I just started learning poker about a week ago and honestly I feel completely overwhelmed and a bit lost.
I bought the Poker Foundations course from Phil Galfond (Run It Once), and at first it was okay, but once I got to the AKQ game theory part which was the third video, everything started getting confusing and even after that part where i got into the Intro to Poker Fundamentals the second video i stopped.
They talk about things like:
balancing bluffs with the Queen
making opponent “indifferent”
calculating Alpha and MDF
EV of different actions
I kind of understand it when I watch it, like I get the idea of “don’t bluff too much” or “defend enough,” but I don’t understand how this actually translates into a real game.
For example, am I really supposed to calculate stuff like Alpha or MDF while playing? Because when I play (even with fake money on PokerStars), I don’t think about any of this at all. I just play randomly and forget everything I learned.
It’s also frustrating because I feel like I understand concepts in theory, but I can’t apply them or even remember them properly. It makes me feel like maybe this course isn’t for beginners, or maybe I’m just not getting it.
Has anyone else gone through this? Should I keep going with this kind of theory, or step back and learn something simpler first?
Would really appreciate some advice.