Hi,

New user here... Just ran into a pretty frustrating situation. I play online NLHE and am playing strictly .01/.02 cash games until I know that I can win at this level consistently (whether this means playing it for a month or a couple of years). I am focused on improving my poker knowledge and understand that my profits (if any) will be minimal. With that being said, I ran into a pretty frustrating situation earlier. I might have played it completely wrong, but that is why I'm here trying to learn in the first place.

Here was my situation:
I had AT off suit and was on the button. The guy to my right was playing pretty loose and I had seen him even raise with some terrible hands earlier in the game. He raised to $.04 and so I re-raised to $.14 and everybody but him folded. He went all in with a bigger stack than mine (the frustrating part). I understand I may have played this hand completely wrong up to this point but I truly felt like I had the better hand since he raised about $.10 preflop most hands before the current.

My mindset:
I wanted to call because I really felt like he was trying to steal my bet. This guy wasn't playing smart at all and kept losing his buy ins and rebuying. I really felt like I had the better hand considering the way he had been playing. On the other hand, I don't play for the money in .01/.02 games. I play for the experience, and leaving my entire stack up to what could be a coin flip against a wild player does not really help me become a better player.

The flop:
Sure enough, I call, and he shows a 75 off suit. He pairs his 7 on the flop and the rest is history. I lose my stack. I only lost a couple dollars but this was in no way about the money.

So I was pretty frustrated but it really got me wondering a couple things.
1. For a guy like myself just trying to gain experience and knowledge, should I avoid moves like this and just let him take my $.14 bet and wait to take his stack with something better than AT offsuit?
2. In a game where money is more of a factor for me (like a 1/2 live game) should I call or fold given the situation and player is the same.
3. Should I avoid .01/.02 games all together if I am trying to learn the game technically? I play .01/.02 because it suits my bankroll but I sometimes feel like the competition doesn't help me learn the game that I want to play down the road.
4. Lastly, while I'm here, I figured I would ask some of the more experienced guys what their best learning tools were early in their poker careers. I'm a college student in NJ (I can play online and in AC) and have a ton of time to learn the game technically rather than just messing around with friends.

Sorry this is such a long post. It was such a silly play on my part and out of character for me but I was really trying to "play the players not the cards" a bit more. I was glad I was able to spot his bluff but it frustrated me that I lost the pot.

Thank you so much for your time everybody.

1. The answer is no. I suggest downloading Equilab (it is free, no excuses not to do it) and start playing around with it. ATo vs. 75o means you were a 64% favorite. If you had AKo, guess what kind of favorite you would have been.

63%.

That's right, against this hand you're actually better off playing ATo than AKo! Getting your money in as a 60/40 favorite is a great play any time. It just didn't work out for you this time. Poker is about being honest with yourself. So I have a question for you. If you had won the hand, would you have made this thread? I'm confident of the answer. So one of the things you'll need to learn is to stop being results orientated. We've all lost lots of hands like this. It is part of poker.

2. This is a more complicated answer. On a theoretical basis, you should play this opponent exactly the same way no matter what the stakes. That said, it is harder to commit money when the stakes go up. Players minimize the mistake of playing differently because of the money involve by having a large bankroll. There's lots of definitions of what a large bankroll is, but mine is that a large bankroll is one where you won't think about losing a buy in when you were the favorite more than 30 seconds.

3. Absolutely not. Poker isn't about thinking at the 5th level and making sick bluffs. It is about exploiting the mistakes of your opponents. The people making the the most and biggest mistakes play at 2nl. If you can't recognize and develop a strategy to win money from them, you have little hope of doing it at a higher level.

4. For where you are right now, this website is the most cost effective way to improve. Read the threads stuck to the top of the forum pages. Post hand histories where you had trouble. Do much more reading than posting. You'll be surprised how much you pick up.

Yeah people at .01/.02 are gonna be caring less about money and gambling more, so it's gonna be pretty high variance even when you have the best of it. You have to recognize that. You made the right play against this player and called, just like you would have done if both of your cards were face up to begin with. Having the best hand preflop all-in doesn't mean it always wins.

With experience these spots should become less frustrating but poker is a very frustrating game in general and many of the best players are those that are mentally tough and are able to roll with the punches because in poker your opponents will often be rewarded for making terrible decisions.

I'm going to come at this from a little different viewpoint

1) yes, it is frustrating to get it in with the best hand and lose. This will happen to you often, and you need to not let it bother you. Some times you will make good decisions and you will lose; sometimes you will make bad decisions and you will lose; sometimes you will make bad decisions and win. These things happen and you can't dwell on the times you lose. You also can't forget the ones you win (got lucky). People often forget those, and only remember the times they get unlucky.

2) as people have said, you got it in good and lost - and that suggests that you made the right decision. So don't be concerned about it; Any time you get it in good you have done your job. This is generally a good approach - if you make a tough decision, end up correct that you were ahead, and then you lose - must move on to the next hand.

3) but I would argue that you didn't make the right decision. In general, AT offsuit is not a hand that does well against anyone's 4-bet shoving range. Yes, you knew that guy was playing loose, but even very loose players get good hands sometimes. And most crazy players don't come over the top all-in when they are likely to be called and show up with hands like 75 offsuit. So let's look at the hand history a different way:

A loose aggressive player makes if 2bb to go, and you are on the button with AT offsuit. You think he is weak, and decide

a) raising will just get him to fold his bad hands and you'd like to play a pot in position so you call; or

b) you think he is weak but you'd prefer not to let the blinds in cheap, and you can probably get him to fold, so you 3-bet.

A case can be made for either of these, but if you choose to raise, you need to have a plan for if he (or one of the blinds) 4-bets.

You opt to 3-bet, and he comes over the top and 4-bets all-in.

What do you do?

If you had written it that way, most people would say things like: "fold, he never does that with less than AJ or JJ+, so you are dominated"; "at the best you are flipping against a pair lower than 10s, and at worst you are crushed"; "AT offsuit is just not that strong, go ahead and fold".

So even if you know a guy is playing very loose, you can never know he is being crazy. And even if he is being crazy (as he was) AT offsuit really doesn't dominate anything. It is a favorite against 75, but it is less than a 2-1 favorite. If you knew what he had, you would call that every time. But you don't know what he has. Against a 15% range (and few people 4-bet shove with 15% of their hands) you are an underdog. Just be willing to dump it and move to the next hand.