Hello,

I've been playing low limit hold em in casinos for 10 or so years. I hate losing money more than I like winning so my play is pretty tight. For the first few years had a pattern of building bankroll in 5/10 limit then losing it in 10/20, then when cash no limit 2/5 games started and 5/10 and 6/12 limit games died I quit playing for a couple years as 2/5 games ran me over and facing decisions for entire stack put me in a mind state where I couldn't think it out. I started playing 1/2 nl games about three years ago and have had success in Vegas strip games and other casinos around the country in games with single raises pre-flop and not a lot of post flop bluffing where I can avoid big decisions in marginal situations and still get paid off when I make hands.

The trouble for me is that I don't remember most of what happens in a hand after it is over. I can remember every line of code I've ever written but what happens in a hand blanks out as I guess the "action" of being in a hand is a situation where my neurons doesn't work like others.

Not sure what I want to ask, is there anything written on the thought processes that players go through as a hand progresses? I think I need a process to follow in my mind when I'm in a hand to get it in to memory so I don't forget it.

One hand I played in tunica last month to give an idea of the image I get at a table:
Me utg + 2 with qq, player in front of me limps, I make it $12, cutoff makes it $30 folded back to me I make it $60 and he goes into tank and folds showing KK. I'm thinking about how to start to take advantage of an image like that..

Thanks for any ideas or info. Sorry if posted to wrong forum..

A guy just folded KK to you tiny 2x 4bet, and you are wondering how to take advantage of your image? Start with not 4betting QQ, and 4bet some hand like 67s instead. But make sure to not make it obvious that you are no longer playing tight. Basicly, with your image you should take passive lines with your strong hands, and aggressive lines with your weak hands. If they call you down on the river, just muck and say you had "the biggest draw that missed" (whatever that was). Even though you had a complete airball of course. But beware that even if you do that, they will catch on after some time. Then, just go back to playing tight.

I wouldn't go to the well on that one. I find players don't 3 bet too light preflop, so bluffing wouldn't be good. I'd just call his 3 bet with QQ, probably KK too, and r/r AA, then maybe a hand like AJs, having an ace in your hand makes r/r better as he won't have AA as often. Depends what your raising range is there.

i am no expert on autism so please take what i say with a grain of salt

i am guessing your memory in general is fine but maybe being in a loud busy casino with other people is too much of a distraction to being able to get the poker hands into your memory?

if this is the case maybe you can try to limit these distraction with headphones, sunglasses? you can also use a cell phone to take notes while playing. also consider that you don't need to remember every detail of each hand and nobody does but if you can make a note of player types based on some hands you saw it can be helpful.

maybe you can develop your own "code" or short hand for remembering hands. if you follow the same process each hand it might help build some useful habits.


at the 1/2 level and with some memory changes i wouldn't worry about using your image that much unless you are playing with the same group of guys all the time.

Also have you tried playing online? Maybe that would help you concentrate, as there's less people around to distract you.

Thanks for the replies, some good stuff to think about.

On the headphones/sunglasses good idea, I generally can only focus on one thing at a time so the noise and visual distractions in the casino are something to look at.

It makes sense to expand my range and 3bet if I'm next in the pot with 67s type hands once I have that solid image. It would certainly confuse people when I call raises with ak/jj type hands early in a session.

It feels like I can make a couple additions to my play like that and steal a pot or two and get an extra value bet call later on when moves like that show down if I make a hand when doing it.

Yeah I love flatting things like JJ or AK preflop, they rarely put you on it.

Agreed, doing some light 3 bets with SC or suited Ax is a great idea. Hands like KQ and the like play well as a 3 bet bluff also as you often have 2 OC's to their PP's and block KK and QQ. Take great caution though as they can call pre with AK/AQ, so you want to pot control your TP's a lot.

I ran a post about this but got banned.

All geniuses have Autism.. close links to it in their Family.

So if u have autism.. u prob have higher iq.. and should do well.

I have close links to Autism.. iq over 135.. or so...
and won 300,000 playing online. thats only playing when I feel like it.. part time..

so yeh it helps.. brain has more potential with links to Autism.

Is it so that people with autism are prone to be better at analytical thinking, but may not do as well when it comes to interacting with people / understanding how they feel, etc? For instance, would you think it's an advantage to have autism if you are a chess player, but a disadvantage if you wanna be the cool popular kid who is funny and has all the girls? Obviously it's not so simple, but yeah... I'm just ignorant about this.

Wondering if you mean 'amnesia' because if you have autism then playing poker as you describe is more or less impossible. I guess people use autism sometimes to mean 'on the autistic spectrum', and it is harder for you to process social information and a bit harder for you to take the perspective of others, making poker harder. But autism..proper autism...you would fail at poker, just so exploitable. There is a form of the game you would play, where you just think of your own hand and follow some heuristics but beyond that, you're screwed. I mean, you can't imagine many mental setups that would screw you up more for poker than that.
Some autists are 'savants' and amazeballs at systemetizing, but by no means all. There is a general trend towards systemetizing and away from empathizing, which it is suggested sit on either end of a continuum (Extreme Male Brain Theory of Autism, for example).
I don't believe there's a correlation between autism and higher IQ, will need to confirm. But if you have a a higher IQ, like 130, 140, no way you can use this to suggest anything about autism. There are standard tests and they are not intelligence tests per se, they are perspective taking tests and the like. As far as they measure 'social intelligence', autists are obviously way down at the bottom of those scales.

Got ADHD and perhaps a burger or a two in my ass, and def recognize a lot of that. I find it impossible to properly focus in something that I don't really give a **** about. Unfortunately for me, this includes poker hands unless there are some interesting underlying themes, or I am mega blazed and something hilarious happens during the hand. Since I've lost interest to theory as well, and the latter tends to lead to bad luck, this translates to only just occasionally gambling while drunk and/or high.

Also, you seem to get all anxious about monies. Fortunately there is a perfect remedy for this condition and it is called alcohol.

So basically what I am suggesting is that you should become a raging alcoholic.