Please Help Me Fix My Game: It's Broke

[TomBrooks]

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I'd search the forums for topics on blind defense.

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I've done this and I think I've found out my blind play is disastrous. I think I'm not folding enough to steals. I'll continue to look at this. I don't understand it fully yet, but I'm getting the feeling it's one of my biggest problems.

And I think I might be folding the river too much.

[weevil]

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I started feeling it. I started feeling what I should do instead of thinking about what I should do. I'm going to put the starting hand chart away now. Well, I'll keep it handy, but I'm not going to use it all the time anymore. I think I know what to do now. I think I will start beating this game soon.

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I don't particularly remember reading any of your posts, so I don't know where you're coming from, but if you're playing 30% of your hands and using a starting hand chart, you're doing something wrong I think. Tighten up to low 20s, and try and figure out why you should be adding those extra marginal hands.

[TomBrooks]

I'm using the chart but I tend to come in a position ahead of where the chart says it's OK to sometimes. And I might be coming in from the blinds too much. I tried to tighten up some since I made the OP of this thread, but I'm at 31.2% now. I don't seem to be able to tighten up. But people in the MicroLimits forum were always telling me I played .5/1 Full too loosely at 30%/10% while I was banging that game for 4BB/100 over 50k hands.

[wackjob]

The best progression for most people at SH is to start overly tight playing premium hands only from every position & Good hands from CO & button. Start by stealing with better hands than most do. Play 10K hands like this or a good number and when you get a solid feel for the game you start slowly adding in hands, playing weaker hands from earlier positions, stealing more with weaker hands, etc.

You can absolutely be a winning player at SH by playing super-TAG style : play only premium hands, play them very aggressively, don't try to play tricky, don't steal often, and play tight from the blinds. This is not optimal play for SH, but it definately is winning play if you are disciplined.

[MicroBob]

I still think you are limping too much.

Many people would say that your UTG and MP stats should look something like 20/20.
If you are 24/20 then you are limping too much when you should probably be raising or folding.

Your UTG and MP limps are probably bad.
Your overall numbers are 32/18 meaning you are DEFINITELY limping too much.


See fewer flops. Don't defend your BB so much.
Raise more, limp less.


Also looks like you are just calling in the small-blind A LOT.
I'm not a big fan of this as you are just inviting the BB to take a good look at the flop and see what he thinks.

[TomBrooks]

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Also looks like you are just calling in the small-blind A LOT.
I'm not a big fan of this as you are just inviting the BB to take a good look at the flop and see what he thinks.

[/ QUOTE ]Ya, I have not gotten into the habit of three betting or folding the SB to steals. This is something I have to look at more to get a feel for.

[weevil]

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I'm using the chart but I tend to come in a position ahead of where the chart says it's OK to sometimes. And I might be coming in from the blinds too much. I tried to tighten up some since I made the OP of this thread, but I'm at 31.2% now. I don't seem to be able to tighten up. But people in the MicroLimits forum were always telling me I played .5/1 Full too loosely at 30%/10% while I was banging that game for 4BB/100 over 50k hands.

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Your blind stats aren't obviously horrible (except for your current rate). That's a big part of the game, but improperly playing a large number of hands is also a sure way to lose.

If you have any folding equity over the players in or expected to be in the pot, you can find times to aggressively add a certain number of hands that would fall outside of a solid starting lineup, or if you have a table full of passive and loose players, you can add more hands to limp. Shorthanded play is really situational, and I'm just saying you need to spend time thinking about what thoughts should be going through your head before you play a hand.

For example, a loose limper comes in UTG, folded to you in late MP or the CO and there's a good chance you can get it heads up, and you have 55+, A2o+, K10o+, Q10o+, J10o, etc., you have an easy raise with over 30% of your hands. But if you've been isolating that player a lot and people are catching on, you should tighten up again for a while, so table image also factors in.

Given the same hand, but this time with another player in between you and a blind who defends with anything, and several of these players can be epxected to go to the river, you should only be value raising strong hands, and limping quite a bit if you don't expect a raise.

Here are some of the things that I take into account PF:
1) If there are one or two weak limpers before me, will
a) a raise knock out everyone after me so that I can isolate with position, and do I have a hand that has good value against their range if they tend to call down a lot? Or do they play an ABC fit/fold type game which will allow me to steal with a large range of hands.
b) a raise get one or more callers after, usually one or both of the blinds, in which case I need a strong hand to play since I won't have much if any folding equity against three or more players.

2) If I'm first to act in MP or later, will
a) I have a good chance of stealing the blinds, in which case I can raise a very wide range of hands
b) one or more players call often, if they fold too much, I'll raise more liberally, if they call down too often, I'll tighten up.

This is very general, but you get the idea.

[MicroBob]

I was hoping you were just completing in multi-way pots which ain't so bad obviously.

If you are cold-calling in the SB to steal attempts from CO or button then this is particularly bad.


I admitted a couple weeks ago that I was playing around with cold-calling in SB VERY RARELY in certain situations...and was told flat-out that even RARELY it just isn't a good idea because of the odds you are giving the BB.

Have also read that idea elsewhere since then.

In SB to a steal attempt: 3-bet or fold is a pretty decent philosophy.

I'm still learning how to play this silly 6-max stuff and am fairly new around HUSH myself so perhaps there are others that disagree with this.

But giving the BB correct odds to call with SO many of his hands is usually a mistake.

Even if you are a 40/60 type of underdog to the stealer you are usually going to be better to be 3-betting it and going one on one with him (plus the dead-money from the big-blind in the pot) then you are if you are playing 3-handed.

3-betting gives you bluffing ability even if you miss the flop (because more often than not it will miss the stealer's pocket cards too).

It also makes the stealer think twice about stealing on you in the future if they have to fear the possibility of being 3-bet.

And when you DO hit a flop I suspect it is unlikely that you will make much more in a 3-handed situation then you would heads-up (one of those two guys will just be done with it naturally).



These are my very basic thoughts on SB 3-bet or fold strategy.
But, again, I'm very new around here and I know there are tons of good ideas on this blind-defense stuff in the archives that I haven't read yet.

[Raza]

Hey, I think I played at your table yesterday. I was the number 5 seat.

A little intro, I started 1/2 6 max a few weeks ago after a stretch of 1/2 full. I had played .50/1.00 6 max but didn't remember exactly some of the adjustments I made. Starting out I found myself in a lot of marginal, uncomfortable situations and my results weren't great, so I decided to play really tight and make confident plays in situations I had seen before. My results have been nice over the last 5k even though I'm sure I have some noticeable leaks in my game.

So my first piece of advice is to tighten up a good amount. In terms of postflop, there was an early hand where you overplayed an A5s against a really laggy player and paid for it. I also saw a marginal call down against a decent player with bottom pair on a tough board when he 3bet you on the flop. I would focus on getting accurate reads and having a plan for each player at the table. Against that super LAG, punish his aggressiveness when you have a decent hand, and don't hesitate to calldown when you have a reasonable piece of the flop and want to see a showdown. Don't bother with trying to push him off a hand, unless he starts respecting your bets and you think you can get away with some cheap steals.

I guess the bottom line is tighten up, and get accurate reads. You'll find yourself in some tough situations, so let your reads guide you to a reasonable line of play.

[MicroBob]

To the idea of better reads:

I think that playing fewer tables when first getting going at 6-max should be considered mandatory.
1 or 2 tables where you are actually paying attention to your opponents.

Obviously tightening-up and cranking out the hands on 4+ tables for bonus-clearing purposes is another thing.
But if you really want to learn your way around 6-max I think you are going to have to spend a decent amount of time playing just 1 or 2 tables.