Reflections

Poker has been going really well for me for the past few weeks. For my past 15k hands in 50nl across all sites, my winrate has been incredulous. I guess it's coming all together after plenty of studying, coaching, reviewing and learning. It's pretty interesting that such results came when my desire to play poker was so great. Got to thank my busy sch schedule with its endless projects and assignments for it. It's a vicious cycle of wanting to play poker, having a good winrate and confidence, feeling happy and wanting to play more poker.

On a philosophical note, poker is very much an individual sport that rewards an individual capability in it. Personally, poker is a game that requires alot of effort on your part in order for you to become a solid winner. Simply playing alot doesn't cut it. I've known of many friends, whom only understanding of poker is to keep playing and logging hands without the desire to critically review and understand the "gist" of poker. My best advice to them is to study more, play less, and study more again.

To illustrate how complex poker really is, consider the complexity of just the flop on a headsup pot. "What is the likely range of hands my opponent is holding, that can hit/miss this flop"; "How far ahead is my range compared to his"; "What are my reads on his betting patterns, tendecies, how does he react to a cbet/raise/check/call"; "how do I extract maximum with my nuts, whats my betting size and plan, how can different bet sizes induce different actions given the situation and history b/w me and him"; "how do I balance my range when I bluff and hit the flop"; "what betting line should I take that makes it looks the strongest/weakest" etc etc and many more.

And for every street, they can be ripped apart and analysed as such in great detail. You will be amazed at the kind of things you learn when you try to think things through, and you will be amazed of your own results when you apply them to your games.

If you have been playing poker by matching your holecards to those on the board, then you have to realise there is still so much more in Poker than just the cards. Cards alone often play a factor, but Poker is a game of Situation and People. When you get to understand the game in terms of handranges (as compared to absolute hand values), you will start to understand "Situation" more. When you start to make good observations of opponents' playing style and develop good reads, you start to play the "People" more. All these may seem nitty gritty details, but rest assure they are key factors in your winrate and results.

Even in this article, there are many grey concepts that you won't fully comprehend or understand. Poker is similar as well. For every situation there is something new to seek out, learn, review, critique and assimilate. Having an active and open learning attitude will lead you to improve drastically. Many poker players in their online/live career have their "AHA" moments, moments that are ENLIGHTENING and significant, perhaps life/poker defining moments. To some, it may be an all-in calldown with A-high when you know you are well ahead of your opponents range, or an innocent poker player quote. To me, one AHA moment was when I was reading Jman's well post in 2+2. His "root-beer" hand taught me a great deal on alternative bet sizing and gave me a totally new insight to playing poker. Another AHA moment was pretty recent, in which I was experimenting with a looser-wild style with good table selection, and making use of my poor image to win bigger pots.

I end off with a question that promotes a deeper thinking of the game. "If you realise that your big pairs AA and KK are making very little money/or losing alot with them when they are cracked, what should you do to make your big pairs earn more and lose less instead?"