In the heat of battle

[Net Warrior]

I find that I'm very able to do hand analysis away from the table and come up with solid well thought out EV+ plans of action. During a game, I'm generally able to quickly recognize situations and decide how to handle them and my actions usually hold up well to post game analysis. My problem is that usually once or twice during a session, I'll run into an unusual situation or an opponent doing something unexpected, and I can't get myself to slow down and adjust to the new reality. Generally, the hand is over before I realize I've been guilty of non-thinking. In post game analysis I undersatand exactly what happened and where I went wrong. I've tried counting to 5 before I take any action during a game but since 98% of my 1st reactions are correct, this becomes quite tedious.
Am I correct in guessing that this is a a fairly common problem? My take is that with more and more experience the "unusual" situations become usual and so we improve our game, but they in turn get replaced by new, here-to-fore unrecognized "unusual" situations.
Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated.

[coffeecrazy1]

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I've tried counting to 5 before I take any action during a game but since 98% of my 1st reactions are correct, this becomes quite tedious.

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My old football coach(I used to play football in high school, though I was never an all county defensive lineman [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]) used to always tell us to do whatever we needed to do to get ready for a game. What he meant was that he didn't really mind if we had superstitions or routines or anything else; he wanted us in the best possible condition mentally for the battle ahead.

So, my advice to you is to do whatever you have to do in order to win(as far as mental prep or routines). I watched Ferguson take the exact same amount of time, regardless of what his next action would be. Figure out what you had to do in order to get yourself ready to win, then do it...even if it's tedious.

It's far more tedious watching the action on the rail.

-Bart

[johnc]

coffeecrazy1 takes the same approach I take when it comes to the virtually unlimited situations that arise that somehow take us by suprise. I feel my post analysis/study (pregame preparation) is very important in any success I might see at the table for two key reasons: 1) builds my knowledge base (obvious) so I'm more confident in my play and see the losses as not really a knock on my quality of play but in fact are those times that the odds don't swing in my favor; 2) the more I analyze my play both through PT and didactically (books, 2+2, and talking with other ppls) the more I'm seeing myself making the correct descisions at the table quicker and even without consciously thinking about them (going into the tank), whereas I feel that my thinking away from the table reinforces those actions when I'm under pressure at the table. In retrospect, when looking back at a particular beat I find that as my poker playing progresses my decisions are gradually becoming more and more sound.
My personal apporach (and goal) to my game is this: Make the most solid decisons at the table that I'm capable of, don't overstep my bounds by becoming overconfident in my wins, and the cards and odds will take care of themselves.

[beekeeper]

Can you elaborate about your post-game analysis? What areas of analysis do you find most useful and applicable? What process do you go through?

Do you only play on-line? I don't play online, so I don't use poker tracker. Still, I'd like to be more structured in how I evaluate post play.

[Net Warrior]

I'll give you one recent example that comes to mind. I was in the sb with QQ in a 10 handed game. 4 players limped in including a fish in LP. I raised (something I usually never do in this spot), bb folded and all the limpers called. The flop came A94 all diamonds. I bet out (I didn't have the diamond queen) and all folder but the LP fish who called. The turn was a blank, I bet, LP called. The river was a small diamond, I checked, fish bet, I called, and fish showed me Kh 8d for the flush.

At the time I was thinking to myself, what a true fish this player was to have played this hand this way. But on post game analysis, I realized that my pre-flop raise made the pot odds correct for this player to call me down. He's still a fish for playing K8o vs 3 limpers but otherwise he played that hand correctly. It turns out it was my mistake of raising preflop that made his post flop play correct.

I only play on line but I haven't gotten around to buying pokertracker yet.

[Noo Yawk]

The whole process your talking about is called gaining experience. Keep analyzing the situations that confuse you, and you will be one tough player. Best of luck to you.-ny