Well last night I was heading home hoping to watch a movie with the wife. She had to study and since things needed to be quiet I ended up playing poker online. That was the first mistake of an evening where I went out of my way to make every mistake I knew to avoid. Here is a quick list:
1. Be ready to play. Not just play but show up knowing that you can beat the game and put your mind to that goal.
Last night I was careless and sat down to put in some hands and wasn't focused.
2. Play conservative until you know your opponents. I am not saying that you should not try a move on someone but don't put your stack on the line until you are sure it is +EV
Last night I lost my first buy in trying to push a guy off a hand by reraising all in. How could I put a good read on a guy after 10 hands? He might be able to lay down an overpair if he thinks your raise is AA or he could call with the nuts.
3. Play very conservative while on tilt. This rule keeps me in a situation where I am only supposed to play AA, KK, QQ and AK from any position and AQ from late position until things cool down a bit. After losing a big hand you almost want to get back in the game and mix is up which is how most people get in trouble.
I convinced myself that I wasn't on tilt and ended up losing about 1/3 of my next buy in by calling pre flop raises with garbage hoping to catch someone. This resulted in my VPIP to soar so my raises and calls had less respect than before.
4. Don't lose a stack to TPTK. How many times do we see the K on the turn with all low cards and then figure that we have the best hand. Keep the pot small as you only have one pair but still bet to make the flush draw pay to see that next card.
4a. Very big red flags should go up when passive players start reraising on the turn. Watch out for sets and two pair as most at low levels don't reraise with just draws.
I had TPTK on turn vs. a guy who was a bit crazy pre and postflop. VPIP was 53% and pre flop raise was 23%. My mistake vs. this guy was only calling his min raise preflop instead of reraising him. The lack of info of how he would react to being reraised would cost me later in the evening. I figure that his reraise (since he is nuts!) has to be with a worse K. Instead he had two pair since his 72o hammer hand hammered me for him to double up.
5. Once you identify the maniac put him on your buddy list and take your time to take that stack. Just because bad players are out there doesn't mean you will have an opportunity this time to take them out.
5a. Bad players get hands just like everyone else.
My buddy from my TPTK hand min raises (he was just to my right so perfect table position for me) and I have AK again. Well he isn't going to get away with min raising with junk so I put in a 6xbb raise. Everyone else folds but my buddy is stubborn and he reraises me. I figure that at worst I am a coinflip and a push should get my money in with the best of it so I push. He calls with AA and I do a great job of doubling him up again.
6. If you have broken more than one of these rules in an evening don't continue to play.
I took the last $26 I had on Full Tilt (damn site is making me live up to their name!) and followed my friend to his next table. Right idea but again I wan't to force the situation. So he limps from UTG and I am in CO and see 72o. Figure that since I have sacrificed so much it would be nice to get back at him with the hammer. So I raise to 4xbb to isolate (which is easy on Full Tilt as most are so tight on this site) and he reraises me to 8xbb. I call and the flop is 7 8 10 and he puts me all in. I call because I am sure my 7's are ahead right now. He shows 56o and hits the 9 on the turn and a 7 on the river. So my set loses to my buddy while I get to explain to my brother what happened to his Full Tilt account!
Well it was a humbling experience but the positives were that I know who I want to be playing against but I have to remember the fundamentals that built the bankroll.
Just got my copy of Ace on the River from Amazon today so that will give me something to read when my wife doesn't want to watch a movie!
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3 comments:
The most important rule in my opinion is POSITION, POSITION, POSITION!! Seriously.
I try to NEVER play big pots out of position unless I have the nuts or pretty close to it. I think that is one of the key elements to winning at NL cash games. Only play small pots out of position and play the big pots when you have position on the other player/s. You gain so much more information, are able to put the tough decisions on your opponents and get away cheaply from hands when you know you are beat.
I think most of the players at the lower levels do not have a grasp of how important this is.
I wrote an article on short handed no limit that you might find interesting. A lot of the same concepts apply to full tables also. It is on my blog if interested
I failed at rule #3.. I donked off $30, or 3 buyins, playing really bad going after coin flips, and winning none of them. Now, $30 to me, is a lot (for poker) as my bankroll is small.. As of right now, I've built it up from 153 to 234 over the weekend, playing at the lower levels.. I don't like to re-fuel the accounts that often so I'm working my way up. :)
Thanks for the comment BTW.. they do work.. heh.
Great post...It helps put things in perspective and choose the right games. I hate forcing the issue after a big loss but its human nature I guess. The one you missed was when you lose 80% of your stack on a beat, don't throw away the other 20% playing donkey poker and pushing marginal hands trying to double up. Reload to the maximum and continue playing your game.
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