What am I doing wrong?

Era · #1 07-17-2005, 01:51 AM

So I am a beginner player and I had started without much of a clue. My VP$IP was around 40% and I actually was losing money at a slow pace. Anyway trying to increase my skill I went to reading and tried to read as much as I could on it. I have a number of books and have recently been trying to stick with the "right" way to play.

My VP$IP has dropped to 25.37, I try to defend my blinds (SB 44.62% of the time), I pay attention to pot-odds, raise appropriately, PF-R of 4.48, F-A of 1.37, T-A of 1.65 and R-A of 1.3 with a total agression of 1.43. Note that this past night I tried to play more aggressive (after a losing night earlier and had a Total Aggression of 1.67). Ok since Ive made a effort to play the "right" way .. I have been doing -9 BB/100 !

Some hypothesis to why that is ..

1) I am not playing aggressive enough (when I raised my aggression slightly tonight I went to -5 BB/100 ... which still sucks).
2) I am playing too many hands out of the blinds in terrible position.
3) Not playing tight enough? Im using a modified version of Slanskys for preflop play.
4) My post-flop play is terrible

Im leaning towards 4 and little bit of 1, but they all are probably a factor. I would like some feedback on a couple hands I had today.

I have a definate read on MP3 in this hand, as I have been playing him for the last hour and a half and have pokertracker and pokerace up. He is LA-A, T-AF of 2.18, I caught him raising ALL THE WAY THROUGH with a 10c5d with no pairs on the board all the way to show down. This guy raised anything and everything and called you down (WTSD of 42%). I put him at a holding a pair.

Party Poker 0.50/1 Hold'em (9 handed) http://216.119.70.224/converter/hhconverter.pl

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
1 fold, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls, Hero raises, MP3 calls, CO calls, 1 fold, SB calls, BB calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls.

Flop: (14 SB) 9[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (7 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 checks, MP1 checks, Hero bets, MP3 raises, CO calls, SB folds, BB folds, UTG+1 folds, MP1 folds, Hero 3-bets, MP3 caps, CO calls, Hero calls.

Turn: (13 BB) 4[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (3 players)
Hero bets, MP3 raises, CO folds, Hero 3-bets, MP3 calls.

River: (19 BB) J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (2 players)
Hero bets, MP3 raises, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 23 BB

Did I do this correctly? Anything different?

This next one I had no read on MP3, this is her first hand at the table (and only hand! imagine that). UTG is a LP-P and I figured him for a Kx or a low Ax.

Party Poker 0.50/1 Hold'em (10 handed) http://216.119.70.224/converter/hhconverter.pl

Preflop: Hero is SB with J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
UTG calls, 4 folds, MP3 raises, 1 fold, Button calls, Hero calls, BB calls, UTG calls.

Flop: (10 SB) A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (5 players)
Hero bets, BB calls, UTG calls, MP3 raises, Button folds, Hero calls, BB folds, UTG calls.

Turn: (8.50 BB) A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (3 players)
Hero bets, UTG calls, MP3 raises, Hero calls, UTG calls.

River: (14.50 BB) 4[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (3 players)
Hero bets, UTG calls, MP3 raises, Hero calls, UTG calls.

Final Pot: 20.50 BB

Well anyway if you have read this far .. these were my biggest LOSERS that night. The other losing hands (which outnumbered the winning because I was down 19$ before I posted this and left the table) were mostly paired hands that saw ugly flops or hands where I didnt get my draws, but potodds were such that I could call.

Now is it that I am playing too passive? Im at tables with a VP$IP of >40 and a PFR of less than 5 usually. The calling stations are actually out profitting me because they hit all these draws! Any recommendations? Im not going to play again for a week to study up and improve my game.

Aaron W. · #2 07-17-2005, 02:06 AM

[ QUOTE ]
My VP$IP has dropped to 25.37

[/ QUOTE ]

Good start. Tighten up more. Aim for a 20 VPIP.

[ QUOTE ]
Some hypothesis to why that is ..

1) I am not playing aggressive enough (when I raised my aggression slightly tonight I went to -5 BB/100 ... which still sucks).
2) I am playing too many hands out of the blinds in terrible position.
3) Not playing tight enough? Im using a modified version of Slanskys for preflop play.
4) My post-flop play is terrible

[/ QUOTE ]

#1 probably has some truth, but it's probably more about choosing the *RIGHT* times to be aggressive. You also don't understand that "tonight" and "BB/100" don't go together in the same sentence.

#2 and #3 are related, and it's probably true.

#4 is the big problem.

In your first hand, you should really calm down after getting capped on the flop and raised on the turn. Against a large number of players, a cap on the flop is enough to slow you down.

In your second hand, fold preflop.

Read WLLH (or GSIH) and SSH. Don't know what those mean? Do a little research. It should take you less than 5 minutes to figure it out. Those will give you a better sense of what's going on in poker. Good luck.

Era · #3 07-17-2005, 02:26 AM

Good advice, Ill get the books and read them this week and see what I can do by next weekend. Ill keep reading the forum too.

Thanks!

ArturiusX · #4 07-17-2005, 02:31 AM

Read as much literature as you can. Critically think about why you do stuff.

On hand 2, why did the ace help you? Because your hand improved? I'd like to hear your response. (Hint: Hand improvement is only relative to our opponents subsequent improvement).

GrunchCan · #5 07-17-2005, 02:34 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Good advice, Ill get the books and read them this week and see what I can do by next weekend. Ill keep reading the forum too.

Thanks!

[/ QUOTE ]

Which books have you read? Some should be burned.

Don't just read the forum. Post your advice to as many threads as possible. When you're wrong, we'll correct you (sometimes strongly). It will make you better, trust me.

Era · #6 07-17-2005, 02:51 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Read as much literature as you can. Critically think about why you do stuff.

On hand 2, why did the ace help you? Because your hand improved? I'd like to hear your response. (Hint: Hand improvement is only relative to our opponents subsequent improvement).

[/ QUOTE ]

With hand 2, after the fact, I should have considered the raise preflop more critically. With no read at all on the player I should have assumed AA,KK,QQ or AK. Then seeing the flop, the only thing I can beat is QQ. I probably should have folded preflop, and at the worst, after the flop.

Era · #7 07-17-2005, 02:56 AM

[ QUOTE ]

Which books have you read? Some should be burned.

Don't just read the forum. Post your advice to as many threads as possible. When you're wrong, we'll correct you (sometimes strongly). It will make you better, trust me.

[/ QUOTE ]

lol, well. Obviously I have not read the good books. I found (dont laugh) Poker for Dummies online, as well as my friends "The Intelligent Guide to Texas Holdem Poker by Sam Braids". I stumbled on "Insiders Secrets to Texas Holdem Poker Online by Theo Cage" in a pdf floating around.

Also the site .. http://www.slospin.net/texas_hold.htm which outlines a strategy. Plus random other tidbits.

Eeegah · #8 07-17-2005, 04:03 AM

Yeeeah. Chuck that crap. Here's what I reccommend, and most people here will agree with all but one:

Getting Started In Hold 'Em: As it says, this is what you need when you're just starting out. It'll shake some of the bad tendencies from you, namely playing too many hands, ignoring position and not being aggressive enough postflop. It's a little on the thin side, and the starting hands he suggests are very tight (good for you, as it gets you in the habit), but it's nice enough for a starter.

Internet Texas Hold'em: I'll probably be in the minority for recommending this, but I found it a great primer covering a good bit of stuff. It was great when I was constantly being flustered in situations like drawing on a dangerous board, handling middle pair and the like. The hand examples are excellent IMO as well, but I do wish he didn't have his solutions right after the questions. Get this as soon as you've digested GSIHE, which shouldn't take you too long.

Small Stakes Hold 'Em: The absolute Holy Bible when it comes to microlimits, it specifically concentrates on exploiting bad players so common to lower limits. The advice in this book is utterly indespensible, and by the time you move beyond 3/6 or so you'll probablly have this memorized. It says right off the bat it's not a beginner's book, and while some people did in fact start with it I'll agree with the authors: if misapplied some of the material can be a bit dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. I'd pick this up once you've played maybe 1500-2000 hands after reading GSIHE and ITHE.

By the time you've gone through SSHE you'll almost certainly have a fine idea of how to kill micro limit games, and you'll know what you want to read after these. Keep in mind that nearly all poker books are simply too dense to digest in one reading; it'll probably take two readings at least to comprehend SSHE, and even after maybe four or five readings I still try to reread it once a month or so. Then again I've found that I enjoy reading about poker to be as enjoyable as playing poker, if not moreso. I'm weird about my hobbies like that.

You might think we're just a bunch of shills for 2+2 since that's all the reccomendations you're likely to get, but the books really are worth their weight in gold and will pay for themselves dozens of times over...even if after only 4 months my copy of SSHE is already jacked up [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]