Tuesday 9 January 2007

Articles and Books and how to use them

Hi all

After an experience of writing about an element of my play which I titled "Pot building versus Pot Commitment" whereby a reader seemed to get quite emotianal over his results, I may be wrong here.

I would like to write something about Poker books, articles etc and how they should be consumed and utilised.

I have read tonnes of poker books and continue to buy more the reasons are many

1. They may add something to my game.
2. they may explain to me why others are playing the way they are.
3. I am just interested in poker.

I have also read many articles and post on forums and am continually learning, in fact I started this forum as a learning tool so I could post my poker thoughts and think them through and get other peoples opinions on them as well as help others who are learning as well.

Now to get to the point any article or book you read should be seen as part of the whole, Poker is a complicated game and has many nuances, some tactics work with different styles at different levels and in different conditions- however they will get torn apart in a different environment.

To explain further do not use a tactic unless you fully understand why and when you are using it, if you like the sound of a play and don't quite understand when to use it ask.

If you like try it out with money you can afford to lose, you are adding something new to your game, it may not work for you.

For example to name a player which we all have heard off Gus Hansen plays loose because his post flop play is good, if you loosen up and start to lose to much you can either tighten back up or improve your post flop play, But learn, evolve, improve understand why you are playing bad not what results you are getting in the short run- this is difficult and is why you should post hand histories etc and ask others.

If you have patience a willingness to learn and a bankroll poker is an excellent hobby/income source but please keep in mind that all articles and poker methods are ways of helping you improve not guaranteed ways of winning.

Peter

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Peter, thank you for you comment in the other thread where you said I was "probably a better player" than you. But the fact is, it's undeserved. I haven't played much at all yet, simply because I haven't had the time to do so. So I'm still just a beginner. But I am reading some books like Ed Miller's SSHE and I read a lot online too, so sometimes I sound better than I really am. :)

Maybe you could write something on table selection and how you do it. I've seen conflicting things on the web about this, some saying avoid loose tables and others saying go to them. I tend to think, the looser the better, but I could be wrong...

Peter said...

Hi JJS

Thanks for your comments, as far as table selection is concerned, you are rihgt the looser the better.

But it depends completely on you game style.

The best styleof course is to adjust and withe the helpof poker tracker and PAHUD you can identify table and player types quite quickly.

Basically as a rule of thumb if a table vpip is about 40% or more I am happy and will stay there else I will leave as my style of play does better if plenty of people are seeing the flop.

If you are an SSHE graduate you will find the same.

You are looking for Loose passives and weak tights to exploit a table mixed up with the 2 is the best as the weak tights get out of the way when you get aggressive post flop allowing you to skim the loose passives.

I think Razor was making the mistake of not recognising weak tights reraising post flop, when they do this get out of the way they will not fold.

I quite like a LAG at my table too as it sends loose passives on tilt and you can wait for a great hand and make a killing though be prepared to lose big hands this way.

I go too much don't I, anyway there also table selection tools out there sixth sense which is really too expensive and spade eye which will aid in table selection I would reccomend trying spade eye as it does have a free trial period. I do not use it but that is because it doesnt work on my poker site. Sisxth sense requires a monthly subscription and I avoid deals like this.

Anyway any other questions you have please ask away.

I should post my results having a storming month made $70 tonight so far as 15c tables

32.55 bb/100 over 787 hands.

I think people are still drunk from Christmas.

Anonymous said...

Greetings P17,

met u at the table.
Do you already have a rakeback contract?

If not, contact me and we can talk about via email.

sybie@gmx.net

Greetz!