As of November 2021, the APT Forum is closed to new posts. Like with many online forums, usage has decreased in recent years. All previous posts are still available.
Best Strategy To Maximize Limited Training Time
Sign In to comment.
Welcome
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
It really depends on what your main game is.
If you play live for the most part, the best tip I can give you is to set up a small online account, play 2NL or 5NL 6Max or 2NL Zoom/fast fold tables. 1/2 live can be compared to 2-10NL when it comes to skill.
Then use hand2note (it's free for micro stakes) and play at least 10k hands. This goes pretty fast when you play fast fold tables.
After you got them, you look into some basic reports. How are you doing with Axs, how well are you playing in the BB? Is there any obvious leak like making more from MP than you are from the CO?
In other words, where are you losing money when you are playing vs. real opponents, not just bots.
From there you set up your training plan. Trouble defending the BB? Well, play 100 hands in the BB each day. Leaking with small PP's? Add 50 of them after you did your BB practise.
APT is not a one stop shop i.e. a trainer and a leak finder. The AI is pretty good, but nevertheless it's just an AI so after you played against it for a while you'll beat the shit out of it since it becomes very predictable and doesn't adjust very quickly.
That said, however, KGB's dungeon is pretty tough at the beginning.
So if you know which spots you have trouble with APT is the best way to get a lot of repetitions with.
The Good and the Bad. I have been sucking pretty bad according to the stats at Axs. So, I am going to take a few weeks and really focus on the leaks that APT says I have. And I do have them.
That being said, I went over to the local casino and waited 3 hours until they finally opened a 1-3NL table. The players were about the level of the beginner to medium AI players on APT. I felt very comfortable and was steadily winning using the style of play that I train with here on APT. This training site really did help. After about 2 hours of play, I was up about $144.
On the other hand, I took $50 of what I won and entered into a MTT. I was completely unprepared. First, the beginning chip stacks were less than 100 BB with blinds increasing every thirty minutes. busted out within 30 minutes. I have spent no time whatsoever practicing for this type of tourney and I was really out of my element.
I feel like cash and MTTs are almost two different games altogether (I have opposite problem - I play mostly MTTs and have trouble adjustng to cash). There is also huge variance in MTTs. Pretty easy to start at 100-100 with 8,000 starting stack and get deep in a few hands early and be out. And to some extent, in order to be profitable long-term you have to take chances, as Allen said, not only to avoid being blinded out but to build a big enough stack to make it into the top money spots.
In a tournament with 100 players that pays out 10 players, usually all the decent money is in the top 3-4 spots so you need several of those every year to come out ahead. Lots of min cashes, without top cashes, do little to keep you above water. If you cash 25% of the time (which would be far above random 10%) but most are small, you'll be down a bunch. But cash 15% of the time with several top 3 finishes and you could be profitable potentially.
Playing daily tournaments is as much about understanding how different structures play out and how to shift strategy accordingly and at different stages of the event. Take a look at Arnold Snyder's two books about tournaments (The Poker Tournament Formula - Volumes 1 and 2) which focus specifically on daily shorter structured events rather than big money, long blind level WSOP type games. Helped me rethink my approach to daily MTTs. Mostly you have to really have a longview because it is very easier to have weeks and even months of poor results even when playing well.
It was true. I felt short stacked from the beginning and the other players were playing very marginal hands. It felt more like gambling than controlled strategic play. On the other hand, the cash game was really like a beginner to low intermediate 9 max cash game on APT. I was steadily winning as time passed. I was able to push other players off of hands with smart CBs and careful starting hand selection.
Still, I am committed to reading and watching a lot of APT videos and articles over the next few weeks. I used to log in, play 100 hands and call it done. I think there is something to be said about playing thousands of simulated hands. On some level, your subconscious mind learns to make the correct play (most of the time) because it has simply been in the situation so many times, it develops a gut reaction. Good poker players existed long before people understood the math behind poker. Those intuitive players did well. However, it would be foolish in this day and age to simplt focus on developing a gut style of play without also studying and learning the math.
Targeted Training
@sleeperno1 I checked your profile and I think the site has a good enough sample size on 9 max to identify leaks in your game.
You have training plans but my personal favorite is My Reports click Performance. Under that you can look at how you perform by position, street, difficulty, and my personal favorite Hands. There you can discover how you perform in those areas as compared to other APT players.
Example; I was surprised to find that I was notably unprofitable with KQs and KQo. I then studied my play and made 3 or 4 changes in the way i played those holdings. This resulted in major improvement to my profitability with those holdings.
Your "leaks" will not be the same obv but the suggestion is to find specific areas to improve. Target those areas. Everybody likely has 50 areas to improve. All one can do is click them off 1 or 2 at a time.
I will throw in some questions to stimulate your process.
Are you auto tracking the pot and pot odds as a live player?
Do you think" what is the players range?" when someone open raises?
What positions are you having problems with, if any?
Are you playing a certain holding poorly such as KQ? AJo? Pairs?
Once you have identified a leak. You can go to cash game Options page and set up that scenario to play it from 1 hand to infinity number of hands until you improve that leak.
That's a start. Good luck.
Totally and completely agree. Doyle Brunson's Super System talks about this. Intuition and playing a lot of hands makes a ton of difference. It was the entire reason we started this site. We have worked with a whole bunch of people in putting this site together and just day to day interactions. Some of them are math experts, know the reason behind every play, the odds at every point in time, etc. But when it comes to knowing what to do in a specific situation, they freeze. Others just know what to do. The contrast is amazing. Some of the best pros couldn't tell you why they did what they did or how they knew what their opponent had. They just have played so many hands, they know exactly how to play.
It reminds me of a story my brother told of playing chess in a mall against one of the top Grand Masters. The GM was playing 20+ people at the same time and was just walking down the line, glancing at the board and making a move. He had played so much he had board positions just automatically in his head. He got to my brother and some something to the effect of "Interesting move Steve. Mate in 5." moved his piece, and walked on to the next board. Not only did he know what to do and the result several moves out, but he remembered the board even playing dozens of other games at the same time. There are people like that in poker also. I think Daniel Negreanu is one of them and there are others also. I think he could play 20 or more people heads up at the same time and remember every hand they played.