Horrible plays stick with me

[BusterStacks]

<vent>

You know, something bothers me about poker. Well, not poker, but my play at the tables. When I make a horrible play, I can't let it go. Seriously, I sit there, and even though I'm winning (or losing), I can't stop thinking about stupid-ass raises I made or when my read was totally wrong. My thinking is this: Well, there goes X amount of hands worth of my winrate. Does anyone else do this? I can play great poker all day and make 1 or 2 HUGE mistakes and feel bad about my session. Just now I went on a small tare and am furious about 3-betting an obvious flush with TPTK... and then paying off the cap and river bet! Arrrrghh. Does anyone have anything to help me not do this?

</vent>

[zephed56]

I'm usually fine with the occasional overaggressive play, but what really steams me is folding a winner.

I think we're all used to acting pretty quickly, so sometimes we'll make snap judgements and not consider every piece of information that is available to us. I guess you'd call that autopilot.

Maybe try to focus on a specific thing each session? For example:
-analyzing every river situation so that you won't miss any value bets.
-using the hand history box and going over every single hand, to improve reads
-taking a note on every player at the table
-consider every single possible hand an opponent can have at each street, and try to narrow it down
-play devil's advocate with yourself, aggressive on 1 shoulder, passive on the other

I think focusing on one thing will help to keep you off autopilot in general, so it really doesn't matter what you focus on, just that you focus.

[xerxesthegod]

you can listen to music that helps.

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
My thinking is this: Well, there goes X amount of hands worth of my winrate. Does anyone else do this?

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't do this. It will put too much pressure on yourself. Worry about winrate later on, away from the table. That's letting results creep into your play.

Here's a key to the mystery, no one, no matter how good, will play perfectly all the time. Even great players make a huge flub once in awhile that can be an obvious mistake. Everyone misreads a hand now and then.

Not to mention, there are times you play a hand wrong and you benefit from it. How would you view that in regards to your winrate when it happens? See, it goes both ways.

b

[Piz0wn0reD!!!!!!]

[ QUOTE ]


...there goes X amount of hands worth of my winrate.

[/ QUOTE ]

your WR already takes into account for these bad plays which even the best of us still make occasionally. The best thing to do is learn from them. So just think about how much you pwn by making good plays, which make up for the bad ones.

[SCfuji]

buster im sure your great plays outnumber your poor plays. to be able to have 100% accurate reads every hand you play would be crazy.

but with regards to punishing yourself for more bets than you should have lost... i think this just comes from lack of respect of the bettor and greed (at least for me it is). i try and get so much out of these guys that i end up losing more when i should have known better than to spew extra bets.

all i can say is i feel ya dude

[timprov]

I can generally tell how good or bad of a day I'm having, apart from poker, by how I react to playing bad poker. Sometimes, yes, it's very difficult to get past the bad plays. But you just go on.

[pfkaok]

[ QUOTE ]
Does anyone have anything to help me not do this?


[/ QUOTE ]

when you make overaggressive plays, or loose calls like this, just make sure that you can think of at least a few hands that your opponent would play in the same fashion, other than a flush, that you can beat. If he's tight, and unimaginative, then you should be able to actually KNOW that your beat, and it'll make folding easier... if its an aggro player, then you should be able to think of certain hands that he'll play that way that you're ahead of, meaning that you'll win a certain % of the time you call down, so then even if you know that calling down might be a little loose its probably not that bad, and only a fraction of a BB mistake. I used to get pretty frustrated about calling people down in spots where i "knew" I was beat, but then I just started making myself put them on at least a few certain hands that i could beat (or just some LAGs have outright bluff % thats high enough), then at least I know when I decide to call down i'll win 20% or whatever, so that calling down when i'm behind doesn't just feel like i'm giving $$ away.

Also, on the other side, I feel like it helps to look at the "big picture" when making laydowns in these spots, rather than feeling like you made a HUGE mistake if you folded to a bluff or semibluff. When you think that they're probably bluffing or semibluffing only like 10% of the time on the turn b/c they're pretty straightfoward, then you have to know that sometimes when you fold to the raise you'll be folding the best hand... but having to call 2 more bets everytime would still be much worse in the long run, since the pot won't be big enough for you to call 2 more BB's. Of course you can never know the %'s that well, but I like to at least try to get an idea based on what range they'd play in such an aggressive manner, so at least you can make the "easy" hands, like calling down vs. the LAG, or folding vs., the non-bluffer... and then the most important thing for me is to just remember that a close decision is just that, a CLOSE DECISION. As long as you're able to recognize when it actually is close, then you shouldn't have to worry too much about what you do in those spots, b/c it will matter very little.

[worm33]

[ QUOTE ]
<vent>

You know, something bothers me about poker. Well, not poker, but my play at the tables. When I make a horrible play, I can't let it go. Seriously, I sit there, and even though I'm winning (or losing), I can't stop thinking about stupid-ass raises I made or when my read was totally wrong. My thinking is this: Well, there goes X amount of hands worth of my winrate. Does anyone else do this? I can play great poker all day and make 1 or 2 HUGE mistakes and feel bad about my session. Just now I went on a small tare and am furious about 3-betting an obvious flush with TPTK... and then paying off the cap and river bet! Arrrrghh. Does anyone have anything to help me not do this?


This is my thing. If I make a mistake in a hand, it doesnt matter if im crushing the game it pisses me off. Theres nothing wrong with that, as long as it doesnt affect your play. In fact I think its great, makes u improve and think about it so you dont do it next time.

[imported_torgeauxSA]

Actually, what cured me off the same thing was a deliberate attempt by another player to rattle me. The villain would comment if I went to the river with second best hand (even if it was the right decision) and then when I folded a winner (something like 89s in the BB, folded to the bet on a AK8 board) he showed something like 37o, and made a rude comment. Perfect, that just made me laugh and realize that regular, tight aggressive play would let me clean this guys clock, and it did.