My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome

[Sir Puntalot]

Not sure if I should do this or not, but I'm sure Jezza will tell me to fcukoff if he thinks its pointless. :lol I am very much a beginner player and got hooked on the game whilst playing it in Gibraltar a couple of weeks ago. The point to this thread ? It will be a kind of diary where I will list comments about my play, where I am in learning the game, as I bought a book recently etc... Ok.......... May 31st - 6.45pm Started reading Ken Warren's Texas Hold 'Em book for the first time since I bought it a week ago. 414 pages to read, but I'll see how far I can get until the Bet365 freeroll starts at 8.30pm. I already know the hands that beat each other, which is very basic, so I start to read the book. Very basic stuff at the start, and the heavy stuff only starts to kick in at around page 33. Here it discusses "Reading The Flop" , "Reading The Turn" , and of course "Reading The River". Here it gives you lots of examples of hands, and which are the 5 best hands at the time of the flop, the turn and the river, and believe me, if you are a novice this really does take time to understand, learn and sink in. It's the type of thing that you can only learn by virtue of practice, practice and more practice. The book even gives you homework, which I got 1 out of 6, but they are not designed to be easy, they're designed to tell you you either know or don't know what you're doing. Page 67 I briefly scan the chapter on Pre-Flop Odds, Odds for The Flop, but know I have to go back and read it properly. The odds I believe are vital to understand, otherwise you are effectively guessing when you should bet on occasions. (Correct me if I'm wrong btw) On to the Bet365 Freeroll. I go there with a bit more understanding, knowledge and optimism than last time, but put quite simply I got very little strong hands to play with, if any at all, and made a vital mistake of playing a hand I knew I was unlikely to win with, and tried to bluff which made things worse, and it was a downward spiral from there. Played very tight from there, but got no strong hands, so eventually I went out, hardly unexpected though. :) I now think I'll go play some 0.10/0.20 no limit. I will only play no limit as I feel I will be tested the most there. I do ok, big pot with me and some danish guy who spanked Big Andy :lol, he had KK and I had AA, he raised, I matched, he raised again and I matched and then both all in, which I won. This was all pre-flop by the way. I'm about $7 in profit. I then take a break for quite a while. Go back to Betfair at 1.45am and start playing 0.25/0.50 NL with $50. A lot of hands I just seem to be folding as they are utter sh!te. Along comes a good hand with AK clubs. I go with it, the flop comes up with J 9 clubs and 5D, so now I have 2 shots at the nuts flush. My downfall here is I don't know "the odds" of me winning, but my guess is it is quite good. I raised at the flop, and was called. At the turn a 8D comes up, and then he raises me. I only have ace high, but have to call him (or do I ?). Anyway, I didn't get the flush and he won with a pair of jacks. Now down to $22.50. I win a few hands, and bluff a few and get back up to about $35. 2.45am A new player joins with only $12 at the table, when most have $40+. I'm dealt AK and I raise it straight away. Only the new guy calls. The flop shows another A and 5 6. He raises heavily, but I'm thinking he can't beat what I have at this stage surely? I call his re-raise, as I'm suspicious that he has just joined the table, got very little chips and instantly goes very big. It turned out he had nothing at all, and was bluffing, and now my bank was up to $57, the most it has been at since I started at $50. I play more hands, but its all bits and pieces, I bluff quite a few hands, and win a few when people thought I was bluffing also. 4am Back down to $46. I finish by bluffing a guy for a $4 pot, and finishing on just over $50, right back where I started. As I said, Jezza might think "wtf you writing this for Paul?" :lol He may not, but I suppose my burning question is this.... Considering I am a novice, did I do well ? Not so well ? or just about right ? That's all folks......I'm off to bed. :zzz

[equinoxx]

Re: My Poker Novice Diary - Comments Welcome This is a good idea especially if you look back at years from now and use it to decipher how you played hands before as a reference. Paul, if you ever go professional and they ask you for your nickname you have to call yourself The Adrian Mole of Poker!