Thursday, January 6, 2011

An important night to my game

So I'm cruising around one of the big poker forums yesterday, and I come across a post from someone thanking the community for the all help that they have provided him in his game. He also posts his win rate at each level from 2NL to 100NL, and they are impressive. He then offers this:

In return for all your help, I will offer some sweat sessions or general help for free on a first come first serve basis. 2nl-50nl. I don't feel like I'm qualified to coach but I'm sure I can at the very least provide some input or analysis.


The post was made 5 minutes ago, and there is currently only one reply.

Free coaching session from someone playing 100NL? Yes, please! We get in contact and set up a session for last night. The session involves him checking my HEM database, and asking what part of the game I might be struggling with/working on.

It is often said that talking poker with someone above your level is the best way to improve your game, and I will never doubt that statement again. What a productive hour I had! We ended up covering 4 distinct points of my game that can easily be improved. Some were leaks showing up in my database stats, others were opportunities for aggression that I was currently missing.

Do you know how long it would take me to find and fix 4 leaks in my poker game without coaching/assistance? The answer of "months" is probably optimistic.

Here is a tiny little snippet from the chat that really got me thinking on a more macro level.

When someone does something that makes you have to think, it's probably a decent play


This simple, powerful statement kind of smacked me in the face. I'm not sure I have digested it completely yet, but it seems to me that it involves thinking on a higher level than I currently am. I'm going to keep mindful of it as I play. When a good player puts pressure on me, I will be thinking "that might be a move" as much as "looks like he has a hand this time".

I can't wait to hit the tables again.

2 comments:

diverjoules said...

wow.. How awesome to get free help. Now you can help me.. Right?

matt tag said...

any time