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Old 09-02-2005, 02:27 PM
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Default Re: WHAT ARE YOUR STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES?

I should mention here that I am talking mostly about NL tourneys as that is where the majority of my experience lies. In Limit Hold Em ring games, which I recently started playing, I seem to be having even more success, so I may just switch completely if my success rate continues to rise.

Strengths:
- When I first started playing Hold 'Em last summer, I played a lot of play money SNGs and was often short stacked because I was just learning how to play. I then decided to allow myself to get shorstacked so I could learn how to play that way, and it worked fairly well. I have learned to be extremely patient and have, more than once, because of this patience, come back from being last to winning the tourney.
- I am usually aggressive enough when it is called for, although I still have a lot to learn about when it is called for (I could be more aggressive and might be more successful, but that would take a lot away from my current style and would mean a big change in some places)
- I don't often get caught without the goods, but that may also be a weakness because I am not aggressive enough in some cases to steal enough blinds and such, more because I am, again, not paying attention to the table (as explained in the weakness section)
- I am very good at picking off overly aggressive players who don't know when to switch gears - I have a knack for making myself look weak and vulnerable, letting them steal my blinds, push me out of pots, etc, and snapping them off when I do get a big hand - in most cases like that, I will take them for a lot more than they have stolen over the past 5 orbits, and then they will tilt because they had no idea I was playing them. If they are lucky, though, which they often are at that point, they will go all in and have a hand and win with it, putting them back in a strong position, or will at least get everyone else folding as they move all-in preflop the next couple of hands
- I am pretty good at reading people, reading their cards, although I am better at it in live play
- I have some moves that work very well, and I am not afraid to act on my reads, especially against weaker players
- I am not ashamed to admit when I am outclassed, although I think that I believe it to be the case more often than it actually is, I would rather err on the side of caution and lose one or two small pots than risk my whole stack when I am uncertain
- I don't worry about creating a table image as much as I concern myself with determing what each individual player sees my image as being - in other words, I will play opposite to the image I think you see me as - if you see me as weak (as an overly aggressive player will when he constantly bullies me), you will fold to my bluff re-raise because you think I have a hand - if you think me strong, when I have the best hand, I will just call along when you are raising into the pot because you are doing me the favor of dumping all your chips into the pot
- I don't have to be tricky - I just have to know what YOU think I am, and play the opposite

Weaknesses:
- I am still in the small stake stages and often forget to bother paying attention to the game I am in, but more so because I have several poker books and I am trying to read them all while playing (I know - bad idea, which is why I have switched to playing play money over the last few days just to scratch the itch and read while I play, trying the stuff mentioned in the book, and it doesn't cost me anything except my time!)
- I am sometimes too eager to fold, mostly because I am not sure of my own read
- I let bullies push me around, but again, as mentioned above, that CAN be a strength, if the right situation arises - if it doesn't, I can lose a tourney because I can get blinded off at a table with a huge stack bully who pushes all in preflop every hand - you have to make a stand eventually, but since he can just keep doing it, win or lose, you have to pick your battleground carefully
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