Hi all.
After a long time away from the felt, I've got the itch to play again (mostly because of a small home-game with mates who are horrible, like checking straights and flushes on the river bad, made me realise there's still a chance to make a profit from the micro-stakes :f_biggrin:)
I've been a keen amateur and student back in the day, and was Head Writer for a small poker website back in the day, but that job killed my passion for writing and poker until recently. And in that time, poker has changed massively.
"The hell is GTO?"
"Where's CardRunners? DeucesCracked? Grinderschool? They all just YouTube channels now?
'Ah, Phil Hellmuth is still winning...
I've never been able to be consistent with the playing to be able to prove I'm a consistent winner, but this time, I'm setting a few rules:
Take my time - Learn first, play poker when you can and look to build up hours/sessions when you can do so (this is going to be a long-ass blog)
Keep a journal - How long did I play for? Buy-in? Cash-Out? How I felt I played? How was my emotional control? Any key hands during the session to check?
Find others wanting to learn and discuss
Have a study schedule
My Study Schedule:
First Beginner Book - Master Micro-Stakes Hold'em - Alton Hardin
It's been a while, so I want to brush up on the fundamentals. So far, I've liked what I've read. He's really tried to emphasise the subtle points of poker first to beginner players (why players lose, variance, tilt etc) before getting into strategy. I've only just got to pre-flop fundamentals so I'll see how that goes.
Later Beginner Books - Sky Matsuhashi's Pre-Flop Online Poker, and Post-Flop Online Poker
I've been following Peter Clarke (a coach I remember from the Grinderschool days, who seems to have established himself as a decent poker coach). He focuses mostly on GTO-theory and that seems a little too advanced for me currently, as well as being overkill for the micro-stakes. He had Sky Matsuhashi on his podcast and seemed to recommend him and his exploitative style for micro-stakes, so I'm giving his books a go after. They seem like good literature on how to start thinking like a winning player when you start to go up the stakes.
Other Beginner Books
The Theory of Poker - David Sklansky
Playing The Player - Ed Miller
The Mental Game of Poker 1 and 2 - Jared Tendlar
I'll start with 6-Max cash games to begin with, and will start with 40 Buy-ins to play a level regularly, until I have an idea of what my win-rate is (I'll start at 2NL, and start playing 5NL at $200/approx £145. When I get to 10NL, I'll look to add some tournaments and read some tournament literature, but stick with cash games.
In the future, I hope to do some twitch streaming/Youtubing, and maybe even some live poker. I'll be playing some games that are out of these stakes, and that will be from other funds and will not be included in this Gamble Pouch challenge.
Right, it's late, off to bed. Good luck at the tables.
Perry
VS