Eagle in Search of the right questions to ask himself...

[Bob T.]

Its pretty simple, in an unraised pot, if the flop is uncoordinated, and there aren't too many players, middle pair is frequently good. If noone has bet so far, and that includes being in the blinds, I usually just go ahead and bet it, and I used to be surprised at how often I won the pot. When you get called, or raised in this situation, you have to play poker, and figure out whether it is right to continue, but until you meet resistance, there is nothing wrong with betting.

Think about all the times that you flopped top pair, bet the flop and won without a showdown. If you could double the number of pots you had won that way, how much money would you have today? You can't bet every flop, because then they know your bets will be meaningless, but you can probably bet more flops than you are now, still be regarded as a tight player, and take down a lot more pots. If you are going to be betting more flops, what better place to start than with hands that you have actual values on.

If your opponents play tight after the flop, and there aren't too many of them, then betting middle pair on coordinated flops also works, because most players aren't going to continue unless they have either top pair, or a draw of some kind. But how to continue after you meet resistance on a coordinated flop is harder to figure out.

[bisonbison]

Maxx, this is a really subtle issue, since it's often a question of betting the 30th nuts into a large field or raising the 40th nuts on the button on the flop or folding the 18th nuts on the turn.

I thought I'd look through some recent hand posts of yours to see if I could figure anything out, but all your hand posts are from 2 months ago (unless I'm missing something here). Since 2 months is a long time in terms of one's poker game, I think it may be helpful for you to post more, and specifically post some "small things" type hands.

[MAxx]

[ QUOTE ]
Maxx, this is a really subtle issue, since it's often a question of betting the 30th nuts into a large field or raising the 40th nuts on the button on the flop or folding the 18th nuts on the turn.

I thought I'd look through some recent hand posts of yours to see if I could figure anything out, but all your hand posts are from 2 months ago (unless I'm missing something here). Since 2 months is a long time in terms of one's poker game, I think it may be helpful for you to post more, and specifically post some "small things" type hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

True & True.

I have been playing shorthanded exclusively for the past 2 months. Therefore, most of my posted hands (which still would not be many) are of the 6-max variety and in HUSH forum. 6-max is goot and I more agro there because of the nature of the game... but my eagle AF tendencies are probably evident there as well reletive to a 6-max TA-A.

I basically would like to go from a 1.5 AF for full-handed to a 2.0 or 2.5. I would like to go from a 2.0 AF for short-handed to a 2.5 or 3.0.

This next month, I plan to split my time between 5/10 6max and 3/6 or 5/10 full. I will be paying attention to my post flop aggression and post some "small things" full table hands here to see if there are some spots where I could drop the hammer a little more.

Thanks fo the suggestion.

[Trix]

Your postflop aggro factor is bet+raise/call, so look at spots where you called where you maybe could have raised, bet or folded instead.
Dont know what else to say really.

[MAxx]

[ QUOTE ]
Your postflop aggro factor is bet+raise/call, so look at spots where you called where you maybe could have raised, bet or folded instead.
Dont know what else to say really.

[/ QUOTE ]

right on. it is one of those things that is so obvious.

at the same time it is a mystery to me... as i already feel like my normal play is agressive as a MF, but the #'s don't lie. it is more that my poker intuition/decisionmaking/when-to-raise meter is slightly out of calibration to the biatch side. I just need a little fine tuning.

[House-Lion]

I think folding the flop a bit more helped up my agg-factor a lot as well as 3-betting the turn with TPTK or overpair versus +3 players not fearing the dreaded set or two-pair knowing I have a redraw to the two-pair.

I dont know how pt calculates the cap... I have found my self do more of calling the cap than betting the cap and then I make one more call than the person capping. I sometimes loose to a rivercap, but not often.

Also the concern about being to aggressive should vary with the limit/tightness of table. I think it would be EV- to be to aggressive with certain hands preflop if table gets to loose like in micro-limits while the oposite is true for tighter enviroments.

[Emperor]

Well..I was going to reply, don't worry about being an eagle if you are really good at tables selection. Sometimes playing slightly more passive postflop is ok when 8 people see the flop.

However, then I read you are playing shorthanded. You really need to be TA-A if you are plaing shorthanded..

so I do the following:

1. Bet the flop no matter what I have if I am first to act with 1 or 2 other players. They can't fold if you don't bet.

2. Raise the flop with middle pair or better if you know someone does #1

3. CR the flop when you actually hit your hand

4. I want people to FEAR my flop check, as soon as aggro players start checking it through...I start betting when I hit hands and checking when I miss...(insta free card)...this frustrates them beyond belief when you shift gears..


5. Turn play becomes much easier beacuse it is dictated by your opponents reaction... Hopefully you were aggressive enough on the flop that it is either headsup, or you have a really good idea whether you are ahead or behind...

[MarkD]

[ QUOTE ]
TA-N - eagle icon - Tight preflop (VP < 20). Aggro preflop (PFR > 5). Neutral postflop (1 < TOT-A < 2).
TA-A - moneybag icon - Tight preflop (VP < 20). Aggro preflop (PFR > 5). Aggro postflop (TOT-A > 2). This is the group I am in and the group you want to be in.


[/ QUOTE ]

What is TOT-A? Is it my Total Agression Factor including the pre-flop Agression Factor or excluding the pre-flop Agression Factor?

[MAxx]

I have been working under the assumption that TOT-A was shorthand for "total aggression" and that in this context total agression does not include preflop stats. I believe the preflop figures are not really included because we can just convey enough preflop info. by saying that player x's pf raise % is x.

[StellarWind]

You told PT not to consider preflop play in your Total Aggression Factor. Right? It's a checkbox at the top of the "More Detail" report.

Anyway, aggression factor is a fairly useless stat because it mixes tightness with aggression. What you really need to tell us is the stuff in the chart to the left of the aggression factors.

Flop: Raise%, Bet%, Call%, Check%, and Fold%.

Same for turn and river. Then I'll make some comments.