Poker Forums

I'm really excited to announce Ed Hill to the members of PokerStrategyForums.com . Ed is a long time Las Vegas professional poker player who has trained and played with some of the best cash game players in Las Vegas. Ed is very well known and respected in the poker community.

Or more simply, Ed really knows his shit, so if you see a post with his name on it, take note that there is probably some great gems of advice in that post.

Ed now lives in Los Angeles and plays mostly no-limit holdem at the LA casinos.

Once things take off were going to open up a special "Ed Hill' forum

Once again, welcome to the forums Ed


Jason

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I'm Not Lucky, I Have Good Karma !

Hi Ed, hope you enjoy the forum and help make it a busier place. I have acknowledged to myself recently that I suck at poker and am re vamping my focus and learning process, so look forward to your threads and views.

I said in your other thread that this alone makes you far more likely to become a winning player than 90% of people who already think they are good, good luck.


Ed - super excited to have you here (and excited to be here myself).

I'm a winner at low limit no limit games but I'd like to move up - nice knowing there is someone here to get advice form that can beat 5/10 and up consistently - as I'd like to move up to that level soon.

Welcome!

Hi everybody, yes, I should have introduced myself. I have been a pro poker player since 1976 and been successful both at live games and tournaments.

There are overall general concepts that dominate our poker decisions, reading the right poker books is the easist way to start getting your feet on solid ground. Unfortunately, I don't read many poker books anymore, I have formulated my own opinions on how to play and been very successful. Books that I know are "golden" are listed below, "this doesn't mean that the other books are wrong or inferior," but I haven't read them and am not willing to comment on their quality.

Must Reads;

Poker Theory by Sklansky
No Limit by Sklansky
No Limit for cash games volumes 1 and 2 by Harrington
Super System II by Doyle Brunson

The first thing that you MUST understand when reading poker books is;

POKER ISN'T BLACKJACK

Blackjack is the same game if you are betting $1, $5, $25, or $10,000 a hand, Poker isn't.

In Blackjack your opponent is playing by a fixed set of rules, in poker we all know that our game has to be tailored to take advantage of our opponents mistakes. Since we are human and are all going to make mistakes, the player that makes the fewest mistakes will be the grand winner when the luck evens out. Since any game played with a deck of cards has a certain amount of luck to it, this can take quite awhile if you run bad enough.

BLAMING BAD RESULTS ON BAD LUCK

We all know that we can get tremendously unlucky at times playing poker. In every losing session, we can focus on the bad beats and say to ourselfs, "if that hadn't happened, I would have won. I am so unlucky!"

Sometimes we lose because of bad luck, but what I have learned over the years is; a lot of the badbeats could have been avoided with better play. At the time, I wasn't capable of understanding this concept.

Let's take golf for example, we know Tiger is going to play at a level that none of us will ever be able to attain. How did he get there? He had natural talent for sure and there is nothing we can do to aquire the natural talent that he has. But even with all the natural talent that he obviously has, he would have never got to where he is today without WORKING HIS ASS OFF!

Many of you might have the natural talent and not even know it, but since this isn't a physical game, it can be played by any age group at a real high level. What does it take? WELL, WORKING YOUR ASS OFF, is a good place to start. There is a world of golden information in the books listed above, these are the foundations that you need to start building your "Poker House."

All of us also have a "poker soul." In order to improve, you must search your poker soul after every session, not after every losing session, every session period. "Is there anything that I could have done differently that would have been more profitable?" I have gone home many nights thinking, "well, I got unlucky and there wasn't anything I could have done to prevent that outcome." The next day after the smoke cleared, I am thinking, "Oh my God, what did I do! I could have done this or that instead." This is a game of repitious situations, the next time this situation comes up, you will have this last situation to fall back on, providing you learn from it.

DON'T LET RESULTS INFLUENCE YOUR OPINIONS

In No Limit your mission is to get all the money in when you have the best hand, if you do and lose, learn how to live with it. The losing part was something that was out of your control, your mission was accomplished, the cards just didn't let you win this time.

IT

"It" is the intangable part of the game, you either have "it" or you don't. In the Tiger Woods example, he obviously has "it." "It' is being able to formulate the correct strategy against the right player at the right time. The great thing about poker is that it is a non-physical game, even if you don't have "it" the harder you work the better you will end up playing. If you have "it" the sky is the limit. Taking into consideration the volumes of good poker info that exists today, anybody can be a winning player in the medium limit games if they try hard enough. You can actually support yourself quite nicely beating medimum limit games, like $5-$10 No Limit or $30-$60 limit.

Ed Hill

Yes, welcome! It was obvious from your posts thus far that your a very good player. Looking forward to reading your thoughts, especially on cash games as thats probably my weaker side.

Welcome to the board Ed! I have been wanting to get the Harrington books and will definetly be buying them now. The rest I have read, great books, and if Harringtons Cash game books are half as good as his tourney books then they should pay for themselves quickly. Looking forward to having you on the boards!

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"You will succeed far more by capitalizing on your opponents mistakes than you will by the greatness of your own play." --- I am not sure who said this but it is a great quote and piece of advice.


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Obviously you are very talented in putting your poker logic into written text, I can't wait to read all your posts here and hope you will help some of us evaluate some tough spots.

Welcome Ed!

Great addition to the forum. feel welcome

hi Ed your welcome here. i have read Dan Harrington books it help my play out little i was to loose and did some idea NO Limit hold em cash game and MTT tourneys so it helps upswings for my bankroll one of my favorites pokers books

Poker soul ?? What if ya don't have one...