 2 tight actually) with no guidance from anyone except 2+2 books. OTOH my Dad has been trying to get good for years with my guidance and still cant put it together.

[Cent]

I used to be an AWFUL player [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] But i was determined to get good, and kept at it, kept playing online, and i eventually came to be good.

I got a lot out of reading good poker books like Phil Gordon's Little Green Book and the Harrington's. Now I play Medium stakes and almost always win my sessions, thanks to watching cardrunners videos and coaching.

If you are a small stakes player and need coaching, i can help you out for a cheap rate. I'm in the twoplustwo coaching directory.

Cent

[Lion]

Can any of you give me any suggestions on my Post about what to do with $100?

[Kmon]

I still go through crazy up and downs and i'm at micro. Working with cent has helped a ton both ways. It takes dedication and the willingness to not gamble. Unless you are very sure you are ahead of a hand, or you have a read on a maniac and think u have the best of it with a tptk.

Just read, and play within ur br. As cent told me after I lost a tiny br, "the best thing is experience"

Pokertracker is a must, to find leaks in ur game and to find out ways of improving.

I'm still not a winning player, rakeback helps a little bit, and I'm always learning, I think that's the key.

At the micro levels also just play tight and really aggressive whenever u have some nice hole cards. Also position is one of the biggest things that can help you become a winning player. Take all the variables of poker and use them to ur advantage or try to.

[holyfield5]

i was always a winning player when i started playing online but i went through swings and was a very marginal winner and still tilted. two months of hardcore playing and studying and it all clicked together, learned to control tilt and i started crushing the games enough to go pro. it might take others longer because ive always had a knack for strategy type games(starcraft, AoE etc), logic, and math.

good luck sir

[gutte169]

Most "big pros" (helmuth, negraneu, etc.) or whoever you are referring to, are a very small minority in the winning player community.

Here's how I think the story goes for most winning players. The vast majority (maybe as high as 70-80%) are intelligent, logical thinkers ("math-types") who are competitive and see a way to have fun making money. They get intrigued by the game, and purchase as much literature as they can get their hands on. Poker literature is a huge motivator, because it gets the player thinking about how much logic, math, and overall intelligence the game involves.

After studying, playing, and thinking about hands in their off-time, they naturally learn the "basics" of how to beat lower-stakes games. Since they are most likely in the top 10-15% of society as fas as intelligence, beating these games comes fairly simple. They also have the common sense to slowly move up limits while building their bankroll without silly risks. Eventually, due to the sheer amount of hands they have played on the way up, they become a winning player at most limits and types of games that they face. I would also assume that the majority of "winning players" have been successful at nearly every type of game, including limit, no limit, tournaments, sit and go's, and 6max.

There are harder ways to become a winning player, usually visited by people who start off as action junkies or think the game is all about bluffing, reading people, and getting people on tilt. These players tend to be big, big losers in the early going. They see poker in a local casino, on TV, or in a movie and think "Dude, those guys are awesome, I wanna do that!". It's a long, dark road that usually involves four-digit midnight sessions online that no one ever hears about. Or, for live players, there are those nights where you are down 4 racks and decide to start playing "good" (but, since you never learned to play good, you just play tight). The drive home is humiliating, you blame the bad luck of losing with Aces and Kings every time, that one unlucky dealer, or leaving the "hot seat" at the wrong time. You stay away for a night or two, but come back with the same bad habits and misunderstanding of the game.

After losing more than you should while denying a large portion of it, you finally pay attention to the 2 guys at the table to appear to have some kind of actual strategy (or their nonstop berating has finally gotten to you). You slowly learn the idea of odds and the basic probability behind the game. Although you might not be a great logical thinker, you are able to win at lower limits, and the instictive aggression might get you further.

This is all based on observations over the years, but I think these are very regularly occurring story lines. I believe that intelligence, logical thinking, and the ability to stay disciplined through downswings are the keys to being a winning player in the long run. For some players it's natural, for others, not so much...

[Reef]

probably started out as a very slightly +EV player b/c

1) was at partypoker
2) was 4 yrs ago
3) was their smallest limit game around
4) had poker mentoring

--
and was armed with this:




------
but took a few months before I "got it" (on a winning beginners level) .. then took like 2 more years till I "got it" (on a winning intermediate level players mindset) .. now I'm still learning and playing

[holyfield5]

[ QUOTE ]
probably started out as a very slightly +EV player b/c

1) was at partypoker
2) was 4 yrs ago
3) was their smallest limit game around
4) had poker mentoring

--
and was armed with this:




------
but took a few months before I "got it" (on a winning beginners level) .. then took like 2 more years till I "got it" (on a winning intermediate level players mindset) .. now I'm still learning and playing

[/ QUOTE ]

hahah its funny you mention that book, ill give a little story about that, its the first and only book on poker i had ever read for a long time(got NLTAP a month ago though)

I moved to a new city, started a new job and was hanging out with the guys after work, they had poker on tv, which i knew nothing about and they were actually having a game later that night. I decided to buy in for 5 just to hang out and try it. I didnt understand the blinds and betting order yet so the host gave me that book signed by ken warren, i read it over and over and caught the bug and it started me down this path.

thx ken warren, i owe you one

[bigt2k4]

It took me about 7 hands to win my 1st pot.