DeathDonkey is in the well

[CrMenace]

I feel like I don't use the b/f line enough. Can you summarize when b/f is the best play, especially on the river?

[DeathDonkey]

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Do you make your living out of poker?

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Yes.

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When did you first realise that you were a winning player, and that you could make serious money.

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I felt I was a winning player right away because I was a smart kid who played live with a bunch of old people at the local indian casino and I could see and had read in a book that playing bad starting hands is poor strategy. Being a winning player at higher stakes games is always tougher to judge, but to just be a +EV player only takes understanding why poker is different from a slot machine.

I remember very clearly when I realized I could make serious money at poker. 1.5 years ago I was working over the summer as an intern doing engineering work, and I made a few trips to Tampa, Florida for work. Every night I'd go to my hotel and play poker on my laptop and just about then I took my first shots at 5/10 6 max on Party poker (had played 3/6 full ring limit before that). At the end of my work trip I realized I had made more money running well in the 5/10 6m games those nights than I had getting paid for my daily work on the trip. Soon after that I was 4 tabling the 5/10 6m and taking shots at the 10/20 6m game and with rakeback I zoomed to an hourly far surpassing any job I could get in the "real world".

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I have been playing just over a month, and have learned a lot, but dont seem to be getting anywhere and am getting quite discouraged, even though i'm way better than i was a month ago . What advice would you give me, (i know a month is a very short time, but im expecting to see improvement)

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You expect to see improvement, and you claim you have "learned a lot", so that is the improvement. Poker is a very unique game in that your results have little bearing on your "improvement" and you have to find little ways to congratulate yourself or succeed. If you can be more specific I might be more helpful, are you not winning? not enough? One thing I suggest is playing another game besides limit holdem, just for fun. Play micro limit 7 card stud or something and try and figure out the strategy. For me, I've always felt the best about poker when I was having fun and the money followed.

-DeathDonkey

[DeathDonkey]

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I feel like I don't use the b/f line enough. Can you summarize when b/f is the best play, especially on the river?

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Bet/fold is very very very very very frequently the best play on the river! The reason for that is that it maximizes your value against the typical loose passive player who's range for calling your river bet is significantly larger than his range for betting it himself if you check to him. Also, these players do not have the creativity to bluff raise the river so you can be very sure a river raise represents an improved hand in some way. The only time it is not advisable is if you have a hand that you think is too good against a guy who might mistakenly value raise a worse hand (for instance you have two pair and the guy might make a worse two pair on the river and raise it for value). I can pretty confidently say bet/folding one pair on the river in most micro stakes games is usually the best play. This play is all about confidence by the way, uncertain players hate to take this line because they feel unsatisfied that they never get a result. They want to see the hand that beat them but you have to pay for this! When you are a confident winning player then you put them on the correct hand when they raise, congratulate yourself on saving 1 bb that a lesser player would throw away and move on to the next hand.

-DeathDonkey

[neeeel]

I am not winning, I had a bad downswing a couple of weeks ago(200+ BB, which seemed bad to me), part bad luck, part bad play, and i recovered a bit, but now go up and down, I would say that im not even a break even player atm, which cant be too hard at 0.50/1, and that is what is discouraging me.

[FUJItheFISH]

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lets go to oceans.

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Sure, Friday's are best because they have 75/150 now!

-DeathDonkey

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let me pester joe into going this friday. ill get back to you.

[DeathDonkey]

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I am not winning, I had a bad downswing a couple of weeks ago(200+ BB, which seemed bad to me), part bad luck, part bad play, and i recovered a bit, but now go up and down, I would say that im not even a break even player atm, which cant be too hard at 0.50/1, and that is what is discouraging me.

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It's all a matter of perspective. 50c/1 is a big game to some people in this forum, I know because I remember when that was a scary game for me. It definitely is not surprising that you are not winning after just a month, though some players might learn and win that fast. Poker isn't about comparing yourself to anyone, just improving on your own and reaching new levels at whatever pace you are best able to.

200 bb at those stakes is definitely indicative of some mistakes, though, I wouldn't chalk that all up to bad luck. I would just tell you what I would say to anyone looking to get better, post and respond to hands in this forum, giving your opinion on how to play the hand and if fellow posters disagree with you, try and figure out who is correct and why, and if it is them, be humble enough to learn and not be stubborn (not saying you do any of this, but its just a common thing people have when coming to poker or poker forums, they are very successful at other things and think they have this figured out in a short period of time), I play some pretty big games and have been reading here for years and I still don't think I have it all figured out.

Good luck, get involved here,
DeathDonkey

[DeathDonkey]

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lets go to oceans.

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Sure, Friday's are best because they have 75/150 now!

-DeathDonkey

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let me pester joe into going this friday. ill get back to you.

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This Friday I'm going to Disneyland with my wife, next week would be better. PM or AIM me anytime.

-DeathDonkey

[calidris]

After a month?!?!?!
What kind of demands do you put on yourself? I lost 400 BB over 6 months before I finally figured out how to beat .25/.50 so prolly be I'm pretty dense.

ETA: I'm still make dense decisions but my PT numbers are green.

[davelin]

How does your wife (of one month) feel about you playing poker for a living, both when you started dating and now that you're married [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[bennyhana]

what is your first name?

what kind of car do you drive?

about a month ago, I was playing .50/1 at Stars. a player by the name of "DeathDonkey" sat down 2 seats to my right. Was that you? I gave a sup bro? but got no response.

What do you think of this whole Neteller fiasco? Do you think we will ever see our money?