I figured it out
I finally figured out what Poker Blogging is about. You share the big-wide-world view and do not give anyone a clue as to how to REALLY win at Poker! heh. So here is a challenge to you all: How do I get a smiley face? All the good questions are there: How do you become aggresive? When do you back off? All the other stuff. I am a little tired of being passive and it is time to kick some ass! On a good note: One winning session I had showed a 7.5 aggression rating! The highest I have ever had! Woot!
posted by SirFWALGMan at
8:50 AM
1 Comments:
Well, coming from someone who has been pretty successful at limit over the last six weeks or so, here are a few pointers from a smiley face:
Pre-flop:
1. Position. I know this is pounded to death, but it is critical, this means to fold hands like KJs, KQo ATo, etc in EP and a lot of times in MP1 or MP2 if someone has already opened the pot. To me, this is the differece between 22% WP$IP and 30% WP$IP, and it's a critical difference because these hands do not make money out of position.
2. Raise it in. When you've got a non-drawing hand, like big broadway cards or a pair bigger than 8's, bring it in for a raise most of the time. Since you're mostly playing late-middle to late position, you've got a pretty good idea how many people are going to see the flop. If you're in late positon with KQ, KJ, 99, etc, raise it in, especially if you are the first to enter the pot. In fact, if you are opening, you should almost always be raising unless you've got a specific reason not to, like you want a multi-way pot.
3. Cold calling. Don't do it. If it's two bets to you and you can't make it 3, fold. This means you wont be cold calling with hands like 87s or 44 if someone has raised and it looks like it's going to be 2 or 3 in the pot - toss your drawing hand instead of cold calling. If, however, it's going to be 5 or more to the flop and you've got a drawing hand, raise. Make the pot as big as you can and let everyone come in, this also disguises your hand. If you hit, you'll win a monster, if you miss, you've given up a couple of extra small bets, no biggie.
That should help you get in the pot with the lead and keep the number of hands you're playing, especially out of position, down.
Post-flop:
If you have the lead, keep it. If you raised, and no one reraised, bet the flop no matter what. You'll have to decided what to do if you have several smooth callers, or if someone reraises, but that's way too big a discussion for the comments section of a blog. The key is, if you've got a tight-aggressive table image, you should always be betting the flop when you've got the lead coming in. If it's a raggy-flop, people will think you have an overpair, if it's a flop with an A or a K, they will think you made a big pair. Again, when someone plays back at you and you've missed, it's decision time, but it's much harder to be the person staring down the business end of the bet than it is to be the person tossing the chips out there.
This means when you have JJ and the flop comes AKx, you're going to be betting into someone who might have a better hand. That's ok because the flop is the time to find out if you're beat, not the later, more expensive streets. If you don't bet the flop, the guy who hits that flop with Kx is going to call you down on the turn and the river or worse, make you call him down if you check.
River: Check behind in position with moderate strength hands. If you're last to act and your opponent(s) have been check-calling you on the flop and turn and they check the river, if your hand is of moderate strength (like top pair, two bottom pair, etc.) you should check behind them. More often than not, if you have them, they're going to fold on the river anyway, and if they've hit two pair or another draw or have been slow playing trips, you're going to get check-raised. This is a tough one to learn, but it will save you a lot of money.
These are just a few tips but I hope they help. Obviously there's a lot more to it, but it sounds like you've got the aggression part mostly down, you just need to work on being more selective pre-flop and probably in being more tactical about how you bring certain hands in and playing in position more often and out of position a lot less often.
Good luck, you already know the money is out there, it just takes discipline to get it.
3:57 PM
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