On any given Sunday there are probably 500,000 people playing online. How many are winning players? Not many I suspect. But then again how many are horrific losers? Again, not that many.
Most probably dribble away money or break even, and play for a combination of recreational (acceptable), addiction (not so good), and self deluding reasons (because playing legitimises the possibility, no matter how unlikely, that the dream might come true. The sheer volume of small time losers keeps the whole poker economy in business.
The moment you start playing poker you reach a crossroads. Turn left and join the path to greatness - study, learn, think, study, learn, think and you will prosper.
Turn right and join the shoal.
You will watch a lot of poker on telly. You will read a couple of books (written by people who play live against live players), you will absorb the starting hand requirements and nothing else (there may not be much else). You like everyone else will enjoy temporary success after reading Harrington, you will win a tournament or two (this is to be expected since every single tournament even the $1 ones have winners) temporarily camouflaging your weaknesses.
You will lose track of the goal - to win money (because you aren't winning any, so best not to think about it), but never the dream (because someone just like you, or Jerry Yang, is always winning money).
You will come to learn some fancy plays - floating, 3 betting, bluff shoving, but you won't know and understand when to use them, why or against whom. You will know that position is important, but you will not understand why or act accordingly. You will spot weakness in others and basque in your greatness when doing so, but be oblivious to your own.
Ultimately you will get nowhere. You will be oblivious to the other path.
Enough - the point is this: at the end of the day there is no point playing poker unless 1) your goal is to win money 2) you are constantly striving to improve your game 3) you are doing all you can to improve your game and win money.
I want to win money. I want to improve. I have to take several steps back to the beginning, turn left and start again. I worked this much out myself before joining Cardrunners in mid July. But I had no idea how little I knew about the basics or anything else until I start watching the low stakes videos.
In the last month I have spent more time thinking about how to play poker and win at the low levels (nb that is not the same as thinking about poker) than ever before. I'm grinding at $50NL (with an appropriately sized bank roll) and loving every minute of it. I'm making mistakes (mostly to do with playing overpairs) and learning from them. I'm improving, I want to learn more and for the first time I think I have a realistic chance of winning some money in the long run.
I started with a bank roll in Full Tilt of about $1250. I played a bit at $25NL to get used to the TAGGY basics. And now I'm 2 or 3 tabling at $50NL. I have one goal at the moment to reach $2,000 (hopefully by the end of August) and a longer term aim of reaching $4,000 (hopefully by the end of Novemberish) - at which point I will think about taking a shot at $100NL. I'm hoping to fit in about 10,000 hands per month. I will post my stats at the end of the month.
