Interested to know peoples thought processes when in a hand, from pre, to flop, to post flop decisions?

Pre:

My thought process is first of all range; I'm pretty competent when it comes to general ranges, but putting people on exact hands is something I struggle with, what are the questions you ask when ascertaining ranges?

Then I think of what my table image is like, what I could be playing in terms of my position, and what ranges most likely rep.

Then I look at pot odds, is a call ok here? or is it a raise or fold situation.

If facing a raise I consider my 3 betting range, I like to balance with suited connectors and sometimes even 3 bet crap hands into opponents that seem tight and I can get to fold often enough.

Finally I consider stack size(s) of my opponent(s).

Flop:

Firstly I think, who's range does this best hit, what can I rep if I haven't hit the board, how can I extract value if I have.

I try and anticipate decisions of my opponents on later streets here based on the board as it makes the decision process a bit easier for me, as if they do something unexpected I can reevaluate the situation. This is especially important to me when i'm not closing the action. If i'm aggressor, I C bet a lot, but if the board's super dry and i've missed and a C bet is an exploitable play I try to consider how I can best take down this pot, is a 3 barrel bluff going to work here based on my image, board, and pre flop action? What bet sizing can I use here to best achieve my goal? Or do I just give up the pot?

Turn:

Where I believe I am exploited the most. Often times I have made my turn decision on the flop (unless a decision changing card comes here). What should my considerations be on the turn?
I usually think; what is he representing? what am I representing? How often can I get him to fold? If he calls and I want a fold what am I going to do? If I have a hand whats going to get me value here? I definitely need help on my post flop play. Turn and river are losing streets for me I'm not afraid to say. Any help here would be really appreciated.

River:

I read somewhere 'Poker is the art of putting people to a decision', that really stuck with me, and when I'm on the river with a hand that may be the losing one, I think i'm betting too often. What are the main things to consider on the river?

N.B. I'm a marginally winning player, showing OK profits over the past 1000 tournaments, but I really need to take my game to the next level so PLEASE rip me to shreds here if need be. I want to improve so badly.

What are your considerations in a hand? How do you achieve the results you want?

To be honest OP, you're asking a question that is just too broad.
The question could be rephrased into "how to win at poker?" and there have been hundreds of competently written books and thousands of awesome training videos on the subject.
Even a summary would take a whole book.

It seems like you are playing decent poker already. Try to improve your game with a community, books or videos. I like books, but most players today like training videos (I seem to get lost in the variety of offers here and dislike the added redundancy I get compared to books where I can just skip/glance over the parts I think I know about already).

Maybe I can just pinpoint to one thing you're saying in your post. You mention 'Poker is the art of putting people to a decision', which I guess is somewhat true. But do not try to put people to a decision when there is "no decision" (the decision to call or fold is an easy one). So don't just overbluff rivers just to "put your opponent to a decision", but assess the situation. On the other hand, remember that with most sizings, your bluffs do not need to work even half the time in order to be profitable (but you know that).

Hey dude, thanks for the reply!

I'm currently 2 books down and can honestly say i've learnt much more from reading those than I have in a year of playing, so I do appreciate the book route definitely! As to training videos I'm just using the free youtube resources atm, do you think it's worth paying a subscription to a site?

In regards to my river play I definitely do overbluff. I struggle to know when it's time to give up pots. I definitely need to work on my bluff bet sizings too.

Damn poker can be overwhelming sometimes man.

yes question is like 'how was the universe made'

there is an infinite amount of plausable answers / theories that could be correct / incorrect.

This is what makes poker such a great game because there is no one silver bullet.

generally speaking ranges and board texture should drive optimal desicion making gl

This is actually a really interesting question, if you'll allow me to reframe it a little. What caught my eye was the implicit question: "Am I thinking about things in the right order?"

That's worth spending some time on. It sounds like most of your preflop focus is on your own hand and strategy. I'd encourage you to spend more time -- early -- taking in the rest of the table. That's especially true in live poker against a more erratic batch of opponents, where I'm playing more these days.

My checklist starts with things like:
-- where are the big stacks in the orbit, relative to me, and are they a shield or a barrier to what I might want to accomplish?
-- are the blinds especially tight or combative? Everyone's strategic choices will be influenced by how easy or hard it's going to be to steal.
-- is anyone on tilt? who's transitioned to shove/fold?
-- who's a super-nit that hasn't raised since the Truman administration? When they wake up, I need to be mindful. (i.e. fold.)

If you're working up a full analysis of your hand and strategic choices before factoring in everything else, it's too easy to become the guy who loses a big pot because "I had AK!" Yes, but other people have hands, too. They can improve in ways that annoy you but do not need to bankrupt you.

In terms of the flop and beyond, two big scenarios to think about:
- Situations where more information confirms and tightens up your original sense of the hand. This is profitable and satisfying. You develop an eye for the busted flush draw that makes a big river bluff. That sort of thing. You should be printing money in this scenario
- Situations where Villain's action doesn't make sense. Bluff? Slowplay? Crazy suckout? You need to consider all these options, and you'll play better if you develop a mental model for what to do when something on the turn or river makes you say: "Huh?"

When you're in this second situation, start with what the board is telling you. Is an unlikely straight or flush draw now a factor? Did your killer hand just get counterfeited? It's sounds embarrassingly obvious, but if we're too locked into our initial read, we can develop blind spots. Once you've acknowledged the remote possibilities, revisit how you built your mental model for the hand, and decide if you actually do need to take the possibilities of a rivered set seriously or not. That sort of thing.

In general, if you're being super-aggressive on the flop, that skews your opportunities and problems on later streets. You're probably taking down a ton of hands on the flop, without letting them play out in slightly ambiguous ways for later streets. But it means that if the hand is still alive at the turn or river, you're more likely to be in trouble. Find some setting where you can experiment with trapping more, and see if you like the results.

If you hate losing passively on the river, and showing down a failed hand, think about whether a few such setbacks might actually help your image. Can you get paid more the next time, when you do have the goods, and make a move on the river? Sometimes the answer is yes. Embrace that as part of your game.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Riverdood I can't tell you how grateful I am that you spent the time to write that. Talking to other players/getting an insight into their thought process is what I think personally helps my game the most (aside from studying obv). I do feel like there's some glaringly obvious things that I'm not considering in my game, and your post highlighted there's so much that I so often fail to consider which just seems so obvious.

Thanks again man this'll help a bunch.

Seems like you're playing more of a guessing game. Poker is so much easier when you let your opponents come to you

I am working on trying to develop a standardized thought process for poker. In between deals I consider the following:

1) What is my stack size?
2) What is my image?
3) I consider the image of the players at the table, especially the players in the blinds.
4) What is everyone else stacks size? Is anyone considerably different and how?
5) If there was a recent big pot, how did the results of that change the table dynamics?

Then during the play:

1) What is the action before me?
2) Who is left to act?
3) What are the ranges of the players in the pot?
4) What is my range?
5) How does my range compare to my opponents range?
6) Where does my specific hand fall in my range?
7) What are my pot odds?
8) How will my opponent react to each specific action?
9) What cards on the next street will be good for my range? What cards will be bad? What about my specific hand and the cards to come?
10) What is the best course of action based on all of the information?


After I decide on a play, I do a sanity check, "Is the play I am considering insane?"

What line, if any, gives my opponent the opportunity to make the biggest mistake?

This is probably one of the last questions I ask before making an action; I should (but don't always) ask it before every action.