What Is Wrong with My Game?

[Magician]

Guys,

I'm sure you have followed my posts and I am at my wits' end why I keep bleeding money.

I don't play beyond my means, I play a tight, aggressive game, I am cognizant of position, pot odds, implied odds and such, but when I check my bankroll it's always less than it was the month before.

What's wrong with me? Am I constantly getting outplayed? Am I too predictable? Maybe I am well read about poker but just don't have the talent?

[TomCollins]

I think we are a bit shy on the information given here. There's no way to know what it could be, from your lack of examples. Since you haven't really been able to put your finger on even what is going wrong, perhaps more expirience is needed before any other diagnosis can be given. Perhaps the games you are in are too tough (though if its online, I doubt it if you stick to any smaller limit). Perhaps if you are in a small game, you are playing too complicated (reading a lot of the "advanced" books shows a lot of techniques that go right over the heads of simpleminded opponents, and have no edge). Perhaps you just can't follow the basic strategy and easily tilt. If you could give more background on the situation, it's virtually impossible.

But simply put, if you are playing somewhere like Partypoker and playing any of the games under 3/6, and losing long term, something IS seriously wrong with your game. Losing sessions happen all the time, but long term losing at such games only mean one thing.

[Magician]

I doubt I tilt much - and I play at PokerStars ($10 and $20 Sit 'n Goes), which I think is a relatively tough website.

I try to play pretty straightforward - bet my good hands, slowplay my monsters, check when I am on a draw.

Maybe I am too predictable? Should I mix it up more?

Also I bluff rarely - but when I do bluff it seems I always get called - is there something wrong with the timing or amount of my bluffs?

[nicky g]

Sorry, I've not followed your posts, so it's hard to say, but anyhow:

"I play a tight, aggressive game"

I assume you play mostly tournaments as you're posting here. You say you play a tight, aggressive game - you also need to know how to change gears a the the tournament progreses through various stages and various situations. You cna't simply wait for strong hands and bet them hard all the time - once the blinds are big you've got to be stealing, bluffing etc. An obvious example: while you should be folding A3o when the tournament starts, you should be raising with it heads-up etc. Changing gears, staying aware of stack sizes and payouts, playing the player etc etc - all are pretty important in tournaments. Sorry if this is obvious and you know it already.

[Magician]

Yes I do know all this - it seems though whenever I play A3o late on it turns out the other guy has A9s or something like that. Or when I have QQ and move in and get called someone with ATo will get the suckout.

Funny thing is I think I am getting the best of it consistently but maybe the hidden cost is I am not playing enough hands? So when I do play I have the edge but too many non-played hands can't be good?

[nicky g]

OK I hadn't read this when I posted previously.

"I doubt I tilt much - and I play at PokerStars ($10 and $20 Sit 'n Goes), which I think is a relatively tough website."

It is. Try somewhere else if you don't think you're up to Stars standards yet.


"I try to play pretty straightforward - bet my good hands, slowplay my monsters, check when I am on a draw.

Maybe I am too predictable? Should I mix it up more? "

Yes! Be aggressive. Especially when the blinds get big and the table's short-handed, be in there raising, a lot, especially when you'll have position post-flop.

"Also I bluff rarely - but when I do bluff it seems I always get called - is there something wrong with the timing or amount of my bluffs?"

You have to win more than your fair share of chips in a tournament, so unless the opposition is giving them away, you have to steal them. You must bluff. Make the amount you bluff the same as you;d bet in that position on that board with a real hand. Bet poor hands short-handed (eg bottom pair) if checked to. Bet non-scary boards if checked to. Bet anything heads-up if checked to and your opponent is weak. And make decent sized bets - half the pot at least, more if you think someone might be drawing to beat you.

[Jon Matthews]

Don't play so straightforward maybe. Trying to slowplay less is one big thing that helped my game. Things like flopping trips when 2 of a kind are on the board and overbetting the pot seem counterintuitive but people who may have shut down already might think you're bluffing and raise all in with the 2 pair... sometimes! Or overbetting the pot when on a nut flush draw occasionally.

Next time your bluff is called, post the hand and we'll tell you what we read you as playing. If the betting is inconsistent with something worth folding to, then we'll tell you and you'll know next time that people will believe you're representing something that beats them!

One thing that's helped my tourney game a lot is reraising people the pot or all in when I read them for a pair or straight draw or especially overcards. Much better than picking up the blinds, which you should also be doing, but not with all in's all the time - raising 4 x BB with J3o in the CO, sort of thing.


Jon

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

I play a tight, aggressive game

This may be the clue. Tight-aggressive is the way to make money over time in a ring game. From my observation, the best NL tournament players tend to be Loose-Agressive with superior hand-reading skills.

Ask yourself this: would you *ever* make a pot-sized reraise with 72o against an UTG 4x BB raise? (extreme example, I know, but the point is the same).

I know I'm opening myself up here, but if you'd *never* do this, that's a leak.

[Magician]

OK - what do I do then if he goes over the top of me? I find many guys will just call or move in. How often do you make that kind of move?

How do I play in a way that the cards don't even matter?

[Magician]

A pot-sized re-raise pre-flop is...

75 in the pot already (blinds 25/50), UTG raises to 200 (so now 275 in the pot) - say I am on the button and it's folded to me - a pot-sized re-raise is a raise to:

275 + 200 = 475?

Or is that 275 + 200 + 200 = 675?

So I put in slightly less than twice what is already in the pot, or do I put more than twice what is already in the pot? As a rule of thumb I have been raising to twice what is already in the pot by the time it gets to me (but only with premium hands).