Paying attention to the other guy

I have a serious flaw in my game. As I try to become a winning player this is the anchor that's dragging me down. I'm looking for suggestions on how to overcome it, but I also think that just by posting it it will help me to focus better on it.


I PAY TOO MUCH ATTENTION TO MY CARDS, and not enough on the other guy.


2 examples from last night.


EP limps, I limp with As3s and the button, SB and BB come along.


Flop AhTs3c.


EP bets out and I raise. Everyone else folds and EP re-raises. I cap it. At this point I haven't even considered what he has. I'm thinking my 2-pair is gold because there is no flush or straight on the board.


Turn 2d.


EP bets and I raise again(?). He re-raises and I finally get it, but I still call the bet and call his rover bet. He has A-T for the better 2-pair.


2nd example.


BB with 8-6o and 5 or 6 people in.


Flop is Js-7c-5d.


I check-call with my open ender and 5 see the turn.


Turn is Qd.


I check call again and 3 of us see the river.


River is 4d giving me the nut straight. I bet, get raised and I re-raise (??). He of course caps it on me because his flush beats my straight.


I didn't even see the possible flush until I was re-raised.


I've only been playing since November. Is this just a lack of experience. Do other people have this "Tunnel Vision"?


Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. My game has come a long way, but I can't keep throwing these extra bets away.

I've been playing the same amount of time as you, and I did have this problem a lot. It's easy to fixate on your cards and push doubt out of your mind.


I found myself on a really bad losing streak through the month of January, so I started doing some exercises. Rather than fixate on my cards I started trying to figure out what the top two or three nut hands could be on any given flop/turn/river. I did this both at the table and by just sitting down with a deck of cards and dealing boards.


It works pretty well for me. I started recognizing the patterns in the cards that mean trouble.


I also started thinking more about betting patterns. For instance, I would think about my own betting, but I'd also think about what bets I'd make if I had another plausible hand.


For instace in your two-pair example, I would have bet my two pair but I'd also be thinking, "if I had the AT, what would I do." And, if my opponent does what I think I'd do, I start to seriously consider the value of my hand.


This stuff helped and continues to help me.


Troy

David,


I think you are going through a phase that most of us went through when we first started. The first stage of playing is recognizing what are good hands and great hands. The next is recognizing when other people hold those hands.


You should always know what the nuts is, first and foremost. Secondly, you need to think of what hands are better than your that make sense. For example, in your A3 hand. You can rule out a set of Aces most times and probably 33. You can also rule out AK and maybe AQ. Would someone be that agressive with AJ? Probably not, so what does make sense? AT or TT. The only other possibility is a bluff or a horribly misplayed AK.

In those cases you can just keep giving him rope to hang himself with by calling down.


Also think of the betting. When a guy bets into a flop capper on the turn and there are no draws you can bet that he has at least top two pair.


You need to think about what he could have given the flop and his betting actions. Take time to do this. If you made yourself wait 10-15 seconds (or more) each time you ran into an odd situation or before any river bets, you'll start becoming aware of a lot more things. Dont just bet, raise, call or fold automatically.


Good luck,


Paul Talbot

but you don't know he's got you beat until he caps the flop. im thinking top 2 pair here, rather than a set. only because a set might just call a reraise and then trap you for more bets on the turn. point is, with top and bottom pair, like A3, you bet. then your opponent raises, which could very well indicate he puts you on an A maybe, but he has AK. then you reraise, saying 'top pair top kicker no good' and he says 'i know, i have top pair bottom pair beat though, so i have to bet again'