Ramble On
Let me warn I’m starting this post with absolutely no direction or idea in mind before I write it.
Every word that is printed here has immediately flown from my thought process to Microsoft Word, with no mediation in-between.
It will be interesting to see what evolves.
I want to write a strategy post, and I’ve been wanting to write one for a long time. My blogging hero’s Scurvy and DoubleA’s can seemingly bat out a top-notch strategy post with ease and pure clarity - while I struggle to even post my meager results.
A lot of my friends have been playing SNG’s lately and while I don’t think I am better than any of them individually, I do think I have things to share to help them in their game. I just have trouble articulating it sometimes because usually the tips are so subtle that it’s hard for me to even recognize myself doing them. Especially after multitabling for so long, 99% of my moves are on an instinctual level based on my play history, so it’s hard to somehow extract that part of my game and put it down on paper.
I once heard a quote by Einstein saying “you don’t truly know something until you can explain it to your grandmother”. I truly love this quote. It really speaks the truth, and gives you the realization that you don’t really know what you think you know.
Now while I agree with this quote, I am not 100% sure that if I could explain the values of folding equity to my grandmother that I would become a better poker player. I think you can be a winning player by just playing off of experience and instinct. On the other hand, even by just doing something as simple as writing my thought process in this blog, or detailing strategies and thoughts with my friends – it has only been helpful to my game. It’s one thing to always do a move without thinking, but it’s another to think about a move while doing it, even if they end up looking damn near identical.
Just a sec have to start up my favorite late night treat - $11 turbo 45 man game. In the last 5 or so of these I’ve played I’ve gotten 3-2nd’s. Nothing like an hour of all in preflop action.
Ok where was I? Oh right, extended babbling…
I am just simply not at the point in my game where I can articulate why I do every move I do without sitting back and giving it some serious consideration. So for me to try to give advice to anyone else when I’m not even sure myself that I’m playing at peak poker efficiency is just wrong. Sure we can discuss, because in poker, there almost is never 1 clear cut answer. So giving one piece of advice or tip is almost definitely going to be misleading.
The truth is you just have to play a fucking ton. You have to experience certain key situations that come up over and over again and recognize what the +EV play is. Any book can tell you what hands to play, or how to steal blinds, but there is always going to be a microcosm of events happening where you can chose to make the +EV or –EV move. All of these decisions add up to a win or loss, it’s as simple as that. And recognizing +EV situations and being aware and gutsy enough to follow through on your reads is the only way to succeed in the long run.
So what I would say to anyone trying to improve there game is to go through a few games and play a little different. Call someone down when you have a “feeling” that they may be bluffing or that you have the best hand. See what happens when you re-raise all in when you sense that someone is weak. Don’t go crazy crazy, just 1 crazy will do. Use your experience to make plays that create +EV situations and don’t be afraid that you might be wrong. This I feel is the only way to truly expand your game and realize possibilities that have never been apparent before. Being able to recognize even the smallest of +EV situations is where your edge over the field comes from. And make sure to do it at the same buy-in that you always play at. If the game isn’t as meaningfull for you, you won’t learn anything as your results will be skewed.
There, not a bad post off the top of my head… a little rambly but over all, not bad.
Oh and if you havn’t seen this yet, click this link right now.
How anyone can be as good as Phil Ivey is I don’t think I’ll ever understand.
Every word that is printed here has immediately flown from my thought process to Microsoft Word, with no mediation in-between.
It will be interesting to see what evolves.
I want to write a strategy post, and I’ve been wanting to write one for a long time. My blogging hero’s Scurvy and DoubleA’s can seemingly bat out a top-notch strategy post with ease and pure clarity - while I struggle to even post my meager results.
A lot of my friends have been playing SNG’s lately and while I don’t think I am better than any of them individually, I do think I have things to share to help them in their game. I just have trouble articulating it sometimes because usually the tips are so subtle that it’s hard for me to even recognize myself doing them. Especially after multitabling for so long, 99% of my moves are on an instinctual level based on my play history, so it’s hard to somehow extract that part of my game and put it down on paper.
I once heard a quote by Einstein saying “you don’t truly know something until you can explain it to your grandmother”. I truly love this quote. It really speaks the truth, and gives you the realization that you don’t really know what you think you know.
Now while I agree with this quote, I am not 100% sure that if I could explain the values of folding equity to my grandmother that I would become a better poker player. I think you can be a winning player by just playing off of experience and instinct. On the other hand, even by just doing something as simple as writing my thought process in this blog, or detailing strategies and thoughts with my friends – it has only been helpful to my game. It’s one thing to always do a move without thinking, but it’s another to think about a move while doing it, even if they end up looking damn near identical.
Just a sec have to start up my favorite late night treat - $11 turbo 45 man game. In the last 5 or so of these I’ve played I’ve gotten 3-2nd’s. Nothing like an hour of all in preflop action.
Ok where was I? Oh right, extended babbling…
I am just simply not at the point in my game where I can articulate why I do every move I do without sitting back and giving it some serious consideration. So for me to try to give advice to anyone else when I’m not even sure myself that I’m playing at peak poker efficiency is just wrong. Sure we can discuss, because in poker, there almost is never 1 clear cut answer. So giving one piece of advice or tip is almost definitely going to be misleading.
The truth is you just have to play a fucking ton. You have to experience certain key situations that come up over and over again and recognize what the +EV play is. Any book can tell you what hands to play, or how to steal blinds, but there is always going to be a microcosm of events happening where you can chose to make the +EV or –EV move. All of these decisions add up to a win or loss, it’s as simple as that. And recognizing +EV situations and being aware and gutsy enough to follow through on your reads is the only way to succeed in the long run.
So what I would say to anyone trying to improve there game is to go through a few games and play a little different. Call someone down when you have a “feeling” that they may be bluffing or that you have the best hand. See what happens when you re-raise all in when you sense that someone is weak. Don’t go crazy crazy, just 1 crazy will do. Use your experience to make plays that create +EV situations and don’t be afraid that you might be wrong. This I feel is the only way to truly expand your game and realize possibilities that have never been apparent before. Being able to recognize even the smallest of +EV situations is where your edge over the field comes from. And make sure to do it at the same buy-in that you always play at. If the game isn’t as meaningfull for you, you won’t learn anything as your results will be skewed.
There, not a bad post off the top of my head… a little rambly but over all, not bad.
Oh and if you havn’t seen this yet, click this link right now.
How anyone can be as good as Phil Ivey is I don’t think I’ll ever understand.
posted by RikkiDee at 8:54 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home