You're too results oriented man.

Easier said than done but you need to ignore the money aspect.

Take notes on your opponents on what ranges of hands they raise, call, 3 bet, etc. with. Take notes on how they play the flop in position and out of position and the times when they reraise in particular.

Take this hand for example:

You know by his VPIP and PFR that he likely raises any better aces, and he also plays a WIDE range of hands. You didn't post aggro factor, but it's likely he doesn't have a better ace, and even calling down a 3 barrel is probably fine. He likely hit a Q or J or has pocket pair of some sort, and you're probably ahead.

If you call down and he has something else, then you make a note of how he played that particular hand. It's good information to know how he may play something like he had in the SB.

The more you analyze how the players play hands and get better at figuring out what ranges of hands they play and how they bet them THAT is how you get better.

Yes, we all have bad beats. I've been 2 and 3 barreling with TPGK or TPTK a lot and getting outdraw on the turn or river.

The good thing about most players at the micros is that they WILL let you know when you're beat with TP. On a 3 or 4 flush board they will raise on the turn or river, or with a set do a similar thing. Just take a note of how they play it -- some players shove it, and some bet really small. When you can figure out things like this it helps a lot.

If I have a TP or better hand, I always bet on flop/turn/etc. on a two tone board or raise if someone leads to protect my holdings since a lot of people like to draw at micros. If they out draw you it is what it is -- you made the right play. Don't think about what you lost.

In particular, I like to barrel scare cards that micros. Most of the people here think you have it and will fold even if they have a good hand. The great part is you win the majority of them, so even when they annouce that they have it (and you don't) with a raise or a call, you know you need to shut down.

In conclusion, at the micros:

Value bet when you think you're ahead. Bluff when you have fold equity. As you get better at figuring out ranges it makes it much easier to figure out these things.

It's OK to c/f or fold pre if you are unsure. If you're the better player (or will become the better player) you will come out on top in the end.

Villain dependent.

This is where notes come in handy. If you take them and you know how players play their straights and flushes then it's good infos.

As you accumulate more notes you can get a feel of the style they play both pre and post flop. So, in fact you know if the player is liable to fold to a bet when a scare card comes, or how they play a flush once they hit it.

Some players like to slow play it, some like to annouce that they have it right away. Some players will call with TP, PP or whatever they had when the 3 flush card comes, some will fold their TP when it comes.

Like I said in the previous post above, focus your play about honing in on your opponents ranges. I don't know how many tables you guys play but if you're trying to learn and advance keep it ot 3-6ish tables, so you can look at how players are playing hands.

Even after I fold at a table I try to keep track of what is going on at the table, especially when there's big decisions to be made at showdown. Those times show a lot about how your opponent is thinking on particular boards, and opening hand history to look at the bets is always, always, always a good idea to see how in particular they played it. These notes are gold mines.

The AJ hand I'm comfortable going broke there 100% of the time on the flop. Raise it big, you want the money going in there where you have the most equity ie flop (like 45% against Jacks kings queens and over 55% against lower overpairs and tptk and even against sets you're not a huge underdog). Plus you also want to make use of your fold equity. Not to mention he'll most likely check the turn after big raises giving you two free cards.

Ok I didn't look at the hand properly, we are too deep to shove turn, but you need to c/r this flop. We have 2 overs and the NFD, potentially 15 outs vs a hand like TT/99. Zereketh explains it well below. You can either raise to like $1.60 on the flop and bet big on the turn because we have such good equity, or we can check back the turn giving us the turn and the river to improve our hand. Flatting achieves little because if you hit the diamond, you don't get the max value.

When I moved up to 10nl on FT, I toned down the aggro factor with my one pair hands because unlike 2nl and 5nl, you're often beat if villain is calling 2/3 streets vs you when you're OOP and you end up value towning yourself.
Be more cautious OOP w/ TPTK/GK type hands, try to keep the pot a little smaller by c-betting 50-60% of the pot on the flop.

IP, take more pot control lines with one pair hands, check behind on the turn from time to time. A lot of time at 10nl, this causes aggro villains to bluff the river, you can gladly call with a good hand and a smallish pot, villain mucks his missed draw or small pair, profit. It's a good play a lot of the time because if you're beat, you lose the minimum, but if you're ahead and bluff catch vs the aggrofish, you get a street of value that you wouldn't get if you'd barrelled the turn and made them fold. This is kinda villain dependent, but a lot of overaggro players walk right into this trap when you feign weakness on the turn.

Ultimately, don't bloat the pot with small hands, pot control & bluff catch with them. When you have a monster, bloat away.

Thank you all for your advice. Much appreciated. It looks pretty simple. I should be able to do that. Just dont BBB with TPTK or Just a pair type hands.

Now here is a problem though..In hands like below, BET BET is correct. I can never know he chases the flush - and on the river, lets say the flush missed - I *should* bet again. If flush comes in, I shouldnt. But wont he just bluff the river when he misses if I check?



So I am only playing 4 maximum tables of 10nl. When I have top pair if someone check raise flop, turn or river, Im folding. 100%. unless they are a complete fish cause fish do this as a bluff a LOT of the time. Right?

also with TP, I bet smaller ~1/2 pot on flop, a bit bigger to charge draws on wet board. If turn does not complete any draw maybe check on dry board but again bet ~70% to charge the draw. river, small bet or check behind. Pot Control. The main thing I guess I am worried about is that if I dont bet the flop, turn I am giving my opponent a free card to hit their set, high card etc. is this something I just shouldnt worry about ?

Im not dropping to 5nl, beating 10nl is just too important to me. I have a stop loss = $700 and Im still far from that.

Going to buy some soda pop and then open 4 tables and crack on. The house is quiet, wife at work, kids at chool - perfect poker time!

Chad

So here is a classic example of a hand where I lose because I dont BBB when i would have won if I had :/ guy is 100% VPIP. Limps every pot. I auto-raise in this spot with ATC. I flop OESD and bet. he calls. turn doesnt help me, I check, he bets - as a bluff!! and this is why I hate taking my foot off the gas. at this level, if you check they are going to bluff to take it down *so* often. Please fix my broken (and costly) thinking on this with your wise words.

Simple answer to the 65s hand is don't try to steal from the fish, fold pre. If he calls, you end up playing 56s OOP and end up in spots like that. Steal from the nits & tags. Fish like to call and see flops, hero hates playing OOP, so avoid the situation completely IMO.

And here again. Guy is like 78/7 AF = 1 %, total fish..I call the flop thinking - he is a fish attempting a bluff. Then he bets half pot on turn, I have to give up and he gets wood showing his *brilliant* bluff. See why i get confused at poker?

With the TT I reckon I'd instamuck vs the flop raise from a 1% aggro fish. Calling the flop raise to fold to a turn bet is pretty moneyhating. Just dump it vs a player as passive as this. Unless you have a really good read that he wants to bluff you, you're done vs a flop raise w/2 overs on flop.
Most of the time a flop raise from a passive player = they have you crushed. It's not worth trying to bluff catch the 10% or so that just want to bluff somebody.

Also, I know that you know this stuff from your previous "or bust" series. I think you're slightly tilted lately, because you're making mistakes that you never used to make. I think you played a little more solid @5nl. The villains aren't much different, use the same reads and player profiling you used before. Don't get fancy!

And again...guy is 78/13 and I have seen him bluff with NOTHING a BUNCH of times now..in exactly this way in the same spots. Im certain that 9/10 times he is bluffing again here :/



This is good though want to play with fish more!

QQ hand fold turn. There's nothing you beat, calling and check calling river is awful ,even if you know he's bluffing a lot in some spots you just have to give it to him, don't make his strategy profitable. That's where his money comes, people misadjust to him and just can't lay PP's down or pay him off too lose because you saw him bluff twice and then he stacks you.

Ok Alphabet and Zerek. Your advice is spot on. I dont think I am tilted so much as bewildered though

In this next hand - his line is typical of a MASSIVE hand, should I have actually folded on the river? He is an avg reg 18/14/1

The flush missed and so did the straight draw, unless he had 45s for a bd straight draw. He's basically repping 45s, 33, 99 there which is a very narrow range and I guess he'd raise somewhere along the way not on the river considering there's plenty of draws out there. I'd probably call but wouldn't be too happy about it.

Yeah, he puts you in a horrible-ish spot on the river but since you didn't get raised on the flop, or even better, the turn, you're most likely good here. Like Zere says, it's not exactly a fist pump snap call or a crying call, but it's pretty much a set or air, and his line tells you he has air more often. You gotta go with the read and call.

Just raised QQ pre some drooler called OOP flop AKx I Cbet 1/2 pot he calls, I shut down and fold to his river bet. He shows A7o and says "I know it was a bad call pre". I go "If you know it was a bad call pre, why did you make it? Im interested to know", "It's poker" he says. And who am I to argue?

I thought I had fold equity and top pair on the turn...the guy is obviously a poker legend.

Im pretty sure I have to call because of the odds Im being offered. I only have to catch a bluff 1 in 4 times :/ guy is a ****** obviously. Have seen him bluff *tons*

villain is a solid reg - but then he chases like this? of course I lose...which is why once again, I got to stop playing. Im completely buggered. cant hit my hands, when I do, people are playing terrible but drawing out on me and its making me miserable.




so back to reading all day and not playing above 5nl where i have a lovely fat 250BB cushion round me.

All the above hands were misplayed (QJo, QQ, K3).

QJ bet small and fold to raises no need to shove there because you're folding worse hands and getting called only by hands that have you beat. You don't want "fold equity" in that spot.

QQ hand perfectly played till river. He has the ace there 80% of the time.

Last hand is decently played but I would have probably checked one the river or turn that's not a hand for 3 streets of value.

By the way if you're beat you're beat. It doesn't matter if you have 1 to 100000 odds.

guy is 100/75/inf after 10 hands. 100% 3bet too. I think its ok to let him hang himself but oh whats this? OF COURSE HE HITS HIS FLUSH !!!

Obviously close all tables at this point, shut stars down and go for a walk. What happened to me? Why cant I play poker any more? Did I fall on my head?

Really really raise flop,

I would 100% raise those wet flops with every set, every two pair, every 12+ out draw like KJs, KTs, JTs because it balances my raising range, you don't know if I raise on those flops if I have 40% equity against TP or 90%

You only let all the hands that really want to see another card get there cheap. He even overbets 1.5pot just raise him 2-3x pot so you can blindly shove the turn

If the flop would be Q73r you might want to slowplay your set because he really can't have much, but on these ultra wet flops he might have so many draws

This is a weird hand because of the stack sizes. If he has you beat with JJ+ he's likely going to raise out of the BB unless he's fairly nitty -- and you can tell because you have VPIP/PFR

There's three ways I think you can play this.

1. Since he's so short stacked you can overbet the pot on the flop to protect yourself against draws. $1.60 into .80, this sets up a fairly good turn shove if the flush doesn't hit.

If he raises AI, I would get it in. You have his PFR and if he's raising JJ+ PF you probably have him beat with hands like A7, A6, 88-TT, etc. You can occasionally run into a set, but that's just the breaks and he's so short that it's fine to get it in there.

2. You can play it the same way you played on flop, and turn, and "value bet" the river small. Since he has 3.86 behind I would probably bet something like $1.50 or something which looks like a value bet. At this stake, they will annouce if they have it which would be trips or a flush by shoving all in. If they have something like 88-TT,A6,etc. they will just call and you will win.

By shoving you may get a hand like 88-TT to call (so you may or may not get value b/c of the scare card), but on the other hand you will also get called every time you're beat.

3. You can play it the same way you played on flop, and turn, and check river. I don't really like this line because you concede that you have something, but it's not a flush most of the time at these limits. Unless you play your flush draws like this it's just asking for a villain to shove scare cards.


So personally I kinda like options 1 or 2. I don't think 3 is a good play at least at this stakes.