Reflections on 2008 How has your poker year been?
Hi,
I think everyone should have a poker plan/goals.
2008 was the year I switched over to playing no limit.
It's been an interesting year.
Jan 2008 I made the decision to switch from limit to nolimit.
I also decided to focus on cash games and not donkaments. I realize that there is good money to be made in tournament because of the weak players. But I felt that I would have much less varriance with cash games.
Previously I had cashed out all of my online money.
I started with $0, played free rolls at first. Amazingly I luckboxed out and made it into the money on my first 3 freerolls.
Took my $7 and went to play cash games and built it up to $1385. I had a friend transfer $200 on stars and built that up quite a bit more.
Live I luckboxed even worse. I went to Seneca 1/2 (40-100max) NL with $40. First session I made $1863 just playing a simple "start with better hands than the homeless crack addicts across the table strategy".
I switched to playing at Casino Niagara partly because I didn't like getting stopped and searched at the border. I played at Niagara for quite a few months and then switched to the Fallsview 2/5NL game.
Over the last year I noticed that the games are getting tougher. People are starting to have better starting hands and play better postflop. Even at the 1/2NL there will be a couple of guys who are not clueless.
Online is getting much tougher. .10/.25 plays like 1/2NL live and .25/.50 plays like 2/5NL live. Just playing good staring hands is no free ticket to crushing the games anymore.
Anyways, here's my plan/goals for 2009.
Learn Omaha.
Start playing sng's
Start playing tournament satalites.
Watch more videos.
Read more books.
Post more hands.
Move up to start winning 5/5NL and 5/10NL
What's your poker plan/goals for 2008/9?
I think everyone should have a poker plan/goals.
2008 was the year I switched over to playing no limit.
It's been an interesting year.
Jan 2008 I made the decision to switch from limit to nolimit.
I also decided to focus on cash games and not donkaments. I realize that there is good money to be made in tournament because of the weak players. But I felt that I would have much less varriance with cash games.
Previously I had cashed out all of my online money.
I started with $0, played free rolls at first. Amazingly I luckboxed out and made it into the money on my first 3 freerolls.
Took my $7 and went to play cash games and built it up to $1385. I had a friend transfer $200 on stars and built that up quite a bit more.
Live I luckboxed even worse. I went to Seneca 1/2 (40-100max) NL with $40. First session I made $1863 just playing a simple "start with better hands than the homeless crack addicts across the table strategy".
I switched to playing at Casino Niagara partly because I didn't like getting stopped and searched at the border. I played at Niagara for quite a few months and then switched to the Fallsview 2/5NL game.
Over the last year I noticed that the games are getting tougher. People are starting to have better starting hands and play better postflop. Even at the 1/2NL there will be a couple of guys who are not clueless.
Online is getting much tougher. .10/.25 plays like 1/2NL live and .25/.50 plays like 2/5NL live. Just playing good staring hands is no free ticket to crushing the games anymore.
Anyways, here's my plan/goals for 2009.
Learn Omaha.
Start playing sng's
Start playing tournament satalites.
Watch more videos.
Read more books.
Post more hands.
Move up to start winning 5/5NL and 5/10NL
What's your poker plan/goals for 2008/9?
Comments
Yes I also believe that every poker player should have goals. I make monthly goals for myself.
I've never played live before. But I don't doubt what your saying that online can be tougher. Online players learn the game at an incredible rate. Online you can play many tables where live you can only play one.
I've only played online since this past july. Found it a little difflecult at first, but Im doing alright now. Started with no limit. The last couple of weeks I've switched to fixed limit. Starting to enjoy that game a little more. I still find time to play both though.
As for goals for 2009 haven't really thought much about it yet. I suppose I should. I do spend an hour or two each trying to learn new things.
Took advantage of a PSO offer for $75.00 free on Titan, and managed to double that plus a bit. Cashed out the profit ($75.00), and proceeded to donk off the balance. But hey, I am a lifetime winner on-line.
I am going to stop for the year and, like my friend above, I am going to read, read, read. That should help me in the New Year, plans for which are still being formulated.
2009 Goals
- learn omaha hi especially pot limit
- I used to play limit Omaha 8 or better a while back so I would like to relearn that game and switch over to pot limit
- play more HORSE and study each game individually
- try to smash the badugi games on Stars
- start playing some tournaments as I pretty much only play cash game with a rare HORSE SNG thrown in
- still need to read some books I haven't had a chance to read as well as reread parts of some of the ones I have already read
Why not play 1/2NL at Casino Niagara or Seneca? Playing under-rolled is just asking to bust your bankroll.
You need about $2000 to play 1/2nl 100max and about $4000 to play 1/2nl 200 max.
For 2/5nl 300max you need about $6000.
and you need 20 buyins, thats not variance,
that just bad play. I think 10 buyins should be
plenty or they really need to go back and
study more before risking their money.
Reading is one thing, you need to apply what you have read and figure out if things work for you. You can't just mimic your play completely off what you read.
I'm just taking a shot because the 2/5 at Fallsview can be really fishy at times. I pretty much decided that if I do come back down to 2000 then I will switch back to 100 max at Casino Niagara.
In 2008, I figured I could beat the FL game and tried to find a higher limit, but couldnt find any 10-20 underground games. So I moved to the casino, and lost everything. Underground games are incredibly softer than casino games.
I moved down to 5-10, and became a more dedicated student to the game. Since then ive seen small profits, with my earnings averaging a couple dollars above minimum wage when calculated per/hour.
My goals for 2009..
To never let my passion for education of the game die...
move up to 10-20 FL
spend more hours at the casino
and figure out what is psychologically holding me back, setting me on perma-tilt or, causing leaks in/or towards my online game.
I don't play underground, but I can't imagine this being true.
Well, i dont know if stands true for all underground games.But the ones I played at involved a lot problem gamblers, and seedy people who im sure had plenty of disposable income. The games were so loose that there was almost always a straddle preflop, and people betting "in the smoke" and out of position at every oppurtunity.
The players are usually worse.
I stopped going to them due to the huge rakes and chance of getting busted.
Wrong.
The right answer is 'it depends'
..but in general the players who are willing to play at an underground club have some grasp of the game v. the tourists at Niagara. Tell me when the last time you saw someone 'learning the game' or 'just trying it out' at an underground club..never happens. These are regulars, and though they may be regularly worse than you; they are never worse than a slew of tourists and drunks on a friday night at a casino.
and I think the higher rake is usually offset by the fact that you get to play much, much deeper.
People get drunk underground as well. They also get high, and depending on how seedy the place, they may even use the bumpers as a bumper.
I dont care how new some tourist is to the game, he usually has a set limit to lose and its not gonna be much more than the min buy in. It is true that there will be replacements for that tourist when he busts, but you'll have to adjust to his replacement. The bad players underground will lose thier money, go on sheet and lose thier money again in the same exact manner, if not with much more clarity to his play. I doubt you'll hear someone call for 1000$ in chips in a low limit game at the casino, followed by "Im good for it".
Ive never played no limit underground, but I can imagine that having a much higher max buy in would be very beneficial to an above average player as well.
The question should never be about how knowledgble your opponents may be, ... It should be "Where do I stand to make the most money.?" Although the former is often a consideration for the latter.
all of this is easily arguable.
Anyone would agree that a game plays BIGGER at an underground club. You offset a bad players sheet by sheer volume of people waiting to play. A wait list of new players losing $100-300 is more sustainable than one whale being over-sheeted.
My experience has been that the players are worse in the underground but I also acknowledge Kristy has [bold]much[/bold] more experience in the underground than I do.