Probably one of the hardest things for a beginner to do is look at their game and realise what their largest leak is. You’re trying to discipline yourself to a tight starting hand range, recognise danger signs, not be too passive/aggressive, understand your opponents ranges etc. The trouble is until you get all those ducks into a row you’re likely to still be on a losing slide.
Recently I think I’ve finally conquered my worst leak. My biggest problem was often pushing for a drawing hand to come through, and of course it frequently doesn’t, so often losing me a large pot. I realised that I had to reduce my aggression in these situations. I might be now a bit passive when someone 3bets me, but I’m definitely not losing like I was before.
One really useful video that helped me put this into action was Ed Miller’s ‘Poker Made Simple’ series on StoxPoker. His reasoning on Little hand, Little pot really worked for me.
Anyway, here’s today’s results;
Results for 1st November 2008
and here’s the hand that won the most, even though it wasn’t played that great (especially after all I just said about chasing draws!)
Titan No-Limit Hold’em, $0.05/$0.10 (Titan HH Converter by Kreatief)
BTN ($10.04)
SB ($10.12) ____ (Hero)
BB ($18.31)
MP2 ($12.16)
MP3 ($9.85)
CO ($1.99)
Preflop: Hero is SB with Q
, K
MP2 raises to 0.3$, 1 folds, CO calls $0.30, 1 folds, Hero calls $0.25, 1 folds,
Flop: A, K, 3 ( $1 )
Hero bets $1.00, MP2 calls $1.00, 1 folds,
Turn: 9
( $3 )
Hero bets $1.50, MP2 calls $1.50,
River: K
( $6 )
Hero bets $7.32, MP2 calls $7.32,
Final Pot: $19.64
Results:
MP2 has A, 7
Hero has Q, K
Outcome: Hero wins $19.64
Not very exciting, but it made me realise that I ought to be more inclined to shove on the river when I have the best hand. Normally I bet pot or a bit less wanting them to call, but the truth is that many people at microlimits will call with rubbish (as above), and possibly the profit from that will be larger than from the smaller calls I would get by betting small.
[...] value betting and not bluffing goes back to my earlier post where I thought I’d cracked 10NL (oh the hubris!). Why does it slip away from me so easily? I [...]