[Closed] sssr13

Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker?

Poker is a game about critical judgement and being able to take fast profitable decisions usually with minimum amount of information. I find it very challenging and the money one can earn through playing poker also makes it quite rewarding (for the one who KNOWS how to play it). So I am going to spend quite some time trying to make my game better. Right now I think the losing streaks in poker are kind of too stressful to have the goal of poker being my main source of income. But I plan to play poker quite often. Who knows maybe at some point in the future when I realize some new things about poker and being a poker player, I will change my mind?!

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker?

- I think I still need to work so much on the amount of my bets. I happens so much to me that I can't protect my top two pair on the flop or that the villain gets flush on the river. I know winning a small amount by betting big on the flop is way better than letting people see some cards, but still one should try to make the pot bigger somehow!
- I get nervous when I lose big pot that I could have made mine by slightly playing them differently. It is not exactly tilting. I just tend to think about those hands a lot, which is not good.
- when I am on a losing streak, I become timid and become a tight-passive player which is no good at all. I have to deal with the confidence loss and the fear of losing more money.
- Most of the time I play like a robot. When I see many monster draws on the flop I simply fold my TPTK or two pair to anyone who raises my bet. Even though I know that based on the preflop play, that certain player is not likely to have that nut straight. I guess I should ALWAYS consider calling and think about it for a while and see the reaction of the aggressor, coz a person who is calling is either drawing or thinks he has the best hand, but a person who is raising is either helplessly bluffing or doesn't believe that the other player has a very solid hand most of the time. My experience is except on the river, majority of the raises are bluffs or semi-bluffs!
While I know that the ability to fold a good hand is a good attribute of a poker player. I think I should read the bluffs better than that.

Question 3: What does it mean to play tight-aggressive?

It is widely believed that the most profitable style of playing poker is the tight-aggressive style. Which means one plays very few selective premium hands from a good position most of the times with a raised pot preflop, and when he is playing those hands, he is the one with the initiative who dictates the odds for the other players. So basically he keeps betting and raising with those hands.

Hello sssr13,

It seems that nearly everyone who wants to make money in poker plays online. What is so wrong in playing live in the casino? Over here (Malmö, Sweden) the rake is not that bad (5% with 10 Euro cap). I would like to hear the cons and pros of playing in a casino. I was thinking what kind of players play in the casino. Well, the limits are so low for the pros so I guess it should be a mix totally fishy guys + those like me who have got some skill but are from a poker professional?! Is that so?

From my experience I'd say that casino live poker is actually very loose. If you have the BR for it then go for it. Especially go on weekends when the drunk people join in and play. ♦ But of course if you rather don't have the BR then it's not the best to play while could just loose everything playing those higher stakes.

Most of the weakness you wrote can easily be fixed with you posting hands. We will start writing feedback to your play. And usually negative feedback will put you into thinking phase and trying to fix all those leaks. It's almost the same as you loose money, you will remember it more than winning part.

But about the fear and losing streak it becomes better with time and the experience, you will start adjusting to that and will get used to those all beats. Also if you want to fight against the tilt:
Easiest wait to fight against tilt is to set up stop-loss technique. Which means if you for example have lost more than 3BIs for a session then you just stop the session for some time. The BI amount is set up from your own wanting. Some may put it higher, some lower. And after the stop you can easily just spend some time with evaluating your play.

Welcome to the Course and Best of luck! First points earned.

Some days ago last time I had a very bad beat.
on 1/1 Euro table AJ suited in middle position, I raised to 6...everyone except the small blind folded. flop comes 8AT. I bet 10....he thought for so long and called....turn comes J...I bet 25...he thinks for a long time and calls.....river comes K....he checks to me....I bet 40....he raises to 100.....I got very confused...I was sure he doesn't have AK or AQ....so I called and he showed AA
I guess I played it right and it was just plain bad luck...right? (how often it happens that u have a good ace...and hit a two pair with an ace on the flop and the other guy is sitting with AA?!)

and as I said...I can't get such bad beats out of my head...so today while I was playing I was kind of timid again.....
I had A9s in middle position...raised to 7 and got two callers....flop comes 8A5....I bet 12 and only one guy calls me.....turn comes 6....I check and he bets 35..... well I immediately started thinking about all the hands that could beat me....so I thought he might have AK, AQ, AJ, AT, A8, A5, A6.....it was very hard for me to fold but I did fold in the end....only to see him show me Q4! I don't know how I could have avoided him bluffing me so easily.....maybe it was all wrong to start with a raise with A9...coz I was not very sure I have the best ace among those who saw the flop. but the guy who bet 35 on the turn had only 30 more in his stack....so I thought he is pot commited and he is gonna call anyway...so he must have a hand.

what do you think is wrong with my way of thinking?

Hi sssr13,

imo:

the A9s in middle position is really the kind of hands i dont like for the reasons you mentioned, if we raise and someone calls what can we play postflopp if im not even sure when the A come on the flop that im ahead...very tricky i rather fold or limp to see the flopp and play for two pairs or flush..dont know if this is correct

but i dont think its that bad as you played it, he may bluff there but there are plenty of hands that beat us and we dont have that much outs 999,7777, so if we dont know how often he bluffs here its not bad to fold and next time check/raise him when we got it :))

also maybe you could cbet a little bit more i think

Hello sssr13,

Would be better if you put the hand into HE forums next time. About those kind of hands we are discussions there. About strategy and homeworks we are discussing in this locker room.

AJ is very likely overplayed on river since there is already a 4card-straight possible on board any Q makes a straight. Therefore you should rather Check behind the river and as played Bet/Fold it.

Hopefully next time I will see the hands in HE forums. Thanks!

It seems that you open too wide and also go broke with just 1pair even which is pretty horrible. Usually just one pair against any strength ain't good enough. Somehow I'd be inclined to think that you even have leaks in bet/raise sizes but not sure while I can't see the correct hand format.

Best regards.