Quote Originally Posted by Chopper
one thing i do see, though. i wouldnt bet less than half the pot on any flop. i would keep it to more like 2/3 to 3/4. less than half just encourages air to minraise you, imo.
I remember reading an article (I think Howard Lederer) who said about his bets are generally inversely proportional to his hand so that he knows where he stands against people which definitely goes hand-in-hand with what you've told me here. Thanks.

-you sound like you are getting a bit "stack happy." where you want all of your opponent's chips everytime you hit a flop. that just cant be done. its one of the main reasons i went on the previously mentioned 12 BI in 10 day downswing. i was pushing everything too hard.
Exactly this happened to me this week. I got myself caught on a table with two decent players (one said he was slumming from the 5NL/10NL game) and I ended up blowing 10BI in two days, my entire 1st week's profits and then some. I catch myself pushing hard and always end up "justifying" it to myself.

- sounds like you are "peppering" pots so frequently that you are only getting played back at with the goods. and, that only spurs you on because you are sick and tired ot only grabbing the small pots with flop bets.

if so, scale back on your cbet frequencies. not forever, for awhile. start calling a bit, or God forbid, fold a flop when you whiff. experiment with "floating," meaning wait for the turn to bet/raise. see if villains start to give up. stop double barreling so much if you are doing that frequently. maybe a check/raise when you hit a flop and are sure your villains are sensing weakness from you because you bet so often. throw 'em off by mixing up your play a bit. dont take it too far, though. when you bet EVERY flop you raised pf, you get very exploitable by anyone with a brain cell left. and, it can feel like the world is just picking on you.
I'm going to have to read this point almost everyday. This is exactly what happens to me on a really bad day at cash or when I hit a wall in a MTT. There'll be some people who seem to have my number completely and no matter what I feel like I'm doing they always play back in a way that means I fold or loose a bundle.

What's the best way of countering this? I guess I'm asking how often do I change gears when I'm sitting at the same table/seeing the same guys all the time? I'd like to get to the point where my style borders between TA and LA so it's more difficult for my opponents to know if I'm making a play with junk or the nuts. Is it best to aim for just straight ABC poker with changing of the gears until I get higher up the stakes table?

it could be that your stars are no longer "lining up" and villains HAVE the cards they are advertising...again, variance. but, it could also be over aggression. hard to tell.
This is happening too. I've had a lot of the "AH, how could they get cracked/how could I be rivered AGAIN!" rants but I don't want to just blame it on the cards since I'm pretty sure that'll make my bad habits harder to break later on down the road.

and, yes, dont EVER underestimate the value of note taking...at any level.
What type of notes? I'm noting down what hands are raised/limped/AI'd PF to help me learn how to put people on ranges but is there anything else I should look out for?

Chopper, thanks for this thread man. It's great to actually bounce stuff off people rather than doing the newbie-circle-of-death of just reading the articles.