How often do you fold?

[AcidJazz]

I'm curious to what your stats are on the whole folding prior to the flop, on the flop, turn, river.

I have a feeling I'm folding too often. I folded a lot less when I first started and I turned $50 to $170 and now that I've been studying the game more, I've lost it all...

What gives?

[toss]

Give us more info like what limits you play and what books you have read.

[Isura]

More info needed. If you are playing micro-limits though your biggest problem is probably folding decent hands in large pots (read SSH for more about this).

[AcidJazz]

Alright I'll give a brief summary of how I went and go about playing.

I've only been playing for a couple of weeks now but I seem to be doing significantly worse than I was when I first started. I would always beat my friends and now I even lose to those guys too and they have absolutely no clue as to what they're doing. I think I do but I either don't or have at least one big misconception.

I bought "Winning Low Limit Holdem" by Lee Jones a long time ago and finally have gotten around to reading it. I've watched my friend play on Paradise Poker so I tried to give that a shot and like I said, things were going great for awhile (I more than trippled my money). I did this playing .5 / 1 tables. I decided why not try out the $1/$2 tables and I did. I had short success so I decided to go back for awhile. I started winning again on the .5/1 tables and decided once again to go back to the $1/$2 tables and had more success the second time around. So I stayed with that and began losing slowly. I went back to .5/1 and still couldn't recover.

I've recently read Holdem Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky. I understand these concepts are for higher limit tables but I figured the extra knowledge couldn't hurt. I've pretty much got all of the hand rankings (in accordance to how he grouped them 1-8) memorized. I know what trash hands are and I stay away from them. I understand you want more people in the pot with suited connectors and mid / low pocket pairs and less people in the pot when you're trying to win with top pair or so.

I find myself folding a vast majority of the time. Here are some situations and how I go about handling them.

Inside straight draw (no flush possible) - I'll call / bet (only if I think I can get a free card on the turn) if odds are laying me around 1:7 - 1:8 (I understand the chance is around 1:11 of actually getting it, but usually if I'm hitting a hand like that, people will be betting quite a bit later). If I don't make it on the turn I'll usually drop it unless there's an ungodly amount of players just calling.

This is not a very common situation. I like to let those go.

With a flush draw (2 in my hand and 2 on the flop) I'll bet if its checked, call if it has been bet already unless I have more outs from a straight draw or perhaps have a top pair already then I'd raise.


Ahh I could go on and on but I can't imagine anybody really being able to help from this. I could use guidance. Perhaps any of you interested in playing and talking to me via AIM while you play? I have party poker too so I can watch. You can do what you would and I'd say why I would or wouldn't do it. Anybody interested in that? We could think of a way to repay you. I'll be putting more money in in the near future and if you helped perhaps we could work out some sort of small deal.

Wow this gives me a great idea. Is there a website out there with people dedicated to do this? I think that would be an awesome idea and "coaches" could generate a lot of money while playing their own hands too. It'd be like doubling your income! What does everybody think about that?

[tiltaholic]

Post some hands where you were unsure what to do and what you were thinking during the hand. People will be glad to help you and discuss.

Poker is, for the most part, a self-taught skill - it requires effort, time, and (usually) money.

[AcidJazz]

Everything is self taught. Guidance is a catalyst (and at the beginning stages a huge one) to learning quicker. Outside coaches / people can usually easy spot what somebody might be doing wrong in a situation. I'm going to keep playing. I'll get the hang of it eventually. I always do. It's just frustrating being new at something =P

[jobro2]

Have you changed the kind of acid you're taking?

[tiltaholic]

[ QUOTE ]
Post some hands where you were unsure what to do and what you were thinking during the hand. People will be glad to help you and discuss.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is the type of guidance we give in this forum.