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Newbie
Hi im a newbie, i have had my acc for about two weeks and from my original £10 deposit i have £23.37. I have added ten pounds since but i have withdrawn 30. admittedly the funds i have now are from the win of my £10 free bet. I mostly play £2.30 DYM and seem to win roughly equal to the amount i lose. I have also taken part in quite a few £2.30 Bounty Hunter Tourneys of which i have finished 1st in one and 3rd in another but i mostly end up out of the prizes. I was wondering if this is just luck? My real query is, in general is there a difference in the level of play between the £2.30 and £5 DYM games? I know roughly what i am doing but i only learned years ago from being t boy at my dads Wednesday night school. i used to sit behind him and i believe he would be classed as a tight player ( if i am defining the term properly). So naturally i think i have learned the same way of play. But on the £2 DYM's i have played around with different styles of play. I'm not saying i want to turn pro ( for one thing my brain hurts when i think about odds) but i would like to continue playing without throwing money away. I have also been called a donkey on one occasion, i believe the reason was i was small stack and first to bet was large stack (only marginally) he raised the blinds. I had 10 9 suited and called which forced me all. I then hit the flop and won the hand at which point the abuse started. Was this an incorrect move or not? As i am not sure. Any views on any thing i have posted would be received with great appreciation.
Kindest Regards
The Bassett
Comments
As percival says, its not really possible to comment on the 109 hand as stack sizes and postions can be important in saying how a hand was played in a tournament. It sounds like maybe you should have just shoved if preflop though if going to play it, as if you were pot commited then what was point in a raise?
Also, yep luck plays its part in MTT's. For example in the $30k tournament the other day I saw a guy on my table shove A9 into AQ and win, and then 3 hands later shove all in with AdKd on a flop of Js8s3d and get called by the guy that had donk lead out on the flop with JsQs and so was massive favourite, and the guy with AK of diamonds hit running diamonds to hit his flush. Why does this matter? Because that same guy went on to win the tournament two and a half hours later. So really if the odds had been going right he could have gone out with that 30% equity A9 or the 15% equity AK shove, but luck was with him there and he goes on to win.
So moral of story is to win a tournament you have to win some flips, and sometimes may need a bit of luck when you get it in badly. MTT's have high variance and so you need to use a BRM (bank roll management) to cover the variance of what ever game you play.
Just play and learn, as different game types do have different styles needed to play them. Cash, MTT's and DYM's all have different styles to a degree even though its the same game. Same goes for odds. You may not need them, but its good to learn them, and soon it becomes second nature to do them quickly or have a close idea in most situations what odds you have.
Also if DYMs are you game if you look in the Blog section of this sight there is an extremly helpful blog written by a player called JohnConnar who makes a good profit at DYM basically explaining how to win money at them i think people of all abilities can find useful help to their dym game in this blog so sure you can find something of intrest.
Good luck at the tables
James
Mr Bassett, I've commented on your other post and hopefully you'll find some of that helpful.
I have to say, though, that if you are a true beginner in the game the best thing you can do is read a pair of books called "Harrington on Hold 'em" Volumes 1 and 2. These books will give you a fantastic grounding in the basics of the game and I always advise newcomers to read them.
They won't teach you how to play in an advanced manner but every good player you will see uses the same basic methods outlined in those books as the basis of their game.
They are primarily books to teach you how to play in tournaments, though many of the theories in them are also applicable to cash games.
I hope you get on well in the game. Keep posting in the clinic and we'll try to be helpful.
That's the link you're looking for. Though some of the details may go over your head a little if you're not familiar with the poker lexicon or the details of particular situations in the game.
As for which books you should read; I would certainly suggest you read the Harrington books before any others. They cover all the straightforward stuff and I'm not sure that any other books give quite as rounded an education in the game. That's not to say that other books aren't worth reading and they may go into greater detail than Harrington on specific aspects, but Harrington is the place to start. That's certainly my experience anyway.
As to the books you are talking about (how to win poker one hand at a time). They are good as well and are written by winning players both offline and online. Think they were written by 3 players that have good records for cashing in tournament poker, and some very good advice and thoughts on how to play various hands from various postions while considering what the other players may have. Definately not a bad read at all and will be helpful.
And yes you can get them all on amazon. You can get the books in both book format and kindle format if you use kindle. I know I have them on mine.
I'd also recomend reading and learning Omaha, as to be honest there is still more of an edge to be found in that over holdem these days, as lot of good players playing holdem even at lower limits. Maybe not so much at the very grass roots like 4nl, but by 20nl you'll be playing fair few that can play a bit I'd think. Omaha may have more variance just because of how it plays, but there can be more edge to be found there if you can play it well. If looking for a book on it starting with Jeff Hwang's "Pot-limit Omaha poker" is good starting point.