Any advice for getting really really good

[Leo Doyle]

I want to become a great poker player, I've been playing around 9 months and more and more intesley throughout that period.

I started out playing $10, $20, $30 nd $50 STT's, suprisingly enough after a few hundred games I was down well over $1000.

I've now read HOH I, II and III and re-read them a couple of times.

I opened an account at stars to take up bonus offer and cleared the 500 points with ROI of 5% playing $5, $6 and a couple of $10's STT and Heads Up.
I'm now back a Full Tilt trying to clear latest bonus, and have had found I enjoy going up the tokens, (any one else do this.) My FUll tilt ROI on sharkscope is still -4% but I've clawed back $500 from my rock bottom of $1400 down.

What advice can you give, which books,websites, bonus deals, soft competition sites, time of day to play etc.

What's the opinion on multitabling vs trying to spin up the stakes levels as quickly (but bankroll cautiously) as possible.
All advice greatly welcomed

[raze]

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...&PHPSESSID=

[lengthy]

haha raze, i love your link to your own post.

I just suggest buying every single book that 2+2 offers, and just posting a ton of hands that you get confused about and responding to peoples hands. Staying active in the forums is priceless.

[Leo Doyle]

Thank's for the advice, I think I'm on the right track in how i'm approaching my learning and progressing, all the points raised in the linked post I'm doing, but will definately start posting my hand rather than just reading others.

The main thing I am undecided on with regards moving up stakes what range to do it with.

There is conflicting advice, on the STT forum, there's plenty of posts from people with ROI's of 20+%, and don't feel they should move up yet because of potential downsizing at higher levels they must have like 200 to 300+ buy ins. They multitable 8+ screens probably with poker HUD,

Is this really the way to become good. I want to move to live when I'm established (years from now hopefully) so is not playing one / two tables better for learning.

Finally, I play on FUll TIlt and often play the token games 1st level 18 people $8+$.7, then anothe 18 people $24+$2, then a STT with the $69+$6 buyin, I find I play alot better at the final stt because the outcome has such a huge impact on my bankroll.

Any one else play these (or similar at other site.)

[mmbossman]

[ QUOTE ]
I find I play alot better at the final stt because the outcome has such a huge impact on my bankroll.


[/ QUOTE ]
This stuck out like a cold sore on your above post. Two points: if you feel you need to have your BR in danger in order to play well, you seriously need to reconsider your thought processes. You should feel the exact opposite (ie you play best when how much you win or lose doesn't affect your BR as much). Second, you may have won a few of the higher prices SnGs, but they are utterly filled with everyone's old pal variance, which means that you can play perfectly for a stretch of 10, 20, 50+ games and still have a -ROI just because of their nature. If you're putting an important chunk of your BR on the line each time you play them, then I'm guessing a 5 game downswing would pretty much leave you crippled. So start improving your game by playing within your means, trust me, I've learned from experience that it helps significantly.

[Leo Doyle]

I only ever risk the initial $8.70 from the initial level, i never buy in dirctly from my cash, I use the token, so as my roll increases from normal levels of buy in $6 and £11, I'll punt a couple of goes at the $8.70 to win token, my way of playing higher stakes but only i win to get there, I often win a token and play the next level up, then the third level using a $75 token to play the STT, because first is >$300 and wil boost my roll loads, I really, concentrate, don't have the TV on in corner, or set up another table etc. Also I find because most are TAG, hand ranges are more accurate and smaller, easier to know where you are in a hand.

Of course pathetic sample, variance etc. Do you think I'm setting myself up for a fall or, i want to get out of the lower levels as soon as poss, and thought this was a good way to go about it.

[Zefa]

I suggest cardrunners or pxfactor.

[Harv72b]

Taking your question in the subject line literally...

-Read everything. Every book you can get your hands on, these forums, other forums, poker articles, blogs, whatever you can find. The more you read, along with getting practical experience, the more easily you'll be able to see which advice is good for your game & which isn't. Incorporate the good, discard the bad; just determining which is which is helpful in its own right.

-Play a lot. Reading will increase your learning curve, but there's really no substitute for practical experience.

-Don't be results oriented. Understand that you are going to get sucked out on & go through relatively long losing streaks--it's just the nature of the game. Focus on making the correct decisions every time based on the information you have, and don't let how the cards fell influence your thinking.

-Hold off on multi-tabling for as long as you can possibly stand it. For a winning player, multi-tabling will increase your hourly earn rate, but it will also slow down your learning curve. So much of good poker involves reads (yes, even online), and for each table you add it becomes more and more difficult to get good reads on your opponents and their hands.

-Review your sessions religiously. Go through your hand histories (you should have PokerTracker which will make this fairly easy to do), dissect every hand that you played, and make sure that you not only made the correct decisions, but maximized your winning hands & minimized your losers. Post hands on the appropriate forums here if you aren't sure.

-Play well within your bankroll. Playing too high creates scared money, and scared money doesn't play well. At the same time, though, don't be afraid to take the occasional shot at a bigger game when you have a bit of extra money in your account.

-As you improve more and more in your chosen game (NL STTs, whatever), branch out a little & try different games. Different variations of poker push different skill sets towards the forefront, but all the skills will help you in all the games. I don't mean to try and become an expert in every form of poker (that's very nearly impossible for most people), but maybe dedicate one session per week to playing a different game at the micro-stakes. Again, let me stress that this is something to do after you're convinced that you've got your primary game pretty well down.

-Patience. Both on and off of the tables, remember that building your skills will take time. Once you're past the initial breakthroughs (preflop hand selection, learning to isolate both pre- & post-flop, letting go of a great starting hand when you're obviously beaten postflop, etc), you likely won't even notice most of the little improvements you've made until you're reviewing a session & see that you really, really played well. And why.

-Have fun. Be serious about your game, of course, but not to the point where it becomes a chore. You should love & enjoy the game, and if you find that waning, then it's time to take a break or change things up a bit.

[lucky_mf]

Things you should do:
- Experiment a lot with different plays - if you are playing micro or small stakes you are not going to be able to make serious $. Your goal should be to improve even if it means sacrificing some winnings in the short-term.
- I would say play 2 tables as soon as you can keep up and add more (up to 4) when you can easily handle to 2. You need to play a lot of hands which is hard to do playing only 1 table.
- Take reasonable shots when you are playing well.
- Move up gradually by mixing in tables at higher limits (don't just go from 4-tabling 50NL to 4-tabling 100NL - mix in 1 good looking 100NL table when you feel up to it then add others accordingly).
- To be the best (in terms of $ winnings) you have to play with the worst - so table select.

Lucky

[Scuba974]

when you lose a SNG, move up to a higher buy-in then eventually you will win one and get your money back.