Is it Possible to Learn too Fast?
Posted by MuckMyNuts
Posted by
MuckMyNuts
posted in
Mental Game
Is it Possible to Learn too Fast?
Decided to turn semi-pro about 5 months back, mostly grinding online MTTs. As I move up in stakes (from micros to low, and rare shots higher) I've become really motivated to work on my game. I've been studying a lot with videos, marking hands to review, and picking spots to analyze both villain's and my range very thoroughly on each street, trying to find better lines or bet sizing in terms of range vs. range instead of my actual hand.
Now when I'm playing I find some of the spots that I get into are confusing me, often spots that used to be relatively simple decisions. Is this just a 'growing pain' type phase that is common when learning new facets of the game? Have others had similar problems?
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I think, more specifically, it's easy to try to learn too fast. If you change 10 things in your game at once as opposed to changing one or two, it's harder to figure out which changes are working, why they are working, and how to efficiently incorporate each new change into your existing game.
It's better to know 5 things very well than to know 20 things kind of well.
Yes, I could have worded it better, lol - if it was actually learned it wouldn't be tripping me up. Thanks for the advice. I've tried to be conscious of changing only a few things at a time but I'm probably working on new things before spending enough time playing with what I've recently learned.
I definitely need to spend more time thinking about why plays are working or not.
Identify your problem areas, then prioritize working on high value areas first.
This might give you an idea of where to look (credit to Kalupso for linking this in another thread): http://www.husng.com/content/meaningful-and-meaningless-errors
Thanks! That article describes what I'm struggling with pretty well, although my problem I think is that I am agonizing too much about the very common decisions: BB defense, reacting to 3bets after raising the button, how to size my c-bets and which players I should be less likely to cbet, etc...
I think my problem is that I thought I was good, and my results at micro/low stakes have been good over a smallish sample, but as I learn more about the game I realize a lot of my fundamentals are flawed. My reaction has probably been to over-adjust my strategy, and now I am trying to work back towards the middle ground.
I'm working through a lot of mathematical analysis and taking a few days off from the grind. I need to remember that as much as my strategy was flawed, it was still winning me money against players with bigger flaws, so I can't forget what I know has been working as I strive to make improvements.
My ultimate conclusion is that I just need to chill-out, and as you say, work on one common spot at a time rather than trying to overhaul my entire strategy at once. Mostly I just need to chill out lol
Try to work on your game step by step rather than all at once.
I think Jared Tendler's "Inchworm" theory is the best description of this issue and how to handle it
http://jaredtendlerpoker.com/instructional/book-excerpt-inchworm/
He also highlights the importance of the ALM model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourstagesof_competence
I wrote a blog about my learning experiences which includes how I feel the ALM played out for me. It's a while since I wrote that blog and I feel it applies better to someone at a beginning to intermediate level.
Hope it's within TOS to post:
https://subjectiveanduneducated.wordpress.com/2014/11/17/my-adult-learning-model-range/
Yes I have been experiencing something similar to the OP. In my experience, the strategy to beat the low limits is a very simple and extremely boring one. The more I watch strategy videos, read/study game theory materials, read hand history forum posts, the more I find myself straying away from that simple winning strategy at the tables.
The more advanced stuff just seems way more fun: balancing ranges, bluff-to-value ratios, using different bet sizes, thin value betting, thinking on different levels. I get bored and want to try more interesting things, then I end up making a ton of unnecessary mistakes. First of all because I don't yet understand those things enough to do them well, and second because I stop focusing on a simple winning (albeit exploititive) strategy.
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