A common mistake (with 2 examples)

[muzungu]

Hey all,

So this mistake is relevant to all variants of poker, but I mostly play NLHE, so I will post it here. Lets go step by step:

1. The essense of beating a game is playing with weaker players.

2. With weaker players, you have a twofold advantage: you have better fundamentals, and you can also do a better job of identifying their weaknesses.

3. If you identify a weakness in your opposition, you need to tailor your game to exploit it.

Now, the problem is that lots of people get #1 and #2, but then do something that is comepletely contrary to #3. Here are 2 examples:


A) A good friend of mine is learning to play NL online. He is playing party NL 25, and can tell the players are not very good (1).

I ask him why, and he says things like, "well they call my preflop raises with trash like Q9o" and "then they call potsized bets on the flop with TP no kicker" (2).

OK, so we have identified bad players and their weaknesses (they are calling stations). So what does he do?

"Well, I bet pot again on the turn with AK (unimproved) and he set me all-in, so I folded."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! DON'T BET AGAIN! YOU ARE PLAYING RIGHT INTO THEIR HANDS!


B) a 2+2er (who will go unnammed) makes the following comments about a hand (copied verbatim). Hero has KK and is facing a $150 bet into a $14 pot.

"If someone raises to $150 into a $14 pot preflop with AA then they're one of the dumbest players playing poker (2). Since you're playing on Party you can expect people to do that with AA so watch out (1)."

OK, we have (1) found some bad players and (2) identified their weaknesses... they overbet AA preflop and lose value vs other big hands, which can now fold. Well done.

"I still call" (3).

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


-muz