Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Dredging up an old discussion...
So right about the time the clowns over at Oddjack decided to label me a horrible player and scourge of the blogging community, I had posted an analysis of overall play after returning from AC for the first time. In that post I asserted that 99% of the people playing poker generally have no idea what they are doing. Then an anonymous poster had something to say about me being too arrogant in my assessment, but after three more months and another AC trip I have come to the conclusion that I was 100% correct. 98% of the people I see playing poker have no idea what they are doing.
Good, bad, indifferent... they just don't know what they are doing. They don't have a concept about paying attention to hands limped from under the gun, or being re-raised by someone from that position. Or the proper way to price out draws, or taking the lead on drawing hands or that top pair with top kicker is still a very vulnerable hand. Which, as I said a few months ago, is all very good for those people that are looking to actually make money playing poker.
This also has a counter effect on players that are average to very good, your game has to change to match up against poor play. Analyzing the differences in my two trips to AC, I think the real difference in my success was being more cognizant of the type of player I was up against during each hand. There were plays I was able to pull off because I knew the player I was in the hand with was good enough to understand what hands I was representing. And there were bigger hands I was able to get paid off on by simply letting a less experienced player bet into me the entire way with this TPTK.
That combined with the fact that I think I am a 100% better player than I was even three months ago definitely helped things along. A lot of things kept me from playing as much poker recently as I had been, but I still did a lot of reading, logged a lot of practice hands and discussed a lot of situations with friends. When I finally got back to playing regularly, I felt entirely more comfortable and aware at the tables than I had been before. There were hands and positions I put myself in before without realizing it that I was able to remove from my game that alleviated a lot of unprofitable situations I was getting in. I think branching out and playing some of the other games also helped my hold'em game overall.
I still fall in the slightly better than average group but I think after another couple of months I may actually consider myself in the 'better than average' echelon. For now life is going to be about building the bankroll up, and taking a few shots at the WSOP Circuit and WPT events that are rolling into AC during the next few months.
Good, bad, indifferent... they just don't know what they are doing. They don't have a concept about paying attention to hands limped from under the gun, or being re-raised by someone from that position. Or the proper way to price out draws, or taking the lead on drawing hands or that top pair with top kicker is still a very vulnerable hand. Which, as I said a few months ago, is all very good for those people that are looking to actually make money playing poker.
This also has a counter effect on players that are average to very good, your game has to change to match up against poor play. Analyzing the differences in my two trips to AC, I think the real difference in my success was being more cognizant of the type of player I was up against during each hand. There were plays I was able to pull off because I knew the player I was in the hand with was good enough to understand what hands I was representing. And there were bigger hands I was able to get paid off on by simply letting a less experienced player bet into me the entire way with this TPTK.
That combined with the fact that I think I am a 100% better player than I was even three months ago definitely helped things along. A lot of things kept me from playing as much poker recently as I had been, but I still did a lot of reading, logged a lot of practice hands and discussed a lot of situations with friends. When I finally got back to playing regularly, I felt entirely more comfortable and aware at the tables than I had been before. There were hands and positions I put myself in before without realizing it that I was able to remove from my game that alleviated a lot of unprofitable situations I was getting in. I think branching out and playing some of the other games also helped my hold'em game overall.
I still fall in the slightly better than average group but I think after another couple of months I may actually consider myself in the 'better than average' echelon. For now life is going to be about building the bankroll up, and taking a few shots at the WSOP Circuit and WPT events that are rolling into AC during the next few months.
Comments:
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Terry-
You do bring up a few good points here. I should clarify that the discussion does pertain only to hold'em. My analysis isn't solely based on two trips to AC, it's also based on online play, local play, etc.
Your point about competent players at higher limits does hold merit, but as an overall percentage of players, how many are high(er) limit players? The vast majority of players are playing low limit poker.
The very easy and scientific way of discerning this need go no further than Party Poker. Based on a relevant sample size or a simple examination of the games being spread there, the number of players playing in the low limit games as compared to the high limit games vastly outnumbers. If there are 70,000 players that operate on the Party network, that means my opinion of 98% equates to 1,400 players on that site that really know what they are doing.
I think the inherent, and incorrect, assumption based on my post is that I wouldn't necessarily include myself in the group of 98%, but I would. I just happen to be better than a great portion of that 98%, in my opinion and based on my results this year.
I notice it more in AC simply because I'm only on one table, and paying closer attention to what's going on than I am when playing online, where I may have two or three tables going at the same time.
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You do bring up a few good points here. I should clarify that the discussion does pertain only to hold'em. My analysis isn't solely based on two trips to AC, it's also based on online play, local play, etc.
Your point about competent players at higher limits does hold merit, but as an overall percentage of players, how many are high(er) limit players? The vast majority of players are playing low limit poker.
The very easy and scientific way of discerning this need go no further than Party Poker. Based on a relevant sample size or a simple examination of the games being spread there, the number of players playing in the low limit games as compared to the high limit games vastly outnumbers. If there are 70,000 players that operate on the Party network, that means my opinion of 98% equates to 1,400 players on that site that really know what they are doing.
I think the inherent, and incorrect, assumption based on my post is that I wouldn't necessarily include myself in the group of 98%, but I would. I just happen to be better than a great portion of that 98%, in my opinion and based on my results this year.
I notice it more in AC simply because I'm only on one table, and paying closer attention to what's going on than I am when playing online, where I may have two or three tables going at the same time.
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