You need to be logged in to your Sky Poker account above to post discussions and comments.
You might need to refresh your page afterwards.
You need to be logged in to your Sky Poker account above to post discussions and comments.
You might need to refresh your page afterwards.
Comments
What do you see yourself doing in two years time ? Still grinding away at cash, but making money even quicker ! ?
Or do you have other poker ambitions ?
How quickly can you assess the ability of a newbie on a table ?
Do you regularly review your own play, or only when you have had a poor session ?
Have you ever read the ingredients of salami ?
i usually play somewhere between 60-80 hours a month
It wasnt really books that helped me, I actually remember watching a point where it clicked is when i found a video on 2+2 that someone had posted of themselves playing poker, must have been before youtube was popular cos it took ages to download but just watching someone actually raise, cbet and take down pot after pot was a revelation. I'd read thats the correct strategy but whenever i tried it i still seemed to lose but now i actually had proof that it worked, i could see it with my own eyes. The guy bet with nothing and everyone folded, i was always certain if i bet people would know i had nothing and raise me.. So next time i played i stuck with it and kept cbetting and it started working. now i didnt even have to wait for a hand to make money! Ive realised since then that if you wanna get better, just look at the people who seem to be winning all the money, and try to figure what theyre doing that youre not. Theres always someone better than you no matter how good you thin k you are.
Living in Scotland my diet consists solely of haggis.
My question is: What advice would you give to young players who think they can play the game full time and see poker as a profession?
Your advice above on playing rag aces is golden.
OK, couple of well questions (hope you haven't answered these earlier)
What is the single biggest pot that you have been involved in on Sky and did you win or lose it ?
Is there any current sky cash regular who you really fear and avoid playing with/against ?
(You don't need to name him / her)
Thanks
Bryan
In 2 years time?i will most likely still be grinding away at cash. Hopefully still making good money. Ive not really thought about it tbh, maybe i should set some goals to achieve. Its hard to say what poker will be like in 2 years time though.
Usually if someonee sits down at my table and i dont recognise their name i assume theyre an amateur, you can usually tell straghit away if someones good by how often they raise/3bet/how much they bet. Bad players give themselves away straight away by limping/minraising/calling too much. It only takes a few hands to categorise someone i think, then you can obviously change you opinion if they arent bad or whatever but thats rarely the case.
i review my play in my head but never look at hand histories or anything. Im too lazy. I will usually just go over specific hands that i remember which i feel i played badly and think about what i did wrong and how to prevent it in the future. Or thiink about general overall strategies to turn things which i think, or my opponents think are my leaks, into postives.
i havent read the ingredients. I prefer to be ignorant. Im sure theyre terrible but all that really matters to me is what it takes like. If it tastes ok then im not fussy.
It all depends on your situation though. I was working rubbish jobs and playing poker was making me so much more money that it was dumb to continue working those jobs. If i'd had a decent career it probably wouldnt have been such an easy decision.
lol hope no ones already asked that one.
peter
There are plenty of players i wouldnt play HU but no one that i really avoid at 6max.
When was your last losing session?
What is your cutoff point if and when you are having a bad session? (For example, i only have a small bankroll and if i lose 2 or 3 buy-ins then i come away for a few hours/days as i am a bit of a tilter!)
Do you tilt at all and if so how often?
Are we talking HU or 6max?
It changes so often but HU NLH i would probably say...
1. Jungleman
2. Isildur
3. Dwan
4. Ivey
5. Isaac Haxton
Ivey is so far down because he doesnt play HU NLH often and admits it isnt his best game. Isildur is so high because even though hes a massive tilt monkey he proved playing against Dwan at nosebleeds for so many hands that he is undeniably a beast. If he just stuck to no limit he would be so much better off. Tom is my favourite player to watch but i think he showed against isildur and Jungleman that he displays a certain amount of arrogance. Like Tom still thinks hes the best so isnt willing to put in the work that Jungleman does. He also never really adapted to isiludr even though he was clearly getting crushed. I think if they all palyed each other HU constantly over the next week thats the order they would sit in in terms of money won. If they all played each other constantly for a year Ivey would come out no.1 or 2 probably.
No one really plays 6max anymore at nosebleeds but i think Dwan is the best 6 max player, Ivey close 2nd. Isildur definitely last.
If were talking all the games and not just nlh Ivey is easy the best player. Antonius probably 2nd because hes way better than Dwan etc at plo and limit games.
Another one from me..... I have been watching a couple of ur tables tonight after the open(silly min cash) as dont feel like playing just railing. I actually play at nl10 at the mo although i have more then enough in my bankroll. What i wanted to know do u think its beneficial to me to rail a high stakes winning player for say 1 hour a night? or because of the levels im playing at the momment this could make me go backwards at the lower limits? obviously nothing set in stone just your opinion really.
So along the same lines do u think i should be railing the next level up eg. nl20 + 30 or high stakes when i dont feel like playing? See im a Tourney player but last few weeks been adjusting the cash.
Regards
John
I dont have a cut off point. I probably should but i usually keep playing until either im playing terribly or i just cant take getting bad beat anymore. Sometimes leads to losing 10+buyins but i dont think ive ever lost more than 12-14 without feeling like i needed to stop. I dont check my balance while playing so i could be down quite a bit but not playing that badly because im not really concentrating on how much ive lost, just on how well im playing.
Usually it takes a lot of bad beats before i really tilt so not too often but when i do tilt i usually become more aggro. Its not always a bad thing because sometimes your opponents find it hard to adjust but its probably not wise to carry on when that tilted. When i go on monkey tilt i try and tell myself is "is this gonna be the quickest way to win my money back?" and the answer is always no because if 3betting 23o from the small blind was the best way to win money then i would do it all the time. The quickest way to win my money back is always gonna be playing my nornal game. So that usually help to calm myself down.
Nowadays i handle tilt a million times better than i used to though. Even in big downswings i am definitely a lot more philosophical and when i get 2 outtered for the 10th time i just can accept that if i keep getting my money in good things will eventually turn around. When you first start playing every downswing you have you doubt how good you actually are, whether you will ever make money again, whether you were just getting lucky before when you were winning, how long its gonna take you to win all that moeny back. This leads to playing badly a lot of the time because you try to change things which werent even bad strategies. Once you have more confidence in what you do you can kind of ride out variance without worrying as much.
If i was just starting out over again i would probably set a stoploss of 4 buyins because once you lose that many buyins it is probably affecting your play even if you think its not. Also another thing with tilt is that it doesnt stop when you finish your session. Like if you come back the next day still thinking about how unlucky you were and how determined you are to win the money back the moment you get bad beat or coolered even slightly your gonna think "here we go again" and start tilting. Sometimes its good to take a couple of days off or play a really short session the next day just to book a small win and help make you feel like you dont need to win back all that money right away.
In Response to Re: In The Well # 2 - OFFSHOOT: not really sure, maybe 2 years, i didnt really play a lot at the start though, would just deposit, lose it, then stop playing for a while, come back couple of weeks later and repeat the process, theres was definitely about 6 months where i just gave up though.
What actually made me start to really set myself a goal of winning at poker was reading through a blog called the law school dropout(or pokerdropout now i think) but it was a guy just writing about attempting to become a pro poker player, blew my mind to see someone winning 20k a month or whatever. I think i read every blog post and once i'd finished reading them all i kinda set my mind on becoming a winning player. I definitely remember before reading that i used to question whether poker was rigged or not and stuff like the cashout curse but reading about someone taking poker seriously and seeing the success you could have i thought i have no excuses for being a losing player really. It was still daunting reading everything i could on the internet and thinking "im never gonna get this" but once i ran up my first bankroll and went bustoi felt like if i did it once i can do it again so just kept plugging away.
Once you get upto nl20 and 30 theres gonna be better players you can play with or observe and pick uo things that they do and adapt it into your own game. Its a lot easier to notice things which work by just playing in the game. Like if your playing nl30 and someone keeps 3betting you from the button and youre finding it hard to do anything when you miss the flop or whatever then you know if you do that to other people youre gonna frustrate them so its something you can add to your game.
So i would say at the micros just play solid poker and you will be better than 90% of the players and will win. Once you come up against some good players, then observe why theyre tough to play against and try and adopt some of their style or strategies.
EDIT: just noticed you said when you dont feel like playing, i think its probably more beneficial to rail 30nl players or read some posts in the clinic than rail higher stakes games. I think just discussing your hands or other peoples hands in the clinic will improve your game the most. If you can take even snippets of information on board then they will be in your mind next time you play.
my questions are .
Do you agree with the advice given by the analysts on sky ?
Do you watch the shows ?
Who`s been the best guest ? (if youve watched the show)
Jon,
You seem to have a very precise handle on how many hours you play each month.
How do you keep track of that? Spreadsheet, diary? Do you keep track of any other playing stats in the same manner?