Pluggin' Leaks

[Nfinity]

I've been working on my game recently. A lot. A lot of the reason I haven't been responding to the "Microposter" posts is because I have been plugging leaks of my own. After a stint of about 18K hands of 1/2 6max I was still in the red and very concerned. I first took a look at my PT stats, with MrWookie as my consultant. Despite having a very high aggression rating in the SB, thus causing my PFR overall to be a little high, we didn't find anything to set off immediate warning bells. MrWookie suggested I take notes for about a week on my sessions of any errors I might have.

I have a fair winrate at 1/2 full, so I didn't believe my leaks were anything extremely fundamental. It had to be something(s) amplified by the nature of 6 max. Aggression as a whole were main target points for my investigation.

Seeing as we are all making an excercise of Identifying leaks(Microposter Posts), I have compiled a list of the ones I have found in my own game that can't be found on a cursory glance of PT stats.

Bets/ Folds to a Raise This is a concept that I thought I had a grip on after a couple thousand hands of 1/2 full, but I found that I hadn't grasped it firm enough for 6max. It can be easy enough sometimes, but a lot of times I found myself taking a card off, and a lot of times being wrong to do so. This habit has been the harder one to break so far. I've found that if "folding to a raise" is made part of the plan when I bet, it's easier to do. I guess because mentally I just want to call and go after that bet I already put in.

Raising the Flop with OCs This was a HUGE leak I had, amplified tremendously at 6max because I am usually the Pre-Flop Aggressor when I flop OCs, meaning someone is donking into me. I'm still not absolutely clear sometimes, but here's what I understand:

There are 3 fundamental reasons why raising OC's could be correct.

1)Because you could have the best hand, or a better hand than the person betting into you.

2)Raising could give you some fold Equity

3)A raise might buy you a free card

Solid reads should accompany these criteria. For more about this read Nate's Post on the subject.

Check/ Calling a River Scare Card It's actually quite profitable. Unfortunantly my aggressive nature had me betting blindly straight at that River 3-flush, 3-straight card and there were a lot of times I get punished for it. It's important to keep a running Tab of cards you don't want to see on the board as you go along, so that when they hit, you aren't blindsided by them. Plugging this leak not only helps fix leak number 1, but gains you extra bets when players take the opportunity to bet with busted draws and their bottom pairs.

Calling Down for a "read"This one is rather embarassing to admit, but hey, whatever we're all here to learn right? Reads are more important to me at 6max, and sometimes I would find myself calling down in common situations, like a paired board for example, all the while thinking to myself, "does he really 3-bet trips here?" Reads like this are hardly worth a BB, let alone multiple. And it is a common way to justify mistakes like the first one. I can't think of a way to help fix this one, other than to tell yourself "Hey, your being donkbet when an Ace flopped and if you don't know what that means after 20k hands you need to pack it up and take up Skee-Ball."

Folding Correctly in Large Pots I still have trouble with this, not so much the application itself as knowing when and where it's applicable. I know if there's a leak in here somewhere it's a small one, but I'd like to quash it before 2/4. Maybe I just want to stop feeling wrong for folding my busted Flush Draw/ Second Pair in a huge pot that I pumped up myself. I've seen Entity mention a couple of times when "calling because the pot is large" would be wrong, so maybe he could help clear it up.

This is what I've found so far and I'm well underway to getting these taken care of.(I'm officially in the green for a week straight) I'd like for everyone to reply not only with their comments on the leaks I've provided, but with ones of their own that they have found in their own game.

My thanks to MrWookie for helping me out.

[DrunkHamster]

Very nice post.

[nomadtla]

Dude how'd you get a chance to review my sessions [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

As a counterpart to your "bet/folds to a raise" I have a bad tendency to bet unimproved PP on a flop with an over then call the raise (with very slim chance of improving -as we all should know)
Continuation betting with 4 or 5 to a flop I whiff in EP
Thinking "If I was my opponent I would deffinately think I had AK here why don't they respect my tight table image"
OHH YEAH THEY DON'T CARE.

Great post man favoriting (don't think that's really a word)it and reading it every night till I can recite it like poetry then maybe these leaks will be less of a problem for me too.

[Absolution]

I think we're all guilty of overestimating our opponents at the micro level. We assume they have a fold button for one thing. We assume they can read a board, remember that you raised preflop and remember what you did last time you raised preflop. They just don't care. If they've shown any interest in the pot they are going to see the river. Just accept it. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Let them do the bluffing.

[Pylos]

Nice post.

Are you suggesting that raising the flop with OCs is the CORRECT move? I would think it isn't considering that you identify it as a leak. However, I think this is one of my biggest problems. With overcards even on an uncoordinated board in a full ring - is it correct to bet out on the flop or should I just check/call like I do now?

Also, if nothing comes on 4th, do you normally throw it away or contiue to bet at it?

[Nfinity]

[ QUOTE ]
Nice post.

Are you suggesting that raising the flop with OCs is the CORRECT move? I would think it isn't considering that you identify it as a leak. However, I think this is one of my biggest problems. With overcards even on an uncoordinated board in a full ring - is it correct to bet out on the flop or should I just check/call like I do now?

Also, if nothing comes on 4th, do you normally throw it away or contiue to bet at it?

[/ QUOTE ]

OK at 6 max it's usually standard to bet if it's checked to you and you were the pre-flop aggressor. This is subject to change in regards to the texture of the flop, your position, and more importantly how many players are still in. At full ring it would still be correct to continuation bet a lot of the time as long as your short handed post flop, say you and definently no more than 3 others, and 3 is a stretch a lot of times.

What I'm talking about leak-wise is when I'm bet into and I have overs. I personally found out early in my 1/2 Full ring Experience that this can be sometimes wrong. After reading Nate the Greats post I found out that this can be a lot of times wrong.

What I do on 4th street can be a big leak as well. At six max, If I got it heads up and I don't know for sure that my opponent will usually only call the flop when he has made something, I'll take another stab. You find a lot of people who will call a small bet on the flop but will refuse to call a BB on the Turn. I'm more likely to do this when I have position and my bet on the turn will possibly get me a free showdown UI. I'm still figuring out what the correct moves are OOP.

I've started trying not to continue betting OOP on 4th street when it's still 3 players without good reads for that situation. Last to act I have to think about how bad a free card could be for me vs. how good it could be for me, and such.

Most of that is applicable to full ring as well.

[Pylos]

Yeah, just got done reading through Nate's post, very good stuff there as well. Thanks for the response.

[MrWookie47]

Good post. I think I'll let you digest yourself.

[Wetdog]

AFA folding correctly in large pots: It was once a bigassed leak (among many) that I had. I read "Don't fold for one bet..." What I didn't remember was the part after the elipsis: "... if you have a reasonable chance at taking it down." That bolded part means third pair aint reasonable. Just because you created a big 'un with AJs and the board is KQJ62 and it's bet and called twice to you, quit donking in another overcall ferchrissake. That has prolly saved me at least .5bb/100. There have been other plugs, like calling in BB to a raise with suited rags. Others have called that weak, but I'm sure that's at least another .25bb/100.

[SlantNGo]

Bets/ Folds to a Raise

Problem for me as well... I think it's not so bad if you have outs to improve to a straight or flush (hence, implied odds) and are making a thin flop call. But betting a 99 into a Kxx board, getting raised then called behind, I find myself calling here again. This is probably a leak.

Raising the Flop with OCs

I read a post about this a couple of weeks ago that brought to my attention how big of a leak this is for me too. I've been auto-raising the flop with OCs in many situations, especially if I can force others to call 2 cold. But without a backdoor draw, in a medium-sized pot, this could very well be throwing away money. I find that correcting this leak is a lot harder than correcting the auto-bet overcards when checked to.

Check/ Calling a River Scare Card

Can you elaborate on this a bit? Such as the type of read you'd have on a player to do this, the type of board, and the strength of your hand? I'm betting blindly into rivers that put 3 to a flush on the board and calling when I get raised out of habit.

Calling Down for a "read"

I'll do this every once in awhile with a hand that I think has showdown value but might not be winning often enough to be profitable calling down (i.e. Ace high, mid PP).

Folding Correctly in Large Pots

This is always tough. I've been in a few too many showdowns where I've shown down the worst hand, when at other times, against the same opponents, that would have been the best hand.