So I’ve had approx 5 or 6 two hour sessions of playing between 4 & 6 tables of FR $5nl, and I have come across an amazing and very important fact that I think I am lucky to have realised so early, and I want to share it with others so you can see if it applies to you, as it may well drastically improve your profitability.
I make lots of mistakes!
That is why I (and I am sure many of you) lose money/aren’t particularly profitable.
I do sometimes make great plays. I do sometimes value bet perfectly & bluff opportunistically. I do sometimes make great reads and difficult put downs. But these are not things that make a winning player at micro limits. These are skills in the arsenals of good players that make them even more profitable. But I am pretty sure I could lose all of the great moves & decisions I make, and still be profitable, as long as I cut out the stupid mistakes. It is these silly mistakes that winning players spot in themselves & change, and spot in you and capitalise on.
The great things I do (if they even are great) are the things that make me think I am a good poker player, and these moves, when pulled off, give me a great sense of achievement and pride. But they are completely wasted if I throw away those chips with another silly mistake. It is these ?great? things that lull me into a false sense of security, allowing me to not focus and think I am better than everyone else at the table. And it’s even worse if you have a period where you run hotter than a half fucked fox for a few days, then you compound these delusions of grandeur. Therefore if I focus on these great parts then I don’t actually improve, in fact I could even get worse by conditioning myself through self praise into thinking I am playing correctly. What is even more annoying is that it took me years to realise this very same thing in SnG’s (thanks Tai) yet I instantly forgot it when I moved to ring games.
I also think this is why you often hear people saying things like “the micros are really hard now” and “I bet the $200 nl regs couldn’t beat the micro levels now”. (I never hear this, but hear of people saying they hear this)Yes they can, they just look after their chips, and wait for the opportunities to make more, rather than squandering them through silly mistakes.
When I made the switch from SnGs to cash games, I contemplated starting an OP, as I thought it would motivate me and ensure regular scrutiny of my play. However I simply don’t have the time, so I figured that writing a post about my major leaks would be the next best thing.
So here it is, a list of leaks that I have already spotted in myself, which is as much to help me as it is to help anyone else, but hopefully some of you may find it useful.
This is basically split into 4 categories which I’ll call “not paying attention”, “making bad calls”, “hitting a good hand”, and “bluffing”, with some overlap between them. I will try to keep this as short as possible.
Not paying attention
This one is probably the most frustrating of all, but also probably the easiest leak to both succumb to and fix. This will make the rest of the leaks in this category easier to fix too.
Firstly, don’t play tired or distracted. If you can’t give the tables 100% of your attention, then don’t play at all. If your gf is bitching at you, stop playing poker until she shuts up or goes away. If you are watching porn while you play, stop, wank and then continue. If you’ve woken up at 3am and are very tired but can’t get back to sleep, it is not a good time to play poker. If you are going to play, bring your A game, or otherwise donate your money to charity rather than some numpty’s pocket. I am very guilty of playing when extremely tired, and I plan to stop (actually writing this in order to stop myself playing as I’m knackered right now).
Secondly, not taking the time to read the board and the situation properly. Which as mentioned above is a lot easier if you are concentrating. It is not always easy to see the potential straight, or notice the paired board when you hit your flush, and these things need to be considered when you make your decision. They may not change your decision, but they might, and they need to be considered before you decide how to act. So take as much time as you need, you are generally given plenty of it, and if you are a little slow sometimes and people get annoyed with you, with any luck it will tilt them. I have noticed several times that I have bet on the flop only to be raised/called by a hand and lose, and then look at the board and think wow, I didn’t notice that. And what is worse is that you know to look for these things. When you are looking at someone’s post in the BC analysing how to play a hand, you would take these things into consideration, so make sure you do it when you are playing.
Thirdly, not looking at villains stack before making a decision. The amount of times I have attempted a bluff and been called, only to look at villain’s stack afterwards and realise he was already pot committed. Or alternatively called with a low pair, only to realise no villain left in the hand has a stack big enough to pay me off if I hit and therefore give me the implied odds I need to call. I look at my own stack, but sometimes forget to look at my opponents. This is stupid! And again very frustrating considering I am usually a SnG player, and relative stack sizes are of huge importance in SnGs.
Fourthly, not looking at the dam stats! A Hud is vital, and similarly to previous points, when analysing other peoples posts I would always want this info to base my decision on, but I can very easily get excited in a hand and forget to look at them. These stats are of huge importance. If you are multitabling, these are pretty much your whole read on the player, so to not pay attention to them is extremely foolish. If you get raised on the flop, and villain plays 68% of hands and has a cbet stat of 100%, you can happily raise with 2nd pair. Likewise, if villain is as tight as a badger in a sock, you can accept his cbet when he raised pre and there is an A high flop. Also try to look at all of the stats. Start with only a few until you are comfortable, and then start using more and more. This information is better than any read you will get from watching the game and is invaluable to your bank roll, and as you explore more you become more and more aware of your opponents tendencies.
Making bad calls
This just has to cost you money. Playing out of position, or going ahead without appropriate implied odds, or thinking “well I limped already, so it’s only a few more to call the raise”. This is just haemorrhaging chips. Don’t do it. Your own stats are great for telling you if you do this, and it doesn’t take many hands to figure it out if you are looking for it.
An extension of the above is continuing with further bad calls after the initial one. Like I’ve over paid for the flush draw once, I may as well carry on overpaying for it now for the rest of the hand. Nonononono! I catch myself doing this quite often. Not by a crazy amount, but definitely paying over the odds. And the worst thing is that there are so many donks out there who will give you the right odds, or even particularly favourable ones, that there is no need to be chasing draws incorrectly.
And finally in this category is playing suited Aces out of position. I have given this a section all on its own because I do it so often. Flushes do not hit particularly often, so to limp in under the gun and play a 3 way hand with another limper & the BB is probably not going to be a long term winning strategy. And this is a prime example of where I will do the above, calling for more chips, without the correct odds, after I limped incorrectly in the first place.
Hitting a good hand
You may not think that this heading is necessary, but it most definitely is. Firstly, if you hit big, bet big, every time. Sure sometimes you scare everyone off, but dumb arses call often enough for this simple strategy to be very profitable. Just think, there are people like me above paying way over the odds to chase my flush. There is no real need to slow play unless you have a particularly good reason.
My second point on hitting big is being able to put it down. If your AK hits TPTK, or you flop an over pair, but the weak passive player who hasn’t raised all game suddenly slaps you with a raise, don’t be scared to put it down. It isn’t easy, and I don’t suggest you drop TPTK to the slightest bit of action, but look at your ops stats on your Hud. If their betting seems out of character, there may well be a good reason for it. Read the sticky about how to spot a set for a more in depth discussion of this.
Lastly bluffing
Bluffing is a part of poker that I use quite a lot, and very much enjoy. It’s a great feeling to make an opponent put down a better hand and it’s fun.
However, I have concluded that it isn’t really necessary at the micro stakes. I mean sure you should bluff if the situation calls for it, but by no means do it excessively. There’s just no need. I am confident that even if you never bluffed, you could still be a winner at the micro level. Many of the big pots I win come from me calling bluffs from others, and likewise several of my bigger losses have come from being called. I can’t help thinking that if I keep the part where I call down bluffs and win big pots, and lose the part where I bluff and lose lots of chips, I would be much better off.
Well that’s the end of what has basically turned into a rant to myself. I just hope I listen to it. I am sure if I concentrate on stopping the stupid mistakes first, I can start to get a lot better a lot quicker, and worry about the more complex stuff later. Apologies if this has all already been covered, but as I said, I was writing it to hammer it home to myself as much as anything else. Please feel free to criticise and tell me I am wrong with any of this. I would rather hear it now and correct it than wait 6 months to figure it out for myself. Likewise feel free to add leaks you have spotted in your game that I can then search for in mine.
