Learning Curve

[Cloud]

I was wondering about other players experiences when it came to learning the game - and what impact learning different parts of the game had on their game. My starting point was a few months of MTT's and STT's - playing almost blindly (looking back on it) - had a few results - but generally made a loss in the long run. In doing this I started to learn what hands I should be playing with - and started to get an understanding of pot odds and to a smaller extent of implied pot odds (still find that one difficult to gauge sometimes). At this stage I was still losing - not as quickly though - and my deposits were lasting a lot longer. The biggest breakthrough for me - which turned me from small negative to small positive - was the understanding of position, and the impact on the game it has. I found myself a lot more confident in my game - and I generally felt I was one of the better players at most of the tables i sat at - and that confidence in itself raised my game. My next step is to concentrate on my opponents a lot more - a failing of mine so far - and to actually make notes and maybe use some software to take my game up a level again. What experiences has everyone else had??

[Marcus0000]

Re: Learning Curve I actually taught myself. Back in high school during French class me and a few friends would play poker (the teacher was hardly ever in the class). Probably the reason to this day I don't remember much from French class. Then when I turned 18 and was working horrible jobs like working at a gas station or stocking in a grocery store I came across an online poker site. The more I played the more I taught myself. I started to figure out odds of hands, how many outs I have, etc.... Then finally I moved here to Vegas to test myself fully. To me the best asset in learning poker is yourself. You can read as many books as you want, watch as many poker tournaments on TV but you just have to train your own self on it. Don't get me wrong, you will get great tips from most of the pro's how to approach the game. But if you don't have the mindset for the game itself, no amount of reading will help you.