Improve my game!!!!! Help needed :)

robbie1992

Hi everyone, i have been playing poker for about 2 years on and off.  I dedicate alot of time and quiete alot of money to it and im sick of never really having a consistant impact on the game even though i believe i no alot.   SO instead of continuing and moaning about bad beats im going to try and learn from the best.  If anyone can give ideas on how to improve my game from tournaments - heads up play i would be very thankful. Im thinking books, magazines and videos but i think my level of players giving me advice will be best.

Thanks for all the help and time everyone

Spikelad

Robbie my advice to you is start by using the internet to find all the free stuff that is out there.There is so much good advice you can get regarding poker from the net.Also i would advise you to start posting hands in the Poker Clinic as you will get really good feedback there from some very good players.

percival09

I think book's are outdated when it comes to Poker - I much prefer forums, any info on the internet and just playing yourself. You learn by your mistakes and as long as you're always striving for improvement you will see differences in your play. Videos on YouTube are also beneficial imo - I sometimes type in what I'm looking for help on and there's usually a good video with a decent explanation with it - give it a go. 

robbie1992

thanks u too, also im hearing so many different answers about positions on tables, can you help me out and tell me where exactly early, middle and late are, whats best and why, thanks

profman15

Hi Robbie
I've only been playing for 9 months so i'm not sure if my advice is relevant but you do sound cheesed off mate. You don't sound like you're enjoying your game at the moment.
I'm looking for a good strategy for learning to keep enjoying the learning process but i think the mental side is key. Have you considered reading around poker and getting the love for it back. Victoria Coren has written a great book about her life as well as interjecting it with the biggest tournament she was ever in. Or Gus Hansen's book. Great read though i'm not saying adopt his style. Just to give you the zest for it again.
I agree with the others who say use the forum. You can get answers/opinions on your hands and give them too which will help your learning and drive too.
Why not come down to lower levels and give yourself a limit to a nights play then you can call it a 'saving' in some odd way in that you have designated that amount to learning(taking note of problem hands to put up in clinic, q's to find answers for on net etc).
Golf is the same. People stop enjoying it half way through a bad round or when their handicap stops improving. I read a book which said we should play for the thrill of a shot hit well and true. The feel of it!!
Take the cash side of it out of your mind by lowering entry fees etc and go back to the learning process and finding satisfaction and enjoyment through feeling you as a player are improving. A good book that may help is called 'The Mental Game Of Poker' by Jared Tendhler. I felt better for reading it ...
Hope this helps in some but its only my opinion. Sometime we just need to take a couple of steps back in order to see the underlying problem. Cheers....

percival09

on a 6-max table there's obviously 6 different positions - the guy with the dealer button infront of them, funnily enough is called the dealer, this is the best position in poker as they are always the last person to act and have position on everybody else, to the left of the dealer are the SB and BB, these two positions are where the player is forced to put in a certain amount of chips/money depending on what blind level it is/what cash level you're playing at, these two positions aren't brilliant and you'll usually find yourself out of position, so it'd be good if you knew your opponent before making any fancy plays out of these two positions. To the left of the BB is early position, also known as under the gun (UTG), this position is quite bad and you shouldn't be opening your full range like you would be doing on the BTN, your range should be reduced. next is middle position, I guess a few mroe hands could be in your range here but it's not much different to utg, some people call it UTG+1 so I guess it has the same range. Next is CO (cut off) which is the most similar position to the btn, you should open more of your range here, this is 2nd to the btn in terms of good position, you should try and open here wider when you have weak blinds behind you. 

robbie1992

thanks profman and percival 09. profman its not so much i have lost the love of the game its more iv played it for a decent amount of time and have mostly lossed my money with a few good spells inbetween so i want to try my hardest to improve as it would be such an achievement if i could consistantly make money out of it. i have looked into buying dolly brunsons book, i like the fact his older he has had to have seen more lol. percival 09 thanks for that, iv looked on the internet and seen some different things but your view seems to be the main one so thanks alot

weedgi

poker instructional videos will help u m8 and read and ask on forums
books can help also to reassure yourself of the basics

ps raise more than u call and fold more than you raise

devonfish5

hi robbie,
i,m not really a tournament or heads-up player myself
so can,t give u any specific advice there.
u say u r looking 2 improve your game,
what about building a bankroll?
is that important to you?
i can give u some advice with that if u would like it.
:-)
devon

KAM99

First thing I will say is this... Consider yourself a complete beginner. Not meant as insulting, but just factual. Two month is nothing when you compare it to the years other people have been playing, even if you are spending 4+ hours a day multitabling you will still be on teh beginning of your journey, and it shows in the fact that one of the things you said was "No consistant results". This is WAY to short a peroid of time to be evaluating your poker results unless you are playing massive volumes of hands, and even then its likely to short.

YOu can look at your sessions from a point of view as to if you played your hands well/badly, but profit/loss is difficult to access when taking variance into account until you've put a very decent volume of hands together. I think based on the maths we did a while back with a few of us you'd be looking anywhere between 50,000=100,000 hands to be in the right zone to get variance down to below 1%.

Sor in short, poker is not a short term results game, and you need to get beyond that mind set if you want any success at it. The rest of the advice given about the net is sound. Places like 2+2 forums, cardrunners pokertube, or countless other resources are out there, and with exceptional content in some cases. Posting hands for comments is also useful, though sometimes can lead to conflicting advice from a mixture of good/average/Vgood players. So can be hard to sort the good from bad unless you know the players i guess. Doyle's supersystem is a good book, and considered the bible of poker, though much like it its a little on the old side in some respects. Plenty of good books depending on what you play (cash, MTT etc) Read, watch, learn, and maybe do the learning in the MTT's or SnG's as cash tables can be brutal depending on your stakes. Good luck.