What was one way you learned to advance your newbie game skill?

[pepitannikita]

it is funny how a few sessions my "folded cards" would have hit the flop really hard time after time. but most times they don't AND then you often don't even notice that your two pairs would have lost anyway.

This is what someone else said in another thread pertaining to another subject but it reminded me of something totally off topic from that thread so I decided to begin a new one.

One of the things that really helped me in my game was when I finally began to learn to forget what I had to, in the beginning learn to remember.

Whoa! WTF is she TALKING about? LOL.

Well, when I was brand new starting out, I don't htink I was all that different from a lot of people and it took a little while for me to remember my hole cards. I didn't want to be like some other folks I saw at the tables looking at them like seventeen hundred times or STARING at them for hours so I'd look at them and then start mentally repeating "red nines" or "One of hearts, King of Spaces" (which, by the way, was a tip I had gotten from someone on RGP several years ago-- "saying" in my head "ace" sounded like "eight" and once I substituted the word "one" for "ace" it helped me remember better when I had, for example an ace and an eight!).

Well, often, of course, I folded whatever it was I had been repeating in my head over and over. So when the flop came, I'b be thinking about what I "would" have made because the "memory" of those cards I had mucked was still fresh and I had been so anxiously trying to burn their images into my mental eyeballs.

Well, I don't know why it took me so frigging long to figure it out but eventually, somewhere along the way I did. And that's that, yeah, once I muck the frigging cards, FORGET ABOUT THEM.

There's no boredom at the tables for me that keeps me occupied with trying to think of how much more I would have had to pay to see that I would have sucked out on the river had I stayed in the hand, etc.

Because now what I am doing when I am NOT in the hand is paying attention to those who ARE in the hand. LOL! Like this should be so obvious but as I said, maybe I am just a slow learner.

Amazing how much better I am at trying to put people on hands when I am not in the hand myself! There are so many other things I can pay attention to!

So anyway, I thought about this and I thought that it was probably a really MAJOR thing that brought me to a tiny step better in my game. After I mastered the skill of being able to quickly glance just once at my cards and remember them I then learned to, having mucked the cards, totally forget them.

I was wondering if other new or even experienced players could describe something that seemed to be a big breakthrough for them during their early days of playing poker?

[SHOWPLOPPPER]

funny i am in the midnight madness as i scroll all over this site in search of posts or posters that have something i desire within them(like yours)...

so 90% of my attention is going through threads and mucking cards and totally forgetting the outcomes(even those JKos hands in MP-LP you had a quick 2 second thought about if you should do some serious teachings in this hand [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]).

i think it's helping me at the moment with staying far away from tilting from the geez-if-i-only-played-that-previous-hand-i'd-be-killing-the-FT-positioning-placings-right-now regressions.

so as i advanced my stay-away-from-tilting skills i might be lessening my get-all-info-on-opps-every-second-you-can skills!!! [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

being tiltage can be a major factor towards my donk playing in general(such a redeeming excuse) i like to have some faith that this is more the major priority for me to work on at present time.

thx,

Clayton

[dardo]

Hello, pepita.

I think you'll get more answers if you keep your messages shorter.

Also, I've seen that you are focusing in answering messages at this forum. I think this forum is more intended to make questions, so more experienced players can help you answering them, if you want to discuss strategy is better that you go to the strategy forums. (At the lower levels all the people is beginning.)

As I've seen you play poker at a casino. Haven't you thought (if your intention is to win money) to play through internet? This way you can play lower limits and several tables at once.

regards,

dardo

[Rottersod]

[ QUOTE ]

Hello, pepita.

I think you'll get more answers if you keep your messages shorter.

Also, I've seen that you are focusing in answering messages at this forum. I think this forum is more intended to make questions, so more experienced players can help you answering them, if you want to discuss strategy is better that you go to the strategy forums. (At the lower levels all the people is beginning.)

As I've seen you play poker at a casino. Haven't you thought (if your intention is to win money) to play through internet? This way you can play lower limits and several tables at once.

regards,

dardo

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm glad you wrote this. I was thinking about writing it but decided to give it a few more days since she is so new here.

[pepitannikita]

Thanks. Think I came here at a very difficult time for me and resultingly, was "using" my time/posts here for multiple reasons. Tried to find some way of connecting, I guess, and also a sense of purpose. Other factors enter in as well. No offense taken, appreciate the gentle delivery of the words. Will shut up from now on. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[SellingtheDrama]

Well I actually disagree with the concept of 'forget about your cards'....I do the exact opposite (especially in a live game). I pretend that for some reason I actually called preflop and try to play my hand postflop in my mind (x bets $100, how would I react to that bet, etc).

I don't get upset that I would have won hands...its more amusing to realize that I would have flopped my bottom two pair and been rivered (great reinforcement to NOT play dumb cards).

It also gives me an excuse to practice my body language and card reading skills, since I'm mentally engaged in the game.

And as far as looking at your cards, don't do it too often. My standard practice is to look once as I receive them, and then to recheck my suits as the flop is being dealt. I'm careful to do this with any hand, even with pocket threes when I really don't care about my suits, just so I don't give away a low-card hand or if I'm suited (easier to remember).

I use a bazillion little games like this to entertain myself at the table, otherwise I'd probably lose focus on what really matters....the poker game.

[ZingZhang]

Hey, just read your NVG post and yes..you have a wordy style for sure [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] It's not best suited to some forums as you've probably discovered but most 'mainstream' strategy forums have more of the community feel you're after as the same people post there regularly, though they'll appreciate 'chatty' posts in the chat threads and will understandably not have much love for brand new threads which aren't strategy or theory based [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
Full Ring Chat Thread

Micro NL Chat Thread

Although the 2nd one is lower stakes than you'e used to, it's perfect for covering the true fundamentals of NL.

Maybe a brief intro in a chat thread with directions to your
epic NVG thread would give you a more positive experience of this site. Hope this helps.
Best, ZZ
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