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Yup. you are a horrible horrible person. Fortunately, to be a good poker player, you need a little sociopath in you
This is exactly the answer i am looking for
You let them keep their pants? Man, you're a softie
So my friend gets moved to my table 2 to my right. 17 left top 10 get paid. My friend opens. I look down at AJo. Kinda short stacked. I cringe. I can see on his face he has something good. I know what i have to do. I ship it. Spike an A on the flop and cripple him. He's out next hand. He had 2 tens.
He didn't talk to me for 2 weeks.
I haven't changed a bit.
@1warlock
hahahhahahahaha! sorry!
No. nobody told me about it.
Yeah you are total trash... but so am i since i need them to stay fishy to pay for my subscription
I believe my training on this site has begun to pay off after 2 years +. Over the last three months I've won my home game twice and came in second once. Am I having a good run of luck or have I become to good to play with this group? Do I need to find another game, which won't be easy? If this keeps up will I be asked to not play? Am I going to loose friends?
Before Black Friday my parents played online alot and got pretty good. They also used to host a home game about once a month or so with friends who lived on the same lake nearby. After a while those friends stopped coming.
Poker doesn't have handicaps like golf and bowling. And your friends have no right to expect you to soft play them, just to keep the friendship.
If you're worried about losing friends because of your poker game, do something else with them.
you're right
I don’t advertise APT at my league games or my home games. I would like to, just to help the APT guys. But I have two issues. First, I don’t want my competition to get better. And second, I don’t want the extra scrutiny that comes with people knowing I am actively working away from the table on improving my game.
I also try to refrain from “tapping the tank” in other ways as well. I don’t tell people what they did wrong in Hands. I don’t tell people why limping is bad. I don’t tell them how I knew their range was capped, or what a capped range even is.
However, I do have an inner circle of friends who discuss poker. If we are in a relationship where we are helping each other, I will share some things. I have, to date, shared APT with four friends. I think only one or two have actually checked it out.
I also agree with the comment above that nobody told me about it. I first learned about APT because my wife stumbled upon it while searching for resources to help me improve.
As far as my friendships relative to poker, I don’t really play poker with friends very much. By that I mean that I don’t play much with people who were friends outside of poker before we played poker together. Most of my poker friends were people I met through poker and then established friendships away from the table over time.
Thanks nytider; I like your approach. Right now I am only telling family about my off the table study. If one of them takes up the game then I'll require a cut of their cashing.
mrfleming
Off the table, I would tell family members, and some close friends how I train. I would recommend they try those avenues that have been positive experiences for me. APT would certainly be in that category. While at a table, I offer very little information, but listen to others who speak about the poker books they like, instructional videos they watch, or training sites they have used, and whether or not they have considered them helpful. In my opinion, this is important information. If I am familiar with the source(s) of where a player claims to have gained their poker knowledge, I will form some hypothesis about what that player's style might be like, based on how they say they have learned, and what I understand that learning source to teach. Of course these hypothesis need to be tested with what I observe in their actual play. There have been times where this information has given me an increased edge.
Tell them to watch "The Cincinatti Kid." Pay special attention to the advice given at the end by "the man" after he spikes an inside straight-flush draw to beat the "the kid" and his puny aces full. Keep in mind this is five card stud, so the kid has a made hand showing on the board, and the man can't possibly have him beat when all the money went in.
He says: "That's what it's all about kid, making the wrong move at the right time." Yup. That is the best advice ever. Promise. Live by it.
Ahah yes, you are such a bad person!
I am going to add on to my previous comment on this subject. Actually, I am going to add two things:
First, I have been away from APT for a while, in particular, away from the forum. I have kept up my membership, and continued to train from time to time. However, I have not been using the site as much as I was previously. Prior to COVID-19, I had been playing more live. And since COVID-19, I have been playing a ton more online. But I have some things I want to work on, so here I am.
Second, since COVID-19, I have been playing in an online "league" and with a group of friends. The same crowd is playing several times per week, and there is discussion around improving, books, videos, off-table work, etc. Not everybody is interested. But I have been sharing a bit more liberally about this site since the pandemic started. I think I still stand by my earlier comments in "normal times." But this situation probably calls for a different approach.
I am looking at this period as a time to improve, with an eye toward going back to real play, if that ever happens, at a higher level than I was before. And I am referring really to skill and understanding of the game, not necessarily stakes.
Thanks for letting others know about APT! Certainly people will vary the emphasis on what they do to train/play depending on circumstances and where they are on their growth curve. Yeah, I've seen that phenomenon in myself where sometimes you are maintaining at a certain level and that is the focus, then you have a desire to inscrease skill/insight and you'll refocus on new training aspects, and in terms of APT, I'll use either Beat the Pros or Combat Trainers or configuring the simulators to help me in the situations I want to get better at.
Glad to hear from you again!
LOL> @mrfleming said:
Have you tried playing online? If you grind out the micro stakes, 2/5 and 10/20, that cents BTW, then and you play solid fundamental poker you can get a great deal of experience as well as build a bankroll. Don't be shocked at the variance. Stick to bankroll rules for online play. These are the following.
1. Keep to to the 20 buyin minimum bankroll rule. I.E. if you have put up $100 on the site, don't play higher than 2/5 until your bankroll is $200. Then you can move up to 5/10.
2. Stick to a strict time limit per session, and take breaks often, like every hour at the least. Playing online your going to be seeing 60 or even up to 100 hands an hour in some cases. About 4 or 5 times more than any live game.
3. Control your variance by having a min/max mentality from a stack perspective. If, for instance, you double up in a very short time you might want to consider ending your session early. Unless you have a very good feel for the table and your OPs, and you can basically print nickles and dimes, do take the money and run. Alternatively, if you are down over 60% or more in a session, you might consider ending the session.
4. Never ever rebuy or top up in a session, unless you have a very good feel for the table and your opponents, you will usually be throwing good money after bad.
5. Do not be tempted to increase your bankroll to level up unless you are absolutely sure you feel you have the skill to do so. Even 5/10 online poker can be challenging for many live players. The guys playing online have played literally hundreds of thousands of hand, and are there in many cases to be patient and just take your money. The micro stakes pros play 10 to 20 tables at a time sometimes, and are playing at their absolute best. If you're looking for a challenge, you could try a 10/25, or 25/50 game, but I promise you it will be frustratingly tough.
6. Of course, these are all guidelines, not rules. But they come from literally 15 years of experience playing online, and getting soul crushed constantly.
7. If you want to play a big online tournament, best way is to ladder your way in through the satellites. Definitely recommend spending 5 maybe 10 bucks a week on that endeavor. You could end up in a very high stakes tourney spending just a few dollars.
All bad because we love this...
OP asked a pretty interesting question, despite its superficial nature. Telling people about APT is a matter of choice. Excuse the rant, but I need to address a few things. Most of us are here because we've put in the time, did our research, and found this place one way or another. I consider the time spent getting to this place as research.
The fact that someone's game is weak because they don't know about APT, or similar places online (let's be real, there are plenty of awesome poker communities just like this one), tells that they're lacking the hunger to become better. Worst of all, the information is so freely available today that all you really need to do is look for it. Have I told some of my close friends about APT? Yeah, I did tell some, but not all. I told those who share the same passion for this game as I do, and who I know for sure are looking to up their game.
Case in point, my old mom got hooked to blackjack since her little pack of friends really got into it lately. This 83-year-old woman, who barely knows how to turn on a digital microwave, hits me up with this link https://www.zebracasino.co.za/features/how-to-win-at-blackjack/ and asks me whether it's a legit guide. She went on Google and typed in 'how to win at blackjack'.
So OP, if your friends can't type in 'how to win at poker', should you really feel bad about not telling them about APT? I know I wouldn't. You gotta be worthy of help for someone to help you, or at least that's my opinion.