No Foldem - Beat Beats vs. Bad Play

[Flashy]

After getting beat up at the tables during the last few sessions of low limit no foldem; I started to really think about my game, and the things I have been learning here. Yes there were some improbable draws that beat me. But my leaks were turning poor sessions into terrible ones. Here are the leaks I identified and vowed to fix (rationalizations in brackets):

Too little respect for raises, particularly on the turn (these people don't know what they have)

Playing too many hands from EP and then being trapped for 2-3 bets out of position with a mediocre hand (hey, what I think is crap probably beats their hands)

Playing too many hands when my stack was going down in the hope of catching one (since my premium hands aren't winning, maybe my mediocre hands will!)

Trying too many fancy plays and getting caught (first person to bet can win the pot regardless of position)

With trepidation, I sat down for $3/6 at Canterbury on Tuesday night. Usually, I play 4-8, but frankly I was gun shy. After 7 hours, I took home $397 after tips and a dinner. I got good cards, but not necessarily great ones. The game wasn't too wild, as I don't remember any hand getting capped. I was by far the tightest player at the table, but I would jump in with speculative hands in late position if the table was going to let me for one bet - their mistake.

I won despite some bad beats because I won a better share of the pots I was in. I was rarely out kicked in a showdown, but out kicked other players several times. Any hand I played, I played aggressively.

The biggest thing I did versus other sessions where I build a big chip stack is that I didn't give back many chips playing too loose. Even after I build a big stack, I was mucking hand after hand often only playing from the blinds. However, when I played a hand I often won the pot outright on the flop through aggressive play even when I didn't flop. My fancy plays were getting more respect along with having position. That helped pay for my blinds and kept my chip stack up.

My point to players fustrated by No Foldem is ask the question are my leaks compounding my losses? Conversely, when the cards are hitting me, am I only taking home a rack when I should have taken home several?

While I am no means a good player, I am committed to stop blaming the poor play of others for my losses and look instead at my play.

My other point was to acknowledge how much I have learned by regularly reading these forums. You are able to learn from some great players, who willing take the time to help others. I am constantly amazed by how few poker players visit these pages However, I am glad they don't! Thanks!

[tekksan]

It is often frustrating to get hammered by "lucky" players, but in the long run they lose. I played 3/6 at the Mirage this past weekend and played about 1 or 2 hands an hour (I wasn't getting anything worth a crap to play, I must have seen 84o and 92o about a thousand times...) and finally get QQ UTG and pop it. I get cold-called by like 5 people. I bet a raggy board the whole way and keep getting called by these characters. On the river a K hits and I bet and get popped by this annoying lady to my left (UTG+1). I call and she shows down K9o and slams the table knocking my chips over. I look at her in amazement. I muttered under my breath, "How can you cold-call an UTG raise from a guy whose played 1 hand an hour with K9o??" I guess she heard me because she replied, "I can't fold a king or you crazy?" -Like I was the idiot or something. She later commenced to runner-runner two pair with like T5o and crap like that. She played almost every hand. Anyway, she got up quite a bit and I left for a snack. When I came back she started getting punished for playing that crap and left with about $60 (she was up to like $200 or so before I had my snack. Most people at the table were drinking and two women down at the end had a little laminated card to tell them what different kinds of poker hands their are and what beats what, etc. These types will win some pots against you because they don't give a crap...their in all the way to the river no matter what.

I continued my "grinding" and was in my 5th or 6th hour of getting nothing but crap, then I got 3 good hands (AA,KQ,QQ) and punished those people playing crap like T5o and got up about $250.00, cashed out and left.

Patience, Appropriate Aggressiveness, tight standards gets the money in the long run. The no-hold 'em/fold 'em have big swings for the decent player because it is so fifficult to put somebody on cold-calling your UTG raise with K9o from UTG+1. You will take your beatings, but hang in there, grind it out, and you'll get your money back.

My $.02

[bernie]

welcome to another level in your game.

this way of thinking also thickens up your bad beat skin.

nice hit on the 3-6


"While I am no means a good player, I am committed to stop blaming the poor play of others for my losses and look instead at my play."

if youre not a good player, youre well on your way. id say with this thought process, your well above the average player. watch for how they react to beats and youll see (maybe) where you were once, and how they look when they bitch and moan. remember those days? /forums/images/icons/wink.gif

have a good one

b

[Flashy]

Thanks for the kind words,

I often tell people at the table who complain about being rivered that without the river there would never be much of a pot. Without the occasional miracle on the river, the fish would stop calling three bets on the turn with three outs.


I prefer they keep calling.

[Louie Landale]

This is a really great post. This sort of mind-set and discipline is MUCH more important working out a few extra pennies of EV evaluating specific situations.

Yes, avoid early position with hands that improve to marginal ones. Yes, avoid tilting. Yes, avoid fancy plays. Yes, speculate in late position for no raise. Yes, you WILL get "bad beats", otherwise they are not playing very loose. Yes, you should win the kicker battle most of the time. Yes, stay disciplined. Yes, stealing from late position works SO MUCH better when you are playing tight and bet with the goods a lot more often than you steal. Yes, even if you ARE losing because of the "poor play of others" [1] in the long run that's good, and [2] you might as well put energy into an area you can control (improving your own game), then worrying about something you cannot (the opponent's play).

- Louie

[Flashy]

I think the greatest sin of a player who studies the game and think they are getting better, is that you lose respect for your opponents. You start believing you can outplay them from anywhere. "Ram and jam, they will fold." That really was my problem.

Let face it, how can you respect a housewife with the big purse calling with all her hands. Not to pick on housewives, but at some games 4-5 people look like they don't have a clue and play like it.

The problem is that while individually they may only be calling with 3 outs, collectively those 4-5 people may have over a dozen which can beat you. Individually, they may only have picked up on 1-2 tells/betting patterns when your buffing, collectively they may have a half dozen.

No matter how clueless they look, collectively the table has the ability to punish you when you get sloppy. One of the reasons players go on tilt is they forget this.

I know I did. Hopefully, I will remember it when the next bad beat comes from that housewife.