My weaknesses

[sweetjazz]

I thought I would post this, as I have seen past threads where people discuss what they need to work on. I've had quite a few weaknesses exposed after I moved up to 5/10 SH, and some of them are related to SH play, so I thought I would post here.

* I sometimes play longer just to give myself more of a chance to "book a win" for the session. This is stupid. While I generally don't lessen the quality of my play, it does not have good effects on me the next morning when I'm tired and sleep-deprived.

* I am not ready to multi-table SH just yet. The reason is that the rapid speed of the hands causes my adrenaline levels to rise, which leads me to being more aggressive. I play a good aggressive game normally, but I have found that I start spewing chips royally if I am playing several tables at once. I don't stop to think about what I'm doing and before I know it, I've created a bloated pot with a very suspect hand. As I get more experience and more decisions can be made without thinking, I might be able to multi-table more. For now, I'm playing mostly one table, though I'll add a second if I get seated at two juicy tables. Anything more than that, for now, is too much for me.

* I call down too much. Sometimes I ignore obvious clues from the prior betting or PT stats that indicate the opponent is passive.

* I get fancy too often. I spent several hundred hands playing just about every other hand in a non-standard way so that TAGs would find me tricky. I lost several bets that way, and I doubt anyone noticed, other than realizing that I was sucking. (I think this is one of the least harmful of my weaknesses, because I am pretty good at diagnosing a lot of these plays after the fact -- sometimes even while I'm making them the rational part of my brain is trying to change my course of action -- and I do think that you generally understand poker better after you make a mistake and figure out why it is an error.)

* I make bad decisions against LAGs because I try too hard to put them on hands. Sometimes that results in my calling down (multiple streets) with a weak hand because I can't figure out what the LAG could have. Or I fold when an obvious scare card comes (on the turn) and I have a hand that can beat a bluff. Sometimes it's the adrenaline problem again, where I let that extra rush of energy distract me from thinking clearly.

* I let streaks where I run bad affect my judgment. If I get check-raised on the turn and have to fold several times in a short period of time, I assume that every player is taking a shot at me. I commit myself to calling down the next chance I possibly can when I get played back at, instead of rationally analyzing the situation. Or I find a hand that I should call down with, but I get so excited about actually having a hand of some value that I 3-bet even though I should realize that I am beat more than 50% of the time.

[imported_CaseClosed326]

Those are some weakness'. It's good that you understand that they are there and you are willing to adress them.

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* I call down too much. Sometimes I ignore obvious clues from the prior betting or PT stats that indicate the opponent is passive.

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I do that too, and it pissed me off each time.

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The reason is that the rapid speed of the hands causes my adrenaline levels to rise, which leads me to being more aggressive.

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That one seems important to work on. I know what you are talking about. It is probably not good to get so emotional in this game, especially when it messes with your playing ability.

[sweetjazz]

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That one seems important to work on. I know what you are talking about. It is probably not good to get so emotional in this game, especially when it messes with your playing ability.

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Yeah, 5/10 (6 max) is the first place where this has affected me. Before, I would have said this is one of my strengths. For me, I think it was the combination of the faster speed of the game plus the fact that I found myself in more situations that were unknown/difficult.

I do notice that I almost never make bad decisions playing live (meaning decisions that I knew were wrong just a few seconds after the fact -- obviously I make incorrect decisions because I'm an imperfect player); I would occassionally do that mutlitabling online, often if I was involved in several hands during a short period of time over the multiple tables. So I probably should have realized that this would happen when I went to 5/10. Fortunately, I have addressed the problem and am scaling back the number of tables I am playing. Which also has the benefit that I spend more time thinking about hands that just went by and analyzing my decisions, which is what I need most of all. There's a lot to be said for one-tabling, especially for people like myself who play the game for pure recreation (and not for a source of income).

[Spaded]

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* I am not ready to multi-table SH just yet.

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The high variance of 6-max coupled with the variance of multitabling can be hard to take for me. I feel invincible when my tables are winning, and it makes me play too aggressive. On the flip side, when all the tables are losing I feel down and I call down because I don't believe that the same LAG can river me again!

[donger]

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* I am not ready to multi-table SH just yet. The reason is that the rapid speed of the hands causes my adrenaline levels to rise, which leads me to being more aggressive. I play a good aggressive game normally, but I have found that I start spewing chips royally if I am playing several tables at once. I don't stop to think about what I'm doing and before I know it, I've created a bloated pot with a very suspect hand. As I get more experience and more decisions can be made without thinking, I might be able to multi-table more. For now, I'm playing mostly one table, though I'll add a second if I get seated at two juicy tables. Anything more than that, for now, is too much for me.

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I feel the same way. 2 tables is perfect, but I really start spewing chips if I play 3. Is there some way to practice this, besides just playing two tables enough until the decisions and reads are totally routine?

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* I let streaks where I run bad affect my judgment. If I get check-raised on the turn and have to fold several times in a short period of time, I assume that every player is taking a shot at me. I commit myself to calling down the next chance I possibly can when I get played back at, instead of rationally analyzing the situation. Or I find a hand that I should call down with, but I get so excited about actually having a hand of some value that I 3-bet even though I should realize that I am beat more than 50% of the time.

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This is also one of the biggest things I need to work on. Playing against a LAG at one table can sometimes make you call down a loose-passive's turn CR with TPWK, just because you're in the 'mode.'

Good that you recognize these things, I think we're in the same boat here.


Does anyone who has conquered any of these leaks have any advice?

[wheelz]

I just gave up and decided to move up in limits and start 2 tabling exclusively. I always feel like I play well 2 tabling, when I'm playing more than that I notice I'm making more bad calldowns and stuff.

[helpmeout]

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While I generally don't lessen the quality of my play, it does not have good effects on me the next morning when I'm tired and sleep-deprived.


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You should never get to this stage. You have to learn about how big an edge you have at the tables. Playing tired is one of the worst things you can do it is of course -EV. The worst thing about playing at under 100% is that a number of other factors start to effect you. Things like having a rush, playing too many hands, going on tilt easier. These things usually happen because your edge is lower.

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I am not ready to multi-table SH just yet. The reason is that the rapid speed of the hands causes my adrenaline levels to rise, which leads me to being more aggressive.

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I use to have this problem a bit. You start to lose focus and play every marginal hand, you make less situational decisions, you semi bluff everytime, you play much more aggressively in early rounds, you frequently calldown when beat.

Best thing to do is just go slow and steady. Play few tables when the game becomes really short then cut back your tables also.

The rest of the stuff is just about patients. You have to slow down and think about each situation, once you become more experienced similar situations will come up and you will know how to act quicker.

I remember a hand where i had 99 on a board of TT9XX my opponent went agro on the turn and river. I capped the river for some dumb reason I thought well he could have AT I mean I have 2 9s he isnt going to have a boat. I finally looked at his AF stats after I cap and it was 0.2 and he had pocket tens. If I had slowed down a bit and assessed the situation I would have saved 2 maybe 3 BB.

[sweetjazz]

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While I generally don't lessen the quality of my play, it does not have good effects on me the next morning when I'm tired and sleep-deprived.


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You should never get to this stage. You have to learn about how big an edge you have at the tables. Playing tired is one of the worst things you can do it is of course -EV. The worst thing about playing at under 100% is that a number of other factors start to effect you. Things like having a rush, playing too many hands, going on tilt easier. These things usually happen because your edge is lower.

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The funny thing is I generally don't do these things if I play too long. I'm not playing a huge number of hours, I just usually play late at night. I am usually wide awake when playing and sometimes so wired that it's hard to get to sleep when I stop, but if I play longer than I should, I hate getting out of bed the next morning. It's been +EV for me to keep playing pokerwise, but -EV lifewise.

[imported_piki]

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* I am not ready to multi-table SH just yet. The reason is that the rapid speed of the hands causes my adrenaline levels to rise, which leads me to being more aggressive. I play a good aggressive game normally, but I have found that I start spewing chips royally if I am playing several tables at once. I don't stop to think about what I'm doing and before I know it, I've created a bloated pot with a very suspect hand. As I get more experience and more decisions can be made without thinking, I might be able to multi-table more. For now, I'm playing mostly one table, though I'll add a second if I get seated at two juicy tables. Anything more than that, for now, is too much for me.

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I feel the same way. 2 tables is perfect, but I really start spewing chips if I play 3. Is there some way to practice this, besides just playing two tables enough until the decisions and reads are totally routine?


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I moved from 1/2 to 5/10 not that far ago. Now I'm finding that I can easely 4-table 1/2 6-max. I couldn't do that before I moved up and I usually single table or 2-table at 5/10.

-pix