Raise or Fold:  Learning (From) Poker

Writing and playing poker as if they were activities worth doing well.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Ooo, my first Q & A post! Sweet!

In response to my post "Day 22: Running With The Red Queen," gentle reader Dave (known on Poker Academy Online as Civitas) asks:

How many online hands are you playing?
Also do you belong to any of the coaching sites?

At the moment, sadly, I have no way of answering the first question. All the poker-tracking and analysis software worth mentioning is, currently at least, PC-only. Words cannot express how annoying this is to me, and I hope the situation changes in the near future. One of the reasons I bought my new Macbook Air, however, was so that I could install a BootCamp partition with *gack* Windows and run the needed programs.

I have yet to do this, though, so the best way I can answer Dave's first question right now is to say that I play enough hands at microstakes to earn SilverStar status on Pokerstars. When I have some numbers for you, I'll cough 'em up.

As for subscribing to any of the online coaching sites: right now, no, I don't. But I've definitely thought about it. The thing is, I spend so much time already reading, thinking, talking about and playing poker that the thought of adding yet another chunk of poker-time to my schedule is a bit daunting. Especially time in front of a computer screen, which I find much more tiring than reading or playing live. The main argument for checking out the coaching sites, I think, is that my better opponents are likely to have done so too... and it would be wise to have some idea what they might have learned from them.

Should I start to show some kind of meaningful profit, I might reinvest some of it in a coaching site. Although I'd really prefer to have a live, personal coach. That option is a heck of a lot more expensive, unfortunately.

Ask me more questions! This is fun!

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6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

One of the best ways to learn is to just play alot, which you seem to be doing based on the number of points at PokerStars. Learning from players who are better than you is alos a very good way to learn poker.

9/11/08, 3:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So you want to be a professional, but you refuse to equip yourself with the tools of the trade? There is software out there that can improve your poker game and give you an edge at the tables (aids for table selection, heads-up statistics displays, hand history databases, etc.), but it's for Windows only, boo hoo!

The easy solution is to buy a cheap, maybe used, Windows PC and you it for nothing but online poker. When you are actually running the poker client, the operating system doesn't matter anyway, so what's the big deal?

Your competition is using these tools to take your money. Why cling on to your childish "I hate Windows" mantra? For the cost of one or two buyins you won't have to cry about not being able to use the programs most of the better players are using to smoke you.

9/15/08, 11:33 AM  
Blogger Cardgrrl said...

Hey Anonymous, as a kindler-gentler Joker might say: Why so hostile?

Dude, reading comprehension FTW! Do you not see in this entry where I mention that I bought my new laptop precisely so that I could run Windows-only software on it?

Believe me, better players don't need to use software to "smoke me." I'm perfectly beatable without computer aid! I will, however, avail myself of learning tools as I go, and I won't be embarrassed about it either.

I have no idea why you're so cranky, my friend, but I welcome your misplaced vituperation anyway. Hold forth as much as you like! There's always a chance I'll derive some benefit from it.

But if you really think I'm a fool and a fish, why bother visiting and commenting? Surely you have better things to do with your time.

9/15/08, 12:30 PM  
Blogger Cardgrrl said...

@ Dave: Generally my online cash sessions run for about 4 hours. I'm usually multi-tabling (although not always).

I don't set goals by session. I'll play while I feel like I'm making good decisions and am reasonably fresh, and quit when I'm not.

9/15/08, 12:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

In reference to the question about an online training site, if I may I HIGHLY recommend deucescracked.com. Their videos have unbelievably high production value, they have vids in all ranges of games and stakes from 25NL to 400PLO to 2-7Tripledraw. At 30 bucks a month it's a steal. I've been a member for over a month now, and I'me very happy with the content. Good reading your site, you go girl!

9/16/08, 2:51 AM  
Blogger Michael Moulton said...

You might want to take a look at Poker Copilot (http://www.pokercopilot.com). Not quite as sophisticated as PokerTracker yet, but it's making progress!

2/9/09, 10:27 AM  

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