Need help on my play, PT and graphs included

[DerFleischmeister]

I can't think of a single place in PP .50/1 limit where it is correct to slowplay for TWO streets (unless, maybe, you flop a straight-flush.) You flopped top set, but the board has a bunch of possible flush and str8 draws. Cap the flop, raise the turn. A possible slowplaying scenario with AA/top set would be with a board of, say, A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 5 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. Even so, if you just call the flop, RAISE the turn.

As you played it, I would just call the 3-bet on the river.

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I went through the last several which I lost $1+

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I have very few losing hands where I VP$IP'd and did NOT lose at least 1 BB.

[numeri]

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Are ATs and KJs standard as well? I'm not as comfortable raising those UTG, but easily open-raising from MP1+. UTG+1 is a grey area as well.

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What's up Danny boy. Not in EP, but you should be limping them. I'll start popping them up in MP.

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'sup Nate? Sounds good to me, then. At least some of the things I do aren't way off-base. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Good points, everyone. I appreciate the help. I do realize the play on the first hand was bad and I'm glad to hear your feedback. It seems it's better to NOT slowplay a good but beatable hand - better to lose a couple bets than to slowplay and potentially lose the entire pot. I've looked further into my stats and I think my lack of aggression is where the problem lies.

I think the lack of aggression combined with some bad hands and playing too many tables is causing me losses. I now see areas where I most need improvement.

Some questions off the top of my head...

1) With 1-2 other players in the pot, do you ever call a bet on the flop when you've made a medium pair? Let's say the flop is rainbow A K 3, you have KQ, and the pot is 5x the BB in this scenario. I know that's not really enough info, but basically, do you ever play beyond the flop if the opponent bets and you do not have top pair?

2) You have made two pair on the flop, and bet the flop. The turn comes and the board pairs. You bet, and an opponent who had previously called raises. Do you call, fold, or raise?

[benkath1]

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1) With 1-2 other players in the pot, do you ever call a bet on the flop when you've made a medium pair? Let's say the flop is rainbow A K 3, you have KQ, and the pot is 5x the BB in this scenario. I know that's not really enough info, but basically, do you ever play beyond the flop if the opponent bets and you do not have top pair?


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Stuff like this is purely situational. I would venture to say you're not ready to play some hands like that successfullly. Don't get me wrong, please.

When lights started going off in my head and I realized I could win at poker, one of the main things that helped me was the raise or fold rule. Unless you are on a draw and want to keep people in the pot with you, usually you shouldn't call. Most of the time you should fold. Some of the time you should raise. Now I don't want to get you off on a raising run of spewing chips, but when I realized how this rule works (and how many times I should fold instead of raise) my winrate grew nicely.

2+2 preaches aggressive poker, and it has been proven that it works. You need to learn the aggressive style and incorporate proper aggressiveness into your play. Like the others have said, slowplaying at this level is for people who don't like money.

My advice to you would be to post some hands and reply to more. Question the Carpal Tunnel's and try to figure out the why, not just the what. Just have a thick skin and remember, everyone is here to help.

Good luck,
Ben

[Saint_D]

One more bit of advice. Take GrunchCan's micropost challenge.

He guarantees it will improve your play. I do too. It's the miracle worker that also cleans carpets!

-D

I don't agree that just because his PFR is currently low that he needs to finds reasons to raise many other hands. Just jump it up closer to 8-9%, he doesn't need to jump from 1% to 12%. If you're comfortable raising that many hands, go for it. I don't see a huge difference between raising some of those other hands PF and calling with them. I'm referring strictly to "no reads" poker. Of course you change how you play depending on the table dynamics.

Yes there will be situations where you raise a whole slew of other hands as you mentioned (such as isolating weak players and defending against a possible steal), but for now just get him started on the right track to crushing small stakes limit games.

The appeal to authority fallacy doesn't apply here. It's not like I'm saying my neighbor plays poker a lot and he says this is the best way to play it. Sklansky certainly understands the math behind this game (and I imagine Miller does as well). I consider him one of the greatest authorities when it comes to the technicalities of poker. And I'm near certain a massive portion of poker players agree on him being a reliable source.

Be glad that I enjoy fruitless arguing such as this.