Now that we have had our forum for a couple of months now, I am starting to see something creep into many threads.

So I thought I would start a thread to address some common themes that I see in posts. It is tl;dr but if you are not a consistent winner in sslnl games, maybe you should stop worrying about it and read it.

Playing Backwards

Playing backwards is simply doing the opposite of optimal poker strategy. Live players can easily fall into a pattern where they have a big hand and try to slow play.

The situation is basically where the hero flops a big hand and then plays it slowly thinking along the lines of "I have to let them catch up a little before betting" or "No one can call if I bet, if I bet they will always fold". The problem is that we want to make the most money we can when we have the best hand and lose the least when we do not.

Playing a slow or trapping strategy generally leads to winning the least and losing the most. Think of a common situation where we are HU in a raised pot, we flop the nut flush on a KJ3 board and our villain has flopped a set, two pair or OESD. If we play aggressively here we are always getting our money in good and if bet sizing is correct we are typically denying odds to our opponents range. When we play passively we are almost always allowing our opponent to draw with the correct odds with their range.

Playing without discipline

Playing without discipline is simply deviating from your normal or your planned game/hand plan.

Set mining is a common situation where live players lose their discipline. We call a PFR with the correct information and correct mathematical considerations, with the plan to fold if we do not hit our set on the flop. But something in the heat of the moment convinces us that suddenly our PF read was wrong and now we might just have the best hand... Before you know it we called the river bet still clinging to the idea/hope that our unimproved PP is good, but deep down we know we were never good and should have stuck to our plan.

Playing with a sense of entitlement

Playing with a sense of entitlement is simply thinking that you should win a hand because XYZ. Sometimes X is that "you are the best player at the table" and sometimes Y is "because I have AA and that wins ~84% of the time" and sometimes Z is "there is no way anyone would have called my PFR, flop bet and turn bet with XX hand and now has made a flush, two pair, straight, etc to crack my BPP".

There are a lot of things that will result in a sense of entitlement, XYZ are just common ones. Every player should be aware of these types of things and avoid them at all costs.

The bottom line is that no one deserves to win any given hand of poker, regardless of the circumstances. The cards sequence is fixed as soon as the deck is cut. The cards do not have a memory or the ability to know how is the best player at the table, they simply are.

The result of playing with a sense of entitlement will lead to overplaying your hands, not folding when you know you are beat, monkey tilt.

Playing scared

Playing scared can be summed up into two groups.

The first is playing scared money which has been well addressed in the COTM thread.

The second is playing scared of being "sucked out on". This is kind of a combination of the three elements already mentioned. We do not play correctly, we get caught up in a sense of entitlement and then lack the discipline to fold when we know we are beat.

All you have to do is think back to the time you or you seen someone make a weak raise with AA, get called in a few spots, make weak bets OTF and OTT only to see the action go wild on the river then you watch AA go down in flames. Remember what happened after that hand too, likely is was a classic example of someone going on monkey tilt, throwing their chips like they were piles of dung instead of money...

Summary

Keep in mind that there are no fixed formulas to playing poker. You are there, you know the situation better than anyone on some BBS. But you have to be very honest with yourself and approach your play from a logical and analytical mindset.

You can and likely should at times slow play a little bit to get more value out your big hands. But you have to have a clear understanding as to way you are deviating from a more optimal line and what the possible implications are.

You can and likely should sometimes deviate from your game plan on any given hand. But you have to have sound reasoning to do so and need to be disciplined enough not to fall into the pitfalls. Do not let the heat of the moment overcome your reasoning.

You can play with a sense of pride in yourself, with confidence in your skills and being an intimidating presence on the table. For some this is a great image to have, but you are walking the razors edge between healthy self confidence and pride and falling into a sense of entitlement.

The more time you have at the felt the better you will be. Its no different with these elements. If you can gain solid control on these elements you will make a huge dent in a losing tendency.

first

Good Stuff... COTM?

yea this is a good post. def could be COTW material.

Nope, not a COTM, just a post that can grow and with any luck can help some... Sorry my discipline was unable to keep my virtual mouth shut.

Ask urself, what's better...

...winning two $40 pots and a $400 pot

or

...winning three $80 pots?

If u bet the flop and they fold, oh well, onward and upward.

Solid post.

I'd just add to playing backwards that betting small in general when you beat the villain's range is a big leak. If you have a set and the villain can call a PSB with TP, then you should be making a PSB.

I don't know if this counts as playing backwards or playing scared, but not being willing to exercise FE by semi-bluffing with big draws. I've seen live players often check/call flop and turn with a royal flush draw or some other type of huge combo draw, whiff on the river, and have their opponent turn over just second pair that they certainly would have folded to a flop raise and/or turn barrel.

OK, some more that slipped my mind before...

Playing to win

So about now you should going something like... "Humm... I thought we should also play to win?". Well we should not be playing to lose, but there is playing to win and playing to win...

Ever see someone sitting at the table jones'ing for a smoke? You know the guy that is just dieing for a smoke but for whatever reason hasn't gone and smoked one.

Jones'ing for a win is another losing element in some sslnl players. Players that are just dieing to win a hand or a big pot will almost always force the situation. You can not force the situation, the cards are going to come out as they come out, people are going to act in accordance with their natures. When you try to force it, you will slowly but surely abandon reason and logical thought.

Jones'ing for a win can affect even the most seasoned and logical thinking players at all levels. Maybe you have had a bad run, which with slow nature of live play can be many months for some. Maybe your bad run has nothing to do with poker and at some level you are looking for some validation.

Whatever the root cause, and there can be many, you have to relax and let it come. Focus more on the overall session, making the best possible choices each and EVERY time.

This one may sound strange and I may be off base, but one I see often from otherwise solid players...

Trying to be the best player at the table rather than trying to play your best.

I often see someone who (appears at least) to have solid fundamentals level themselves against certain players. They try to triple barrel bluff the nitty old man off of his hand, ignoring the signs that Mr. Nit is letting them hang themselves. The desire to outplay the table and show how much they know makes them forget everything they seemingly know.

I believe if you have the board killed.. like having pocket 4's on a 4-4-8 board ... its hard to bet a decent amount considering people may be skeptical to call unless they have in 8. In this case i prefer to let them try to catch up and maybe bet the turn if an A hits and hope they have AK and raise me. But other than that i agree slow playing has become a common practice by alot of people who complaing when they let someone get a better hand by checking.

I had someone at a table get rivered by a flush because he slowplayed a set and he had choice words for the table. Every hand after he raised $10 preflop and then bet $100.00 on the flop into a $30 pot because he said he didnt want to get sucked out on. He did this on an A-A-6 board with pocket queens and got busted. I love the people who cant control their emotions when they take a bad beat. Makes us money

Ask yourself if it matters at all if the hero flopped quads or has AK or 99+.

Having flopped a monster doesn't automatically make the situation different than if the you flopped squadooch with AK or an over pair with 99+. Your opponent has the same two cards, and is playing or not.

Your quads are about as hidden as they possibly can be. In a raised pot I can not think of a more hidden hand than low quads. Our opponent has no reason to assume we all of the sudden have the current nuts. When we bet the flop our hand range does not change, or does not change much. If the villain has a hand he is continuing, if he doesn't he is folding. Waiting for a turn card that may or may not be a scare card only insures less money goes in the pot when you have a monster.

I would rather bet my big flopped hands rather than playing the catch up game. Playing catch only opens the possibility that the villain will catch up or talk themselves into continuing after having been shown weakness.

On a board of 4-4-8 rainbow, I am more likely to call a bet on the turn if an A hits when im holding AK than I am to call a bet on the flop holding Ace high. Not saying i would always fold to a bet on the flop holding AK everytime, because the continuation bet is the most common page in everyones book, but i would more comfortable with a made hand. That is why i like to let people catch up when i have quads. If im OOP and i flop quads on a board of 4-4-8 and i check to villian, he will bet 90% of the time with an over pair to the board so the money will be coming in either way. Like you said, quads are hidden on that board and no one will ever really put you on quads during a hand. So i would let my opponent do the betting in position and maybe min raise the turn, followed by firing big on the river.

This depends on the circumstances, but a 448 board is a good one to fire at, not slow play. 55+ is going to call at least one bet and if it stays low, you'll get two bets out of 99+. If the villain has an ace, that's great if it comes on the turn. However, there is only about 6% chance of that happening and if the villain doesn't have an ace, he's folding when it shows up.

If you have KK and the board is KKQ, then that's a different story.

I want to bet here because I will cbet a large percentage of the time if the pot is 2-3 ways and I was the PF raiser. I don't want to become predictable, I want to be feared. I want my opponents to ask themselves if I'm strong or weak in a spot.

Excellent post and I could add lots of things to each category, but no extra categories; you've covered them well. I've fallen into each one from time to time. Very easy to do, get trappy, call too much, think you're never going to win again.

The biggest mistake NL players make, I think, is forgetting the cardinal rule of NL--The purpose is to win ALL the chips, not every pot. They get caught up in the action and lose sight of the goal. Bust them or double up.

Yesterday, I floundered around in a game because I couldn't get involved in any big pots. Either I caught and they didn't, or I whiffed when I raised and couldn't continue. The pots I did win were 10% lighter because of the rake. That's the hidden danger when playing small stakes NL. The rake has a huge impact.

So I guess my contribution would be, live low-stakes NL losers don't really understand the game well and even when they play well often are puzzled why they go home lighter in the pocket. They win a lot of small pots and slowly go broke.

Please do add. I tried to keep it as brief as possible instead of writing a wall of text that many would simply not read. But once the replies start coming in, it is a lot easier to add relevant information that has a much higher chance of getting through todays Internet induced ADD filters.

i am on my phone and heading to bed but percula, love your work. Some of it simple, some more complex, all useful imo...

entitlement especially. Dont blame the donkey for not folding an overpair ever, blame the guy bluffing the station....

Sat a 1/2 session last night at a local club and thought I would post an example hand that shows elements of a losing player.

The game is short handed, playing 5 handed. The game has been pretty tame, only the villain has been fairly active. Hero is playing TAG but has not made it to showdown yet taking pots OTF or OTT.

UTG limps, folds to BTN our "villain" who limps, SB completes and hero in the BB raps the table with 75o.

Flop ($8); 34Qr, and it checks around.

Turn ($8); 34Q, 6 (now with 2 s) SB checks, BB bets $10, UTG calls, BTN calls, SB calls.

River ($48) 34Q6, K (no flush possible) SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, BTN bets $25, SB mucks, BB raises to $75, UTG folds, BTN tanks and says "Well I guess I have to call even though I think I am beat" calls and tables AA

Our villain in this hand has shown the elements of a losing player.

• He was scared to raise with AA PF because he was afraid everyone would fold and he would "waste" his AA hand.
  
• He slow plays his big hand until the river, long after he is beat.
  
• He has the idea in his head that he could fold his AA unimproved if he faced heat, but failed to act with discipline.
  
• He acted with a sense of entitlement. He assumed he would win, that he was a better player than everyone else on the table. He went on tilt as a result costing him another 50BB before he regained some stable state.
  
• He calls even though he feels his is beat.

I've never been able to figure out that last one. Forget terrible. It's weird.

ONe thing I see often is when a seemingly good player has been playing well, raising with his good hands, making good folds, making solid value bets maybe a nice bluff or two, etc etc.. then all of a sudden he makes one stupid mistake and loses his stack when it's so apparent that he could of gotten away from it. Next thing you know, dealer yells "Seat open on 9!"

Playing for a small pot with a big hand. Also ties in with slowplaying too much and "I didn't want to bet too much and scare him off."

it seems everyone in 1/2 loves paying off with AA.....been guilty of it many times myself

i will rarely fold AA before the river. .. too many things can happen. too many 'raise to see where i'm at' situations.

great thread, though.

I would add that losing players focus too much on short-term results. How often do you see someone stack off their last $100 or less because they want to double up or bust and go home? That $100 is 1/2 to 1/3 of a buy-in for the next time they play.

The corollary to this is the player who goes through an extra buy in or two because they are trying to "get even." Unless this is the only time they are ever going to play poker, they are usually better off going home, licking their wounds, getting their mind right, and coming back than donking off more buy-ins when they are tilted, running bad, or both.

Either way, it's usually better to humbly cash out a little, or quietly leave when you've reached your limit, than to keep chasing the "win" for that one session.

Awesome post!