Moving down to the beginers forum with a few basic ?s

[Buccaneer]

I can not go lower. I am at the .02/.04 tables. I just seem to want to give away money even though I can and have played well. I have lost 100 BB in less than and hour.
I think that my major problem is I quit playing the hand. It may be on the flop, the turn or the river. If something tells me I have won the hand I go full bore building the pot with out "playing" the hand out. Today I had a preflop TQ and a TTx on the flop. I started pushing chips as best I could. I was real happy and had put the hand in the win column. I pushed the turn, I pushed the river to see vilian turn over a T2. No wonder he stayed in the hand but I had read 2+2 and knew that I had to have a good kicker which I did. I thought about how stupid vilian was for playing with the duce kicker. Then I saw the chips slide to him. WHAT??? Was the software broken? Nope his 2 paired on the turn. I had to read the dealer notes to find out what happened. I keep celebrating hands that hit and loose them. Has anyone had the same problem? How did you deal with it? What was effective?
Problem two: I do not know whether to wear boxers or panties. When I play tight and simi agressive I seem to win. I also fold when someone wakes up and shows agression. I am very bluffable. Then I get SSHE or GSIH out and read and try to become more agressive. I then turn a .50 game into a $2 game. I find that I am not comfortable loosing at these rates and this affects my play. My mistakes are multiplied and very expensive. When I raise as CO with AKs the flop misses big time, nothing. I will sometimes play to turn or river but fold with nothing. So here is what happens. If I fold I become a target for bluffing. If I play a hand that does not hit to the river I become labled as an agressive calling and raising station. Either way I find that 2+2 play just increases my loses at a faster pace. Where do I need to look at my game?
Edit: When I am playing my normal game I can tell when I am going to win at showdown 95% of the time. When I am trying to do the 2+2 thing and take pots 30% of the time when I will hit the nuts 20% of the time then I seem to win pots at a rate of almost 0.0%

[AKQJ10]

I've never experienced that precise phenomenon, but I'm never shy about tossing out random opinions that may not apply so here are a couple.

First of all, it sounds like to some extent you're just running bad. That can be deceptive in that you think you're playing worse than you are.

Secondly, when you write,

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Problem two: I do not know whether to wear boxers or panties.

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then I have to.... err, don't take this the wrong way, but I have to wonder if you're confusing aggression as a means to winning money at poker with aggression as a way to assert your virility. Or maybe I'm just overreacting to your choice of words. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

But seriously, to the extent that you can be cold and calculating in your aggression, rather than emotional, the better your results will be. Divorcing emotions from short-term results is almost always +EV (unless you're the rare player who just doesn't give a damn, and i don't generally meet those people at poker tables). Just a thought.

[Webster]

Who lables you? Do you REALLY think online players notice you? I would say that 90% of online players can'tremember what you did LAST hand!

As for moving up - make small strikes until you get a good run and then you won't feel the sticker shock of losing.

As for your losing to fish . well . in the long run it's a good thing. They pay you in the end but the short run sucks sometimes. I just went through a -110BB bad beat streak in 3/6 a couple weks ago, lost to every fish I saw in so many ways. 3 nut flushs cracked, 2 boats lost, every straight I hit lost.

BUT - it's all good in the long run.

Once you have had a few thousand bad beats you become numb to them and while they hurt, you know that there was hundereds of thousand of times those same hands did not HIT and you won, you just did not know it.

Grinderswarehouse - NOT just another BLOG

[AASooted]

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Today I had a preflop TQ and a TTx on the flop. I started pushing chips as best I could. I was real happy and had put the hand in the win column. I pushed the turn, I pushed the river to see vilian turn over a T2. No wonder he stayed in the hand but I had read 2+2 and knew that I had to have a good kicker which I did. I thought about how stupid vilian was for playing with the duce kicker. Then I saw the chips slide to him. WHAT??? Was the software broken? Nope his 2 paired on the turn. I had to read the dealer notes to find out what happened. I keep celebrating hands that hit and loose them. Has anyone had the same problem? How did you deal with it? What was effective?

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I'm also a beginner, but I deal with hands like that by keeping in mind that my opponent only had 3 cards in the deck that could help him, and I'm going to take a lot of money from him in that situation the vast majority of the time. Every now and again you lose the hands you're a big favorite in -- that's poker. Keep playing only the best hands pre-flop and putting in money when you think you have the best hand, and things should work out in the long run.

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Problem two: I do not know whether to wear boxers or panties. When I play tight and simi agressive I seem to win. I also fold when someone wakes up and shows agression. I am very bluffable. Then I get SSHE or GSIH out and read and try to become more agressive.

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I struggle with this too, but I think the key is controlled aggression. If you don't have a strong hand and someone is betting big into you, it's okay to fold. Pushing a little when the flop misses you can sometimes fold a small field. Pushing a lot when someone's answering back will probably end up costing you money.

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When I raise as CO with AKs the flop misses big time, nothing. I will sometimes play to turn or river but fold with nothing. So here is what happens. If I fold I become a target for bluffing.

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I don't think that's a problem at all. I want people to think I'm bluffing when I have a good hand. I want them to raise, thinking I'm going to fold. I want to collect all that money when they've misjudged what I have. If I have two overcards (like AKs) that miss, I'll fold to a bet if I don't have proper odds to call. AKs will hit for me eventually, and it would be great to have a whole table of people who think they can steal a pot from me when it does.

I think you need to focus less on the psychological side (Does he think I can be bluffed?) and more on the mathematical side (Do I have a strong hand? Do I have proper odds to call?). That's where your advantage is in the micro-limits.

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Edit: When I am playing my normal game I can tell when I am going to win at showdown 95% of the time.

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From what I've read here, if you're winning showdowns at that high a rate, you're probably folding a lot of hands that would be winners. If a pot's big enough, you may want to call to see if someone's been bluffing you. For example, if you have a set of Ts and a third flush card comes up on the river, you would probably want to call a single bet if the pot is big (say 12 BB). If you win in that situation more than one out of twelve times, on average you've made money. You can't worry about the specific result on that hand -- you have to try to make decisions that will make money over many hands in the same situation.

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When I am trying to do the 2+2 thing and take pots 30% of the time when I will hit the nuts 20% of the time then I seem to win pots at a rate of almost 0.0%

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You have me confused here. If you're talking about a flush draw with one card to come, which would come in about 20% of the time, keep calling if you have the odds to do so (the pot is at least four times the amount you have to call). If the flush card doesn't come and you have nothing, you can fold on the river and you've lost one BB. If the flush card does come, you can likely get at least one or more player to call and you've made at least 5BB. If the flush doesn't come four out of five times you've lost 4BB, but you've made 5BB the one time it hit. Overall you've made one BB in that situation. You don't need to win every hand you show down. You just need to win more money in the pots you do win than you lose in the rest.

Don't get caught up in short-term results and what the other players are thinking about you. Play solid hands pre-flop and make good post-flop decisions. The money will come in the long run. If you think you've played a hand poorly, post it here or in the appropriate forum for the type of game and stakes. People here can be blunt, but they will help you see where you've made mistakes.

I'd also suggest you do some reading. Winning Low-Limit Hold 'Em by Lee Jones and Small Stakes Hold 'Em by Ed Miller, David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth are both highly recommended here. I haven't absorbed anywhere near all of the material in them, but they've changed the way I think about the game already.

[MrStretchie]

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Winning Low-Limit Hold 'Em by Lee Jones

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I think you might be trolling. But from the sounds of everything you've written, if you're *not* a troll, I think this is the best advice so far. It sounds like you're playing way too much by instinct, and are missing the basics. This book is great for basics. At those microlimits, if you're playing the odds, you shouldn't be able to lose.
Once you've got all the odds absolutely solid, then re-read SSHE, and you'll have a better idea of when to apply its concepts.

[Buccaneer]

[ QUOTE ]
then I have to.... err, don't take this the wrong way, but I have to wonder if you're confusing aggression as a means to winning money at poker with aggression as a way to assert your virility.

[/ QUOTE ] I assure you that that is not the case. lol I will try to pick my choice of words more carefully. Thanks for the comments. I actually have a sign on my monitor to remind me to divorce emotion from my play.

[Buccaneer]

Thanks for the responses. I have to agree that maybe I am not using odds well enough and need to reread my text.

[Felipe]

Once you have had a few thousand bad beats you become numb to them and while they hurt, you know that there was hundereds of thousand of times those same hands did not HIT and you won, you just did not know it.

Don't forget the '''bad beats''' you've dished to the unsuspecting! They feel gooooood, don't they???

[AKQJ10]

That's true, and we all benefit from "bad beats" to some extent. Last night I had the guilty pleasure of playing something like A3 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] in NL with two hearts and maybe a 2 on the board. The opponents failed to bet me out of the pot, so I called to see the turn: an offsuit 5. Then the river came: a 4 to give me the second nuts. It felt like a suckout to make a runner-runner wheel, even though I had every business staying in as long as they were giving me 10:1 or something to take another card off.

But keep in mind that good players take more bad beats than they give out!

[kaalen]

is Winning Low-Limit Hold 'Em by Lee Jones good if you planing to play NL holdem to?