Remember when you were really young and it was time to take that huge plunge into the unknown? For weeks and months prior to this leap your parents have been prepping you for this day. It’s the day of all days for parents and can be very scary for child and parent alike. I’m speaking of the first day of school. For me, I still have some pretty solid memories of that first and day even at my ripe old age of 35 there are still some lingering thoughts of that time in my life.
One thing that I would have no problem saying without any factual proof is that two things are going to happen to you during the 1st week of school, no matter where that school is in North America. You will be asked to count as high as you can and asked to repeat the alphabet as best as you can. Numbers and letters are the foundation of our educational system. These basic fundamentals will be with you for life so you better get to know your ABCs and 123s or kindergarten is going to be a challenge.
Once you have mastered the sandbox and cut and paste and have no problem napping after lunch it looks like it s time to move into the first grade and then you become an old pro at this school thing. Year after year you advance grades picking up invaluable information and education to push you through to high school and then hopefully college/university where at the end you can graduate with a little piece of paper that shows everyone how smart you are.
It is this advancement in education that helps you become the person you are today. Education has a funny way of opening doors for you that normally require a key, but all of a sudden that magic piece of paper you now posses seems to open a ton of them.
Yes the ABCs and 123s were the first things you learned and forever relied on to forge ahead in your life quest. But if you didn’t bother to try and expand on that foundation, you would be stuck in kindergarten. I think the same can be said for entry level poker players. They get introduced to the game, learn their ABCs and 123s, have the strong desire and willingness to learn but are not willing to think outside the box for the fear of making mistakes or losing money. If this is you let me tell you now that playing A.B.C will leave you S.O.L
For all the exposure that I’ve had over the years dealing with players at all buy-in levels, the one thing that seems to fade away as the stakes get higher is the notion of being card dead. This is a favorite topic for the low to micro level players and just doesn’t seem to exist at high stakes. I believe this is because the talent level rises as the stakes get higher, and as the lower level player is waiting for opportunities the high stakes player is busy creating them.
Sitting around waiting for the cards to come is just a form of ABC poker and being timid to make moves and not tapping into your creative side will see a lifetime of mediocre/breakeven play which in the long run will just see you broke and S.O.L.
acumen53
Well said! Great analogy and reflection!
tomnovicki
like the article and understood it well but can someone tell me what S.O.L stands for?:)
thx
Killingbird
Shit Out of Luck
lespaulgman
Ttwist,
I think you touched on 1/2 of a really fundamental problem with how a lot of micro/low stakes players approach the game. The “card dead”/ABC phenomena is a huge aspect of it, and I think that the other half of the equation is the “bad beat”/”cooler” aspect. From my experience when you are learning and you go back and look at the cooler spots you run into and really analyze the action and what has occured you will see it really isn’t that at all, as the player(s) you are facing typically play very straightforward and almost face up when their hand is particularly strong. Complaining about bad beats is very akin to the card dead complaint at this level (or so is my perspective).
Metasploit
Great article. Solid advice. More Please 🙂
P-aire 146
Enjoyed it…..
NLD123
Top shelf, ttwist, top shelf!
rawphil
very good article, ty
GaryLQ
Thanks, would have enjoyed it more if I knew what SOL meant before getting to the comments!
tomnovicki
cheers:)
ughhhh
I like this statement a lot les. I was talking to my friend the other day explaining to him I’m thinking beyond a certain point of coolers leading to a downswing, there is evident bad/marginal play leading to these coolers. Bad betting size, bad opens, bad calls, trouble hands you name it as I have reviewed tournies of my own I have come to the realization that a lot of times you can blame yourself not the cards. And besides the fact I am so annoyed of hearing people saying something along the lines of this “Wowwwww, ru fcking kidding me, he hit a 2 outer.” My response to that is usually “that sucks.” but what I really want to say is get over it its part of the game odds are called odds because they are not guarantees. Slim to nothing is 100% safe in poker so if there is a chance it can happen, dont lose your mind if it does. 2% chance of hitting is 2% its not 0% for a reason.
rIkTa
Thumbs up Twist.
Brandon
“For all the exposure that I’ve had over the years dealing with players at all buy-in levels, the one thing that seems to fade away as the stakes get higher is the notion of being card dead. This is a favorite topic for the low to micro level players and just doesn’t seem to exist at high stakes.”
I think you have misinterpreted the reason for this. Experienced players do not waste effort on things which are beyond their control. This does not mean that they don’t do better when they get good cards.
pot_sniper
great point ttwist, i understand what your saying completely
mavman
Great article ttwist makes u think outside the box for sure I think u nailed my biggest problem so time for me to work on it thanks for opening my eyes
martyfm
thanks twist its true ther is so many variables to learn each hand and level,when should one move up a level?? MTT, S&G, ring game? i avg top 25% at MTT low level, top 10% @ S&G,50% @ 1-2 no limit ring games, should i stay with S&G games? untill i am top what %? before try moving up a level?? or differant games? i am 69 yrs old, its hard to teach an old dog new tricks..one day the chickin next day the feathers but we never quit learning and i want to have more chickin days then feather days!! i am trying!!! marty