First off, Zach(or any other mod) dont delete this, Ill explain later.

Apparently, everybody on this site but me pwns at poker but me so I would like some help. I play on stars undar KevinJA8 However you would like is fine. If you want me to watch you and ask questions thats fine. If you wanna stake me in MTTs/SnGs/Cash thats fine. I generally play every starting from when i get home from work(11pm-12am est usually) an finish latr at about 5-6am est. I just need some help. I dont excatly plan on be a pro poker player, I mainly play for fun, but I still want to win, losing just plain sucks in my opinion. For any stakes you give me I will give back stake + 50% of winnings like usual. Any help at all would be nice. PM me here if you can help, thanks.

Ok now Zach, and any other mods, I know its against forum rules to ask for a stake but that not excatly what I am asking for. Its not like I am asking for someone to send me X amount of money and thats it. All im asking is that IF someone does help what I would like the setup to be is that they contact me and say 'Hey, there is a $3.30 MTT that starts in an hour, hop in that and Ill watch you' and they send me $3.30

So if you want to teach me, please PM me. My sn on stars once again is KevinJA8, if you wanna search me under sharkscope or thepokerdb, go ahead. Ill tell you know they are not very impressive, and the only reason my sharkscope is that high is cause I won an $11, and a $22 180 SnG in like my first 80 games.

Thanks

We have forum rules?

Also, it's a misconception that everyone here is good at poker. I haven't won **** in 2 months.

With all these stakaments going on you should be able to get a piece of the action.

gl

Eddie, what poker literature have you read?

Good starting question.

If you havn't read all the basics like HOH, TOP, THFAP, SS ,,,,,, a couple of times you need to.

You really dont have to ever read a book.
The only book i read was HEFAP, and i dont think it really helped much if at all.
I like to think im at least somewhat successful at cards.

Your time would be as well spent writing a book as reading one.
WHo needs credentials? Every idiot is looking for an easy way to win at poker, might as well sell them a placebo.


Priorities should be:

Get started on a site that offers good benefits
Be selective about which games you play in
Think critically about why you're betting/raising/calling/folding

In that order.

K, check, check, and check.

What's next?

I do all of that and still get ***-raped for 2 months...

Doing well doesnt mean having a specific BB/100. Doing well means making money.

You're up money. Despite having had what you probably consider to be one of your worst stretches ever.


What's the problem again?

I'm not up money in March.

And every day I lose more and more.

My problem is in the last 4 weeks or so, my benefits don't come close to making up for what I lose at the tables.

Most people have bad months.

Im just the exception to the rule.

SS2

I have a big problem staying concentrated while im reading a book, its just so ****ing boring

my gf doesn't particularly like reading texts, but she finished gordon's books & is reading HoH1&2 and she has no immediate plans to turn pro. if you're looking for mentoring but say you can't be bothered to learn, who will want to take you on?

If a book on the topic you claim to be interested in cannot hold your attention, then there is zero to negative chance that you have the patience to be a good player long term.

Quite frankly, I predict zero people interested in what you're asking. Why would someone give you money and help you out when you can't even be bothered to try and improve your game on your own? It's a borderline insulting request.

If even after that small verbal thrashing, you still want to improve, then take it upon yourself first. Start looking into books. "Invest" and read them, critically. If you still think you have a leak, post hands here where you get lost or think you made a mistake. Read other people's strat posts. If you do all that, and show honest effort into improving, this is a great place for people to help you find a leak. If you're not willing to do those things, don't try and feign interest in playing seriously.

stop highlighting half of my point.

I said i have problems concentrating when i am READING A BOOK. Reading is boring to me, hence why i have trouble staying concentrated, poker is not.

Even thought its a book on poker, its still a book.

And your right, i havent tried to help my own cause....because ive only be playing online for the past year and a half.

And you're completley missing my point. You're asking someone to put forth significant effort to help you improve your game when you won't leave your happy little bubble and do something you consider boring to improve on your own.

Id rather learn by having someone teach me than reading a book. Basically because if someone does teach me, we can discuss hands 1-on-1. Can you do that with a poker book?

I know what you're trying to do, and believe me, I'd love to do the same thing.
Getting somebody to teach you AND stake you though will be impossible.

If you were PAYING someone (like steve7stud's deal from before) and supplying your own bankroll, that's one thing, but to ask them to invest in AND educate you I think is a little much.

Especially if there is very little chance that they will get a return, or even their original investment back.

And if the staker would get a return on his investment, it would likely be too small to make it worth the investment. If you factor in the time the staker would put into this as well it becomes even less attractive.

Wow, being a good reader is a basic life skill, most enjoy it. Get with it.

The strat forums are a great substitute for this.

Your odds of getting help would be higher if you weren't expecting a stake in a $3.30 tournament. I can see some people being willing to sweat your cards, but not at a cost to them. Why not provide your own buyin for the $3.30?

It's not about discussing "hands" 1on1, all HANDS are different, there are THEORIES that books cover. If you want lessons on hands 1 on 1, you guys might be there for a while, going through all the combinations of different hands that can occur in a poker game.

Secondly, I'm not surprised to see a post like this from you Ed. Please put your own money towards some literature or buy ins.

harrington on holdem has a thousand hands that you'll basically be discussing w/ the man if you read through them. All those problems are awesome. Read that. It's simple and broken up by constant hands to work through w/ the author. Very good place to start.


And I agree, I could see someone sweating you, but paying you and sweating you? Are you a hot chick or something?

If you don't have pokertracker, get it. Then, instead of playing for two hours, play for one hour and then go through your hands one by one in pokertracker. Look at the hands that you made money and the hands you lost money. At each decision point in the hand, figure out what you were thinking, whether you were right, was there any way you could've behaved differently at that point with the information you had at the time, and, if you could've seen their cards at each decision point, would you have done anything differently (which is a different question than how you'd behave without knowing their cards).

Once you've done that, you may find 2 or 3 hands where you say "hmmm, I don't know the answer." Post it to the appropriate forum and pay close attention to the responses.

I guarantee if you do this, you will improve faster than having an occasional coach. Maybe if you could get a full-time coach that would be better, but anyone qualified to be a full-time coach can make more money playing than they could by coaching you.

Try the above for one month. It's a small committment for a lifetime of playing.

(PS: I'm not saying it's the ONLY way to get good, but it is extremely cost effective, and will work amazingly well.)

also posting your thoughts on other peoples hands is a good way to learn because if you makes a mistake someone will correct you

I just want to highlight Abba's comments because I can remember way back on this board when abba first joined and was eager to learn how to play. I don't remember where he started at, but I would expound on line 3 of the list, noting that you should be proficient in mental fraction calculations. (if i recall he had the math down and all he needed was the feel part). It might go without saying, but it probably doesn't.

Poker books are overrated. I've read a few and the only one that helped me at all was SS2, and that basically just taught me one concept about tournament poker that I was missing. Everything I've learned about cash games, I've gotten on my own or with an assist from strat forums.


Basically, there are IMO, three types of losing players:

1) People who haven't learned the basics.
This describes more people than you think. In addition to the new players out there who don't know how to properly value hands, it also applies to the 80 year old nits who think they know what they're doing, but are afraid to value bet pocket aces on the river. If you've ever read and contributed to a poker forum on a regular basis, this one shouldn't apply to you.

2) People who have a good idea what to do, but lack the discipline to do it.
This covers a huge amount of people, especially live. I know several people who are generally considered absolute fish, can never lay down a hand, etc., etc., but if they're insulted and get really motivated, they'll play well enough to be a winning player. There are different levels of this quality, as it can be manifested by tilt or poor BR management as well as general loose play.

3) People who want to play by rote out of a book instead of thinking for themselves.
This is the last class and includes marginal losers, as well as some break-even players and even marginal winners. This type wants to know "the right answer" in every situation and tends to have a really hard time understanding variance and metagame. It's the mindset of if I have X hand on Y flop and someone check/raises me, I should do Z. A good player should always be looking at what their opponent does and trying to see if there's some way to exploit it. If you're getting check/raised every time you C-bet in a 3-way pot, you're eventually going to have to take a stand and bluff back, even if it might be -EV for the given hand. If you have a passive opponent's never laying down a hand in LHE, you need to start waiting for the turn to raise more. If you notice someone only betting 1/2 the pot with weak made hands in PLO, it's OK to come over the top with air, even if the play has to work 2/3 of the time to be successful.

The point is that you should always be looking at how to exploit your opponents from a theoretical perspective. It's not about playing your hand in the right manner every time and it's not about magically deciding exactly what hand your up against. It's about figuring out strategies that will work more often than not against a given opponent and implementing them. If you're never C/Ring the river with the betting lead in LHE, you're either playing really bad players, or you're not very good yourself. If you're never trying to bluff the river when a scare card hits in PLO, you're either up against ridiculous calling stations or you're not a very good player. Not that you need to get caught up with FPS, especially in FR games where you don't have detailed reads, but you need to adjust to your opponent, and you need to think about the game theoretically, at least part of the time.


If you don't fit into the one of these categories, I really don't think you can be anything but a solid winner at poker. The games just aren't that tough. Playing up to 30/60 LHE and 5/10 PLO on Bodog, I'd say over 2/3 of my opponents fit one of these categories. Some games take longer to learn and have a tougher player base than others (NLHE cash games probably being most difficult on both counts), and some are better suited to different personality types, but a disciplined, knowledgeable player who's capable of thinking for himself just a little bit can easily make a solid yearly income from poker. If he's a very good thinker instead of an average one, you can turn that solid yearly income into a life of luxury.

I think I am just starting to figure out part three, I honestly think most people go through all three stages. I think I need to get PP24/iggy/Marv to coach me

Is this like a poker scholarship? I don't get it.

Here's an idea, Eddie. Instead of asking people to stake you to play, ask them to buy you the books. Some of them are damn expensive...

The stuff about people not 'being able' to read books really rubbed me the wrong way. I just think that's terrible and pathetic. Like people who always claim to have ADD and that's why....well their excuse for not being able to do anything for an extended amount of time or be dedicated to something. This is with regard not only to poker but everything in life.

I dunno if those of you who 'can't stand reading' have or plan on going to college, but you might want to get some practice reading. I can understand when a 3rd grader complains about not wanted to read for their homework but young adults? Come on. Where are you gonig to gain knowledge from about subject? TV? please.

There're a lot of textbooks that're more interesting than the majority of poker books out there, just because the vast majority of poker books out there just regurgitate everything ive alreadyread, or already know. And when it takes them several hundred pages to spit the damn idea out, it gets awfully boring.