Two Plus Two Newer Archives - how i retooled my game after a downswing

i would first like to state that i am fairly new to poker and have only been playing seriously since april 2007. this is my poohbah post, giving something back to SSNL since it has helped me alot.

i thought myself a great player. i had a pretty good winrate and i was happy with my game.

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/9...sbeforekx5.png
By sh58

i moved up to NL200, and after a good start, this happens...

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/8...nswing3fo1.jpg
By sh58

i went on holiday for a month, moved down to NL100 and started playing again. i was really experimenting with my postflop game. i was bluffraising in spots i had never tried before, valuebetting hands i would usually c/f, double barelling everyone, and triple barelling some people. by doing these things,and by really thinking about the game, i came up with many new ideas about how to maximise my winnings. these things will probaby be second nature to many of the people in SSNL but really weren't for me at the time.

anyway, here are my stats post downswing, til present

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/4...tsafteraq2.png
By sh58

so as you can see from the stats, i am playing almost the same preflop game as before (i think me and everyone else worries too much about this part of the game) although i changed from a 22/17 to a 21/18 but that is hardly a big difference. the real difference is postflop.

my agression factor has risen quite a bit. overall it is more than 1 unit higher than it was before. because of this i went showdown less often and my W@SD decreased as i am bet/folding more than check/calling (more about that later). also note how my W$WSF has increased from 40% to 44% which is a pretty big jump.

it is fairly easy to work out a pretty good preflop strategy that is difficult to exploit whether it be 17/15 - 28/23. however what makes a player is his postflop ability. you can see that before i retooled my game, i was a bit of a pansie postflop, wheras now i am alot more formidable to face.

i am now going to go through some of the things i discovered when i was retooling. most of them have the general rule: 'be more agressive' which is not an original thought, but it is very important.

the first thing to do is learn how to pick up your opponents tendancies. this post explains how i use my PAH to exploit my opponents weaknesses http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...ue#Post12626359

so all my bluffing and valuebetting isn't in the dark. i need some info first. but once i get it, i can start doing all the things i am about to explain

valuebetting!

this is something that you should be thinking every single time you bet. can i squeeze any value out of my hand, will a worse hand call often enough. this is the main aim of poker, getting more money from opponents when you have a better hand.

200NL and below (if you game select well) is full of opponents who overvalue there hands, don't like being bluffed and generally don't fold often enough. these players are the ones to ruthlessly valuebet. it is very suprising what crap these players will call down with. some people who haven't experimented thoroughly enough postflop never find this out as they haven't gone through the stage of bluffing all the time to see what happens, even against people who don't like to fold.

some people who are playing against callingstations stop Cbetting very much as they are called so frequently. i believe this to be the wrong approach. these guys call with any draw, any pair, overcards, overcard, undercards? a bunch of worthless trash in other words. so you can Cbet alot of things FOR VALUE that you wouldn't dream of doing normally. so when i Cbet a whiffed AK against a calling station, i am not burning money, i am valuebetting, because on average, he is gonna be calling the flop with worse than my holding. so i am Cbetting flops with A hi for value on any flop, especially draw heavy boards as he will be calling the most on these type of flops. against these players, you can also Cbet bigger amounts, up to the size of the pot, because they will call with worse, trust me.

something like middle pair is a great hand against a calling station. you can often get 3 streets of value with it, depending on the turn and river. don't be afraid at least to fire that 2nd barell with middle pair.

this is especially true in limped pots when you are in the blinds. don't be afraid to start betting out with marginal holdings, in unraised pots people call with even worse stuff than in raised pots. flopping TPNK is a common occurence in limped pots. you are OOP with a marginal holding. just bet out straight away. you narrow the field, giving yourself a better chance of winning the pot. this applies to good draws as well. remember that a good draw has pretty good equiy against bad players calling range.

thinly valuebetting the river is an incredibly fun and profitable way to play. don't be scared to valuebet extremely thin on the river at these stakes. good opponents will exploit this strategy by bluffraising the river alot, but you will hardly find any opponents capable of this at SSNL.

i love making tiny valuebets in unraised pots on the river. you just know that someone is gonna call your river bet with A hi, so you can bet out with T2o on a JJ452 board. all these little bets you are picking up really help you in the long run.

bluffing!

just before i go into this... by bluffing more you aren't JUST picking up a ton more pots, you are also giving yourself a more agressive image which will help alot, because when you have this image you can valuebet even thinner. sklansky talks about this in the theory of poker and mentions that bluffing should break even on its own but help alot with getting value from your good hands. bluffing and valuebetting are positively correlated imo. the more you bluff, the more you can valuebet. some TAG's struggle to get their good hands paid off when they are in pots with thinking players. if they were more agressive and bluffed more, they would find it alot easier.

the most important bluff to add to your arsenal is the 2nd barell. obviously every single player in SSNL 2nd barells, so it isn't anything new. but just do it more. it has almost become my standard procedure nowadays to 2 barell. as i said before, people will call Cbets with a whole bunch of trash, but quite alot of them will not continue to the river with the trash, because bottom pair on a 752 board may look ok to them at the moment, but it is hard for them to continue when their 3rd pair gets demoted to 4th pair, then 5th pair by the river.

if i had a marginal holding like MP, TP or a small overpair, i would often go into c/c mode if a scarecard hit the board on the turn after i had Cbet the flop.

eg - i have JTss on a T53cc flop. i Cbet and get called. the turn brings the Qc. in the past, i would c/c the turn and then probably c/f the river. nowadays my standard line would be to b/f, which is alot better as you stop them from bluffing you off the hand, and put pressure on them to make a decision.

bet/folding the turn ought to be the standard line against most players when a scarecard hits.

stop set mining with small pocket pairs. it is fine to call raises with them, even out of position, as long as you don't merely set mine. start c/r alot of flops, especially if they aren't likely to have much of a hand. this will also allow you to get paid off when you actually hit a set. hardly ever c/c with them. it is really silly to call a button raise against a 28/23/4 opponent who has a Cbet% of 90% with 22, then c/f the flop. just c/r them. and if they call, fire again often on the turn.

another thing you can do occasionally against reasonable opponents is to Cbet then 3bet over their raise as a bluff. if you Cbet an Ahi board for instance, and a good TAG raises you, often he is gonna be FOS, you can profitably 3bet quite often.

what do you do if someone calls your raises in position and then floats you? yes you should tighten up your raising range preflop, but you shouldn't Cbet any less often. all you have to do is put extra money in the pot after the flop, you can 2 barell or c/r as a bluff.

just experiment with trying to win more pots and you will discover lots of great places to bluff.

lastly, play some headsup poker. drop down a limit or 2 and put in some hours playing HU cash, you can really practice the stuff i have talked about because you are involved in every pot. you learn more about valuebetting and bluffing in 100 hands of headsup than 500 hands of 6max.

summary:

use PAH
be more agressive
bet/fold, don't check/call
valuebet thinner
bluff more
experiment more
play some headsup poker

take your game to the next level. pre downswing i was still a profitable player, i was still a winning player, but my game was weak. the downswing i had was a blessing in disguise because it eliminated all my complacency and made me rethink what i had to do to beat these games