Do you make mistakes? (longish ramble)

I recently moved to NL50. I'm doing fine, I'm up about 6 buy-ins but haven't played much. The thing is that I'm consistently making these horrible, stupid mistakes. I play certain hands too weak and others too aggro. I gamble with my draws when I'm winning (I calculate my odds, and then decide to go against them!).

Do you feel that you are making mistakes? Or do you feel that you're playing your best game all the time? I'm pointing this thread to you more experienced players and NL100 players.

I'm actually astonished that I'm beating the game (poker) at all in any level. I guess there are just worse players out there. I'm estimating I play about 5% of my hands badly or not as good as I could. Partly I'm happy I feel like this so I know what areas of my play to enhance. But it sure would feel good to end a session in which I didn't make a mistake (that I'm aware of).

Please don't respond like "you gotta sort these things out" or "don't say you're doing fine because you haven't played enough hands at your level" etc. I'm aware of this. I just want to know do you feel you're playing your best poker when you play?

In an average session, I would say I play my best poker - or near enough my best - for maybe half of the average 2-3 hours session. During this time I am on autopilot, in the zone, and using both table reads and PT stats effectively while playing hands, not perfectly, but consistently well.

The rest of the time - which invariably includes the beginning and, if tired, the end of the session, is about me playing blindfold as it were, basically trying to ABC it while also struggling to come to terms with implied odds, position etc. - I have to really concentrate for the first half hour or so not to make any mistakes, not to call too much.

Of course, I don't always manage to get into the zone, and when I'm in their I do still occasionally tilt, or make bad plays, but they tend to be marginally bad plays, or misreads, rather than the unforgiveable flaws such as not raising enough, allowing drawing hands odds, trying to bluff after strength etc. In fact, it's when I start making the latter donk plays that I know I should end my session - quite a useful pointer, though occasionally it takes being stacked to tell me when to quit.

I don't really understand what you wanna hear, but every one of us makes mistakes. I make them all the time.

Read NLHE T&P. Sklansky has a whole section on making mistakes. Your supposed to make mistakes, in NL you can't not make mistakes. It's about making your opponent make bigger mistakes. For example, If you get HU against a known calling station that will call any bet 100% of the time(exaggeration to prove a point) You would never bet the flop, or turn, and when you have a good hand, push the river. Sure it's mistake to not bet the flop but your opponent is making a bigger mistake. It's about your opponents mistakes and the advantage you take when they make bigger mistakes. If you need me to get a more detailed answer and quote Sklansky himself, I will but hopefully you get the idea.

Originally Posted by Rondavu

I don't really understand what you wanna hear, but every one of us makes mistakes. I make them all the time.

Biondino kinda found my point, I seem to be quite like him. I know everyone makes mistakes but I seem to make them against my better knowledge. Oh well. Maybe that's the only way to make them...

Originally Posted by Trainer_jyms

Read NLHE T&P. Sklansky has a whole section on making mistakes. Your supposed to make mistakes, in NL you can't not make mistakes. It's about making your opponent make bigger mistakes. For example, If you get HU against a known calling station that will call any bet 100% of the time(exaggeration to prove a point) You would never bet the flop, or turn, and when you have a good hand, push the river. Sure it's mistake to not bet the flop but your opponent is making a bigger mistake. It's about your opponents mistakes and the advantage you take when they make bigger mistakes. If you need me to get a more detailed answer and quote Sklansky himself, I will but hopefully you get the idea.

I'm glad you brought this up. I've read the book but I'm gonna review the section tomorrow at work.

I started the thread because of a frustrating session where I won quite well but would have won much more if I hadn't made a bunch of obvious (to myself) mistakes. I'm more calm now.

i´m making mistakes all the time.

calling weakish bets when im beat, trying to push out ppl who obviously have a hand(especially when cards run cold), not adjusting to new players to my left fast enough etc...

its cool to make mistakes, as long as you dont repeat the same mistakes again and again. the hard part is to identify your mistakes and correct them, and to see your mistakes even when your winning.