Greetings and Has this ever happend to you?

[gabuk]

Hi fellow forum members!

First time post but somewhat of a lurker.

Brief history. Started online poker about three months ago. Deposited $100 dollars into PartyPoker and quickly lost most of it to SnG's and .5/1 using no Poker knowledge what so ever. Biggest waste of my life.

I decided that I had no idea how to play. So, I ordered several books, TOP, SSH, ITH and WWLH. Spent the next three to four weeks reading and not playing at all.

I then had the urge to deposit $120 bucks back into Party. Once again, I read too fast and not really studied. Dropped to $20 bucks and stopped to re-read again. This time, I got PokerTracker and went over my hand histories. I learned I was playing way too many hands and chasing that miracle card. Using better patience and control, I built it back to $270.

This is when I got over-confident. I went back and read certain sections of SSH. And no fault to the book, I played over-aggressive on Party which tends to be a mistake when people call to the river.

I am now starting from scratch (for the third time) with a fresh mindset. Every night after a poker session, I look at the hands where I lose 2BB or more. I analyze them to see where I was too aggressive or drawing dead. I now understand (much better than before) where I lost extra money (I should have folded but decided to play the big pocket pairs was a common mistake). I then come back to these forums to read hand samples and see if I make the same calls like the better players/posters.

For example, last night, I went back and saw that I lost 20BB over hands I was playing dead with on the turn or river. If I would have folded, I could have saved some money. I started thinking that over a year, this poor play will add up quickly.

I just wanted to say thanks to TwoplusTwo (and their fine library), ITH and the countless posters that have helped me in one way or another to become a better poker player.

But back to the strangest thing that has ever happened to me in my brief online poker life.

Several nights ago on Party, I flopped JJ four times in a row. Of course, I lost three of those hands to better pairs. And the weird thing is, two hands later, another JJ pocket pair. I lost this one too. So in six hands, five JJ pre-flop. I looked in my PockerTracker database and out of 4.75k hands, I have gotten JJ 44 times and sitting at -.8 BB. During this anomoly, I tried raising, pre-flop, limping and limp-raising, nothing worked. Oh well, that's poker [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img]

Thanks for listening to my rambling.

Good luck to all!
Gabuk

[Rudbaeck]

[ QUOTE ]
This is when I got over-confident. I went back and read certain sections of SSH. And no fault to the book, I played over-aggressive on Party which tends to be a mistake when people call to the river.

[/ QUOTE ]

What's your aggression factor if you uncheck the "include preflop numbers" checkbox?

If it's below 3.5 or so I wouldn't worry. If your vp$ip is exceedingly low, like under 12% I wouldn't worry until agg factor passed 5.

Aggression against calling stations is exactly what you want. That way lies the bucks. Too high aggression against GOOD opponents is way, way more dangerous.

[LeapingGnome]

5 out of 6 times, woah that's crazy! I wonder what the odds are.

[gabuk]

Hey Rudbaeck,

I will need to double check my numbers. My PFR is only at 4.7% and I am trying to increase that. I need to start raising with better than marginal hands in late positions when others have folded in front of me. This is an area of improvement I need to work on.

The sad thing is my overall aggression is at .78. I am trying to increase that as well.

Another mistake I have is betting after a good flop vs. check raising.

I do know that my vp$ip sits around 17-19 and my percentage of seeing the flop is around 23-24%.

I would self-label myself as tight weak until I can improve my aggression. I am up money (only around 20BB since I have had to make up two reloads) over 4.75k hands but I wasted a lot of money calling raises when I was drawing dead.

Thanks again for the feedback.
Gabuk

[Rudbaeck]

Then your problem is in no way over-aggression. You are unaggressive on the verge of passive. You need to bet/raise twice as often postflop, and get that preflop raising up a bit. (Preflop raise about half of your vp$ip is a very good guideline.)

At an agg factor of .78 you are missing value bets, and probably almost never protecting your hand. Start posting hands in the micro limits forum. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Most of us, me included, have been weak-tight. Heck, I am barely holding my nose over what is considered a bare minimum of aggression here.

[AncientPC]

If you raised preflop, and if you're the first to act post flop bet. Even if you missed the flop or you have pocket pairs with an overcard on the flop, you have to represent it. Think of it as an information bet, and more often than not on tight passive tables you'll steal the pot.

Of course, this works a lot better in NL SH tables rather than 10 playered microlimit tables.