Minimum time per grinding session? (hours?)

Oranzith · #1 09-08-2006, 07:44 PM

I recognize sitting down to play for 1 hour before you have to leave is NOT a good idea. But how long should you stick around (running 2 tables) before you can expect to get some benefit out of playing good poker with good starting hands?

Similarly,how many playable hands per 100 is it appropriate to receive on average, if you are playing A10s or above?

uDevil · #2 09-08-2006, 08:14 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I recognize sitting down to play for 1 hour before you have to leave is NOT a good idea. But how long should you stick around (running 2 tables) before you can expect to get some benefit out of playing good poker with good starting hands?

[/ QUOTE ]

It doesn't matter. It sounds like you want to finish more of your sessions on the plus side. You don't need to worry about that. If you play better than your opponents, you will get the money eventually.

[ QUOTE ]
Similarly,how many playable hands per 100 is it appropriate to receive on average, if you are playing A10s or above?

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Whether a hand is playable or not depends on the circumstances as well as on the hand itself. If you want to know the percentage of hands that correspond to the range of "A10s or above", you can use the software at this link to find that out:

http://www.pokerstove.com

Abramovic · #3 09-08-2006, 08:15 PM

1 - play for as long as you feel like playing, if you start mashing your elbow against the desk (I do this), I try to quit or I end up losing more. If Im winning, I know I should stay on, but often I end up quitting too soon.

2 - Playing A10s and above? Thats an odd way to put it. Depending on your game (NL/Limit/FR/6max) you should be playing varying amounts of hands. FR limit you may expect to play 20-22% of hands. Slightly more for 6 max. I suspect similar figures for NL.

Oranzith · #4 09-08-2006, 08:53 PM

I used A10s as a guide in quality i guess, suited connectors and 1 gappers included.

Jumping the gap to not ending sessions on the positive side sounds tricky, but having heard it from more than one source, i realize it more than likely the route to follow - and its a gamblers mentality to "get back to even" so to say

JupiterChaz · #5 09-09-2006, 01:14 AM

play one table and take notes...a beginner shouldn't be multi tabling...and try higher limits with 50 or so Big bets...

Oranzith · #6 09-09-2006, 01:16 AM

Everyone says 'take notes'

what are the relevant notes to be taken, ie, what ought i be looking for? qualifying people and their moves? LAG TAG etc? calls value bets?

Seven247 · #7 09-09-2006, 01:41 AM

When I take notes I Ussally take notes of werid raises (which get shown down), open limping in early positions, crazy rasies. I ussally combined these with Gametime stats so I can see what there V$IP is and rasise %.

uDevil · #8 09-09-2006, 03:49 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Everyone says 'take notes'

what are the relevant notes to be taken, ie, what ought i be looking for? qualifying people and their moves? LAG TAG etc? calls value bets?

[/ QUOTE ]

Focus on the weak players. Start with what kind of player they are. Are they loose-passive, loose-aggressive, weak-tight, or tight-passive? Are they tricky or predictable?

Beyond just categorizing them, you need to understand what kind of mistakes each of these types of players typically make. Each category is different. When you have this information, use it to adjust your play accordingly.

Basic Example: A player open-limps in middle position. (You have observed this player play a lot of hands, cold-call preflop raises, and call down with bottom pair.) Folded to you on the button w/ A6s. The big blind rarely defends. What kind of players are you up against? What do you do?

KurtSF · #9 09-09-2006, 06:32 AM

I'll let other's field the questions about notes since I'm pretty deficient there myself. Regarding the questions from the OP:

Don't be too concerned about the length of your individual sessions. You will/should come to think of all your poker playing as one long session.

The general concensus is that you can't get a true picture of how much you win or lose until you have 30,000 hands of experience. 30,000?? Yes. That's about 500 hours of play at a single table. That's not to say you can't get an idea of your win rate before then, but that's when you start to have confidence in the results.

What that means is that your results from any one session can be all over the place. I often play sessions of 1k hands, sometimes 8 hours at 4 tables, and I have losing sessions all the time. Basically, don't pay attention to your results from individual sessions, but rather pay attention to your results over your entire poker career - the "long term".

For the beginer though, you shouldn't pay attention to results at all. Pay attention to making the right choice on every street of every hand. Do that and the results will come.

Regarding starting hands, there are a lot of ways to play decent poker, and different players will have different starting hand requirements and play a different number of hands. I play a moderatly tight game and I will play 23 or 24 of every 100 hands, just to get an idea. I don't play many suited connectors in NL, but I do play small pairs probably more than I should.

ottsville · #10 09-09-2006, 09:10 AM

[ QUOTE ]
When I take notes I Ussally take notes of werid raises (which get shown down), open limping in early positions, crazy rasies. I ussally combined these with Gametime stats so I can see what there V$IP is and rasise %.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a good place to start. Make notes of anything that stands out.

On notes

As for how long you play, it doesn't really matter. If you are at good tables, play as long as you can. If you are at a bad table, leave quickly. I play long sessions(up to 6 hours), but latley I've been playing a lot of 1/2 hour sessions.

Ideally, I like to play long enough that I can get some reads on my opponents and exploit them.