Hey guys,
I've been playing poker for about a year and a half now, originally on 888, now almost exclusively on Stars since this summer, and while I believe that I have most of the basics down, I also feel like I have pretty much plateaued recently.
My current game of choice is FR NL10 Zoom (regular cash games put me to sleep). I used to focus on SNG's for about a year, but I grew tired of all the Push/Fold drama and the relatively high variance, so I decided to make the switch to cash games a few months ago.
Right now, I'm going through a nasty break-even stretch that I just can't seem to get out of. A good part of it is down to bad luck, of course. But who am I kidding, I need to work on my game. The only question is how to do it.
What I did so far:
- I'm familiar with most strategy articles up to bronze, and even a few silver ones (I used to be silver status for about a month).
- I'm about halfway through hasenbraten's "Crushing NL50" video series. I've also seen some other videos.
- For the last few weeks, I've been lurking around the Hand Evaluations forum quite a bit. Helped me to make a lot less spewcalls.
- Occasionally, I tune in to some coaching sessions when I have the time.
What I am planning to do:
- I'm considering investing in some tracking software, like Pokertracker 4. I've heard many people say that this kind of software is absolutely essential these days, while others say that it is really not necessary at the micros. Any thoughts on this?
- I might purchase a couple of books about poker, haven't read any of them yet. Jared Tendler's "The Poker Mindset" is currently on my wishlist for Christmas. Do you have any recommendations for books that deal more with the strategic aspect, and do you think that they are still relevant today or are most of them pretty outdated?
So I'd be thankful for any advice on how to step up my game in the long run, since I don't plan to grind the micro stakes for the rest of my life. Please keep in mind though that I cannot really afford any kind of private coaching or even purchasing status upgrades, and I'm also unlikely to improve my status through playing alone, since I forgot to register my Pokerstars account through Pokerstrategy (I'm still kicking myself for that 
) and I dislike playing on most other sites.
Thanks a lot!
