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What are the most important skills to be break even

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Lance

03-13-2009, 07:34 PM Post subject: What are the most important skills to be break even

#1 (permalink)

Straight

Join Date: Nov 2007

Posts: 210

opening the pot for a raise
preflop 3betting (isolation not included)
limping
stealing blinds
defending blinds
isolating
raising for value/ value betting
hand protection (cbetting, c/raising)
playing SD/FD in multipots
pot odds & implied odds
semibluffing
heads up play
player adjustments
seat/table selection

Many players are playing so bad around of us and we are asking ourself, are we playing worse than them or we are the biggest poker loosers ever ?
i was convinced that the 1st two most important skills are open raising and pot odds & implied odds. Now i realize i need to be a semi-master of everything to be break even.

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe" (Albert Einstein)

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LawDude

03-13-2009, 08:00 PM Post subject: Re: What are the most important skills to be break even

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Full House

Join Date: Feb 2009

Posts: 940

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lance

Which skills are most important will depend on what leaks the players you play against tend to have.

For instance, at the live limit casino games where I frequent, the biggest leaks are that players play way too many hands, call too many raises, and take too long to fold. When these players win (and they sometimes do), they win because they catch cards and suckout on a big pot that someone else built when that player had the best hand.

So what are the important skills in this sort of poker? Well, isolation raising-- a tremendous skill at tables where players are tighter-- is useless against these people. You raise pre-flop when you are likely to have a better hand than your opponents, period. Because you will get several callers.

Similarly, stealing and defending blinds aren't important skills, because every pot sees several callers and nobody will respect your pre-flop raise anyway. Nor are lots of players trying to steal your blinds with a raise.

C-betting (at least with nothing) isn't really a great strategy against these folks either, unless you get a shorthanded pot and you can establish that they are willing to fold on the flop.

On the other hand, value betting, hand protection, playing draws, pot and implied odds, and semibluffing are all of crucial importance. And player adjustments and table and seat selection are universals, because you always have to be concerned with what particular players do and not just what the table does as a whole.

But in a supertight game, things might be flipped over-- you need to be isolation raising, 3-betting, c-betting, stealing and defending blinds, and playing top-notch heads-up poker. Meanwhile, you'll rarely get a chance to play a straight or a flush draw (other than occasionally flopping a flush draw with AK suited or a similar hand) and players will be folding when you represent a good hand and not allowing you to get that value bet in.

How much your leaks cost you will all depend on what the players you play against are like.

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What are the most important skills to be break even

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