How many hands...

...Did it take most people here to stop making stupid mistakes when playing?

I took a really stupid beat last night and I'm very upset with myself for doing it. Biondino's already told me off for doing it (Cheers mate!) and mistakes like that are something that I should not be doing at this point. I'm going to try and fix this leak using the "One Hour" method, but I just wondered how many thousand hands it took before people on here stopped making amateur mistakes when playing.

By the way, the beat last night was holding a pair of 7s and then flopping a straight draw with only one card that would help me. The other guy had made his straight on the flop and was happy to call me. He re-raised me on the turn, I didn't listen and called. He then did the same thing when I made my second pair on the turn (re-raised me) and then let me push on the river. All in all, I'm not happy with my play at all and I need to stop this stupidity very quickly.

J

It never stops. They are usually done under the influence of adverse emotions running through you, which is not something you can grow out of 100%. Try to limit it as best as you can. The good part is you atleast realized it was stupid.

Hell yes it was stupid! I looked back over my hands with PT and saw that all my losses had been small up to that point (blinds, the odd small loss) and I had been winning a few decent hands too. Then that hand and another came along and I got wasted.

I think I finished about 13 dollars down on that table in the end, and about 20 down total over the whole three tables. I can't even say it's varience either, just stupid play. It was all looking so rosy at the beginning of the week too...

I went through the same thing. I deposited $100, went up to about $150 over the course of a month (probably due to good 'luck'). Then for about 3k hands I went down, down, down to about $50. Then I really started to evaluate my game and have hit up biondino for advice as you are. Now, I've been on an upswing for the better part of a month and I just hit $200 in my BR (+$150 for the last 30 days).

I was following the script here: http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...poker-9214.htm to a T.

AAAHHH the newbie circle of death. I've lived it. Jameseyb, I can tell you from my experience. Once you take your hand of the mouse and slow down the stupid mistakes start to decrease. I found once I started to understand what I was doing withmy game I was trying to play too automatic. Slow down and learn to go thru a routine. Forget the auto call, auto fold and auto anything buttons. I"m trying to find a routine for my mind to go thru for myself. When it comes around to me( I'm also 4 tableing) I check how much to bet, raise, the pot size, the board cards (postflop), stack sizes then after all that my cards. I still get away from that and make stupid mistakes, but it always seems it's when I start trying to play automatic. clicking call or raise to quickly without checking some of the factors. I think it was Salsa4ever who has a post on this or it's in his blog. GL, weve all been there, I'm still there.

Heh! I'd like to say that I was ever on an upswing and managed to double my BR, but I'd be lying if I did!

My Stars bankroll is showing -15BB/100 right now and was only briefly in positive figures, my Party BR took a bad knock a few months ago and I have yet to go back to $25NL, so it's staying there on it's own for a while. The only place I have a positive BR is on the Poker Syndicate. For some reason, it's the only place I can make decent decisions and not end up out of pocket. Maybe it's the lack of PT support...

Anyway, I've just spent an hour writing out lines to try and plug this leak and I've got a couple of posts to read tonight to try and solve some more. Maybe that'll help and I can actually be back in the black (unlikely, but possible) before Biondino next gets a call from me!

J

Don't be so hard on yourself. Even the most seasoned players make bonehead moves. This game has a way of playing with your mind so keep at it and the main thing is KEEP LEARNING. If you resolve to learn from them, then you will be fine.

My big one was (is?) overplaying overpairs. Really expensive, as each time I would do it and get reraised in the turn, I'd lose my stack.

I'm better now. Now my big leak is playing when I'm tired but can't sleep, so I tend to miss things like reraises into my overpair, or 3-flushes on the board.

- Don't call reraises without the nuts (or close)
- Don't play tired or intoxicated -- if I can't focus on Theory of Poker or something comparable, then I have no bisiness wagering money

Both of these seem to be really helping my bankroll. Now it's stupid crap like underset losing to overset, or miracle cards on the river for donks, or the standard "bozo keeps calling against the pot odds until the flush card hits, then bets big" kind of stuff I see. That's just poker.

if I can't focus on Theory of Poker or something comparable,

I can't do this sometimes on my good days. in a quiet room with no poker on the computer.

For me it was the "Everyone's bluffing" syndrome. When people would raise/reraise me I'd think they were full of shit 100% of the time.

Also, slow playing kills. I don't slow play many hands. Flopped nut flush/boat I may. Watchout for the board pairing if playing the flush though. Been bit by that before.

Yeah, I missed that one last night. Thought my two-pair was good enough to beat the straight that I thought he _couldn't_ be holding.

I'm actually now quite positive about the loss... If ntohing else, you guys have shown me that such things are commonplace and still happen even past the stage that I am at! It's almost like being in an AA meeting... "Hi, I'm James and I made a bloody stupid call last night." "Hi james!"

J