Copyright 2006 Full
Tilt Poker
June 26, 2006
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Poker Lessons)
Poker Lesson: Winning Poker
- It's About More Than Money
Author: Ben Roberts
New players who want to be good students of the
game often ask me for advice. In response, I often tell them about
emotional stability, which I touched on in my last tip. The next
point I'd like to make is that they need to be careful when assessing
their own play. That's because there are a couple of common mistakes
new players make that lead them to draw faulty conclusions about
the strength of their play.
After playing for a short period of time, say 100
hours, a player starts to develop an opinion about his or her
play. They might think they're playing very well or very poorly,
but this conclusion might be far from the truth. The problem is
that, in the short term, anything can happen. A player may get
very lucky or unlucky and show results that are either far higher
or lower than they could ever expect in the long-term. However,
over a longer period - say 300 hours or more - a player is going
to get a much more accurate view of their ability to beat the
game.
So what does this mean for you? In short, I recommend
that you keep an eye on your long-term results no matter if you're
in the midst of a hot streak or a cold one. While taking the long
view will help you more accurately assess your play, it can't
help you avoid every pitfall along the way.
For example, assume that I've played the following
games of No-Limit
Hold 'em and have managed the following debts and profits:
Game: $1/$2
Hours: 200
Profit/Loss: -$2,000
Game: $2/$4
Hours: 200
Profit/Loss: -$4,000
Game: $25/50
Hours: 30
Profit/Loss: +$36,000
At first glance, it looks like I'm dong pretty well,
right? I've make a handsome profit of $30,000. Look deeper though
and you'll see that I wouldn't want to quit my day job because,
in fact, I'm doing quite poorly.
To better understand what I mean, don't think about
the actual dollar figures involved but, instead, think of each
small blind as a unit. So, in a $1/$2 game, each unit is 1 and
in a $25/$50 game each unit is 25.
How have I done in terms of units won and lost?
I've lost 2,000 units in the $1/$2 game, 2,000 units in the $2/$4
game and won 1,440 units in the $25/$50 game. Total everything
up and you'll see that after 430 hours of play, I've lost 2,560
units. This is bad news.
As you keep records of your sessions, be sure to
record the size of the game you're playing and number of units
you've won or lost. At the start of your poker career, put more
emphasis on units won or lost than on your total profit. It's
a more accurate gauge as to whether you're playing
winning poker.
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