3 things you've done in last week to improve your game

[Robb]

Thanks Robb:

6m $25NL. I also stopped limping PF. I either raise or fold (unless I get walked in the BB).

Yeah, 14/10 is bit tight for 6m, though Sarbox posts in the BC a lot and plays a 15/13ish style successfully. I play more like 20/17.

Preflop I open all the following for standard raises at 25nl 6m in unraised pots (I raise limpers just like the pot was unopened):

UTG: 22+, AQ+
MP: AJ+, ATs+, KQ
CO: AT+, A9s+, KJ+, QJ, JTs+
BTN: Axs, A8+, KT+, K9s+, QT+, 76s+, 97s+

I'm pretty frisky out of the blinds in limped pots or steal situations, typically raising a good bit. But you have to play tight. As a general rule, you probably need your BB stats to be tighter than your CO stats and your SB VP$P < BTN VP$P (you end up completing the SB a lot in limped pots, priced into 4-way pots at 7 to 1, for example - but don't jump in with just anything).

I tend to 3bet or fold when facing a PFR, flat call with small/med pp's and very little else. That works out to something like 8/7 EP, 25/20 LP, so it's positionally aware and fairly tight. I tend to have live cards, initiative and position postflop which makes most of the decisions a bunch easier.

Hope that helps you're thinking about preflop. If you're tight preflop, you need to be pretty aggressive postflop. Good luck!!

[jackvance]

I tend to 3bet or fold when facing a PFR, flat call with small/med pp's and very little else.

Hm I'm not so sure about this one. A lot of people play a preflop raise-or-fold game, so it's gonna be rare that you're gonna see flops with them. Lately I like to call tons of preflop raises with all sorts of hands, just so that I can play some pots with people.. see if they falter postflop.

[Robb]

I tend to 3bet or fold when facing a PFR, flat call with small/med pp's and very little else.

Hm I'm not so sure about this one. A lot of people play a preflop raise-or-fold game, so it's gonna be rare that you're gonna see flops with them. Lately I like to call tons of preflop raises with all sorts of hands, just so that I can play some pots with people.. see if they falter postflop.

I don't disagree, but for a new player I like to see them open-raise a good bit in the CO and OTB before they learn to play the flat call line. Playing hands against the PFR isn't easy when you catch air.

[ginozola]

I've been working on only playing when I'm focused to play, rather than firing up a few tables when I'm doing other things. I play less, but I'm more involved in the hands and will stick with it.

I've gone began to study the HOH volumes from the beginning. It's been a while and I needed to tighten up my game. It's helping.

I'm also trying to be more involved in forums. It's good to post hands and get opinions, but I find it good when someone tells me not only how much my play sucks but WHY it sucked.

[Poyse]

1.) Reread the little green book

2.)Played for an entire day with my hud disabled

3.)Cut the number of tables I played today in half in addition to #2 above to work on better note taking and not depending on the HUD as much for reads.

[paulwright]

1. Started playing HU (and loving it)
2. Stopped thinking about results monthly. Starting at '0' each month tilts me. Am now only going to look at results each month on a 3 month previous rolling basis. That evens things out, removes variance a bit, and avoids the 'reset' factor of starting each month at 0.
3. Reading articles in HU forums - inspiring stuff

[Cole24b]

1) Read up on the tells section
2) Reread Sklansky's Theory of Poker and found out that I had been making a huge mistake when calculating hand odds! (I wouldn't minus the 1. Ex. 5 outs on the turn I would think was 4:1 instead of 3:1)
3) Started using Implied Value in my game

[Stacks]

2) Reread Sklansky's Theory of Poker and found out that I had been making a huge mistake when calculating hand odds! (I wouldn't minus the 1. Ex. 5 outs on the turn I would think was 4:1 instead of 3:1)

Re-read again maybe? With 5 outs with one card to come (aka on the turn waiting for the river), the odds of you hitting is 8:1 against.

[kb coolman]

1) Have taken a week long break from playing to entirely devote to studying poker.

2) Confirmed my pre-flop strategy against Renton, Miller, Sklansky, etc. It looks good.

3) Studying post-flop strategy, where I am weak. Studying Miller/Sklanky Small Stakes Hold 'em, and will put this strategy to the test in the coming days.

[kb coolman]

2) Reread Sklansky's Theory of Poker and found out that I had been making a huge mistake when calculating hand odds! (I wouldn't minus the 1. Ex. 5 outs on the turn I would think was 4:1 instead of 3:1)

Re-read again maybe? With 5 outs with one card to come (aka on the turn waiting for the river), the odds of you hitting is 8:1 against.

Cole, definately re-read. If you have 5 outs on the turn, then you have 5 cards out of 46 that can improve your hand. 5/46 is about 1/9, which can be expressed as 8:1 against. You would need to make sure you have at least 8:1 pot odds to make a call here. In a heads up pot, this usually means the villans bet is so weak, a bluff raise is normally +EV.

Multiway, you need to be very dilegent to make sure your outs will not just improve your hand, but will improve you to the nuts, or at least a very likely winning hand. For instance, you have



on a

board.

Technically, you have 2 outs to improve (either remaining Ace), but neither one will give you a winning hand in a multiway pot for the simple reason that someone else has the flush.

Make sense?