What you are Doing Wrong as an SSNLer

[Rainclouds]

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Last June, I was playing NL200 on Party Poker, and now I am a winning NL2000 and NL5000 player.

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Inspiring!

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Which reminds me, last June, I was taking my first shots at 200NL which failed badly.
Now, a year later, I can beat 200NL but I still play 50/50 between 100NL and 200NL. I guess I am very slow at moving up [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[gir]

Great post.

I especially agree with reviewing sessions...Except I do it while playing and think about it continually. I hate making mistakes, it drives me nuts. Even if I'm down 4 buyins and haven't made a single error, I'm still happier than having made a whole swing of mistakes and being breakeven. Every time I make a mistake and lose my stack, I force myself to learn a lesson so that it was not for naught.

If I lose $200, then it was a $200 lesson that I had to learn. Hopefully, I won't do it again...but I probably will. Then it will be a $400 lesson. And then a $600 lesson. Some lessons just cost more, but I will eventually learn it and stop losing money that way. Just pay attention to what is 'right' and what is 'wrong'. And when you don't know anymore, post here, in 2p2. You'll find out.

[MYNAMEIZGREG]

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Last June, I was playing NL200 on Party Poker, and now I am a winning NL2000 and NL5000 player.

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Inspiring!

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Which reminds me, last June, I was taking my first shots at 200NL which failed badly.
Now, a year later, I can beat 200NL but I still play 50/50 between 100NL and 200NL. I guess I am very slow at moving up [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

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You're not slow at moving up. Something to consider is how much effort have you put into improving as a player? I would be willing to guess the time trying to get better vs the time playing is very low in your case. Maybe try to shift that ratio a little bit and see what happens.

[Fonkey123]

Greg, I think you're awesome. Thanks. <3

[Tickner]

Greg,

With the increase of average skill level of players at all levels across the internet, is the process of moving up getting much harder as time goes by?

Do you still think it's possible for someone in SSNL to emulate your (or for ex aba20 or cts) success?

[MYNAMEIZGREG]

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Greg,

With the increase of average skill level of players at all levels across the internet, is the process of moving up getting much harder as time goes by?

Do you still think it's possible for someone in SSNL to emulate your (or for ex aba20 or cts) success?

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The answer to this question is most definetely yes. When I moved up last year through the ranks, I really didn't review my sessions. I still wrote down troublesome hands and sent them to my them-coach KRANTZ (I still have a coach btw), and he would look at them and send me back this thoughts. However, I didn't actively look through PT and this is something major IMO, and I really didn't try to think about the game in a deeper fashion than I am now, so there are definetely very tangible things you can do that would make you improve more quickly, despite the increased difficultly in games.

I just thought of something. Of course it's possible to move up quickly; I did it late last year.

After Party shut down, I found myself in a rut. During the last days of Party I was playing 5/10 as my main game, but took shots at 10/20. Afterwards, I played 3/6 for a while, and kind of spun my wheels. I had a couple breakeven months, then decided in January to pick myself back up and go from there. So I withdrew everything except 3k in UB, and started playing 1/2. I won 20k that month and ended at 3/6. Then in Februrary I played 3/6, and then mostly 5/10. Towards the end of Feb I said ok it's time and i moved up to 10/20 on FTP and 10/25 on UB (and 10/20 on Stars). So yes, I basically shot my way up, adjusting to the new style of 6m that presented itself along the way.

Will you be able to do this? Of course not. After all, it was my second time. However, the point is that it's most certainly possible. Just really focus a lot on improving.

[pickless]

this is really really good.

[aislephive]

Good post Greg, I agree with a lot of what you said but not everything.

1.) I agree, putting in time thinking about hands and studying is very important. But I think if you're a solid winner in the games you're playing, it is more worthwhile to put in a lot of hands than to focus on playing less tables and "improving." If your results really aren't up to par and you're playing 12 tables then you really should cut down on a few of them and try to improve your game. I think if you have a good edge and you know it however, then lots of tables and hands is a quick way to making a lot money and building a roll. When you move up I really think you should definitely cut down on the amount of tables you play until you prove to yourself that you're a winner (and don't add tables again until you're winning at a pretty good clip).

2.) Definitely agree, and this is one of my strong points in my game. I table select very well and almost never stay at tables with just regulars, even though I'm positive I have an edge on all of them, especially if there are a lot of better tables to be played at. If the games aren't good, typically I don't play. This is so rarely the case right now I don't have to worry about it, but at $400/$600 nl on Party the games are tougher and there are plenty of times when the games are not good.

3. Agreed, hand challenges are really tough and every time I do them I regret it later on. It's important to play when you're in the mood instead of forcing yourself to play when you're not in a good state of mind.

4.) I've never had this issue, in fact for me it's always been the contrary. I don't treat poker enough as a job considering it's my only source of income. I could make a lot of money if I put in hours comparable to most of the working class people, but for one reason or another it's hard for me to do that.

5.) I do this a lot, and I try to make sure that when I have a bad session there wasn't much I could do. Some sessions are just unavoidable, every cbet gets raised or floated, every double barrell gets shoved on, you keep missing flops and when you hit big hands they aren't holding up, that [censored] happens to everybody. But for me I usually don't make too many big mistakes anymore. I think people tend to get too results oriented about hands that are extremely close and they don't realize the difference between the EV in the decision they made and the one they think they should've made is very very close. So I tend to chalk a lot of situations up as simply variance, knowing that this guy would easily have committed with worse against my TPTK but this time happened to flop a set, that kind of thing.

Also, I do a lot of studying of other players. When CTS was playing lower stakes on FTP I would often open all of his tables, leave it, come back in a few hours and import the hands into PT, then I'd study how he played and what he did that made him so good. I really believe that it helped my game a lot.

6.) I'm generally very good about this as well, I almost never have 2p2 up when I play and although I do keep AIM/MSN on, I keep chatting to a minimum, and it's only with people I talk to all the time. If somebody randomly out of the blue IMs me who I don't know I usually just tell them to contact me later.

7.) This is something I've struggled with, specifically cashing out too much and not concentrating on building a roll and moving up. This time around I told myself things were going to be different. I have plenty of money right now and don't need to cash out for a while. I'm currently grinding $200nl but I'm overrolled for $400nl at the moment and I'm going to play there in July and try to make the move up there for good as well as some $600nl, and eventually $1knl. To be honest I'm really excited about it, as it's getting to the point where winning $15k-20k+ a month is now a definite possibility and hopefully a soon to be reality.

As for your bonus comments, IMO they're very player dependant. I personally am the type of person who doesn't like to lose, and when I'm down a couple buyins or I just can't win a hand often times I'll just quit for the day or the session and come back another time. When I'm down 6-7 buyins it's usually tilts the hell out of me and I force myself to stop, where as some people are able to brush it off, keep playing and get unstuck. Guys like CTS come to mind in regards to that, and I really wish I was able to do that.

Like I said, good post. Looking forward to more from you, gl.

[Kermit]

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Also, I do a lot of studying of other players. When CTS was playing lower stakes on FTP I would often open all of his tables, leave it, come back in a few hours and import the hands into PT, then I'd study how he played and what he did that made him so good. I really believe that it helped my game a lot.


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lolz...me too

[Saviour_Flare]

Nice post! Very informative.