Summary of poker content from dbitel's trip down the well. *long*

[Dory]

It was suggested in the Well thread that we should have an FAQ of Well answers or a link to previously asked questions. So I thought I would collate all the poker content from dbitel’s stint in the well.

I would also welcome feedback if anyone thinks this is useful - or just a waste of forum space.

The original thread is here

<font color="blue"> Q How do you play A2-A5 suited UTG in 6max preflop, also do you raise preflop with 22-44 UTG? </font>

Personally, I raise all of them unless table is very very loose passive, in which case, I can see a good arguement for limping them.

I wouldn't blame any1 for just folding the A2-A5s though if they're not 100% comfortable postflop

<font color="blue"> Q How can I find the discipline to play X hours a week of my A game? </font>

This is something I really struggle with personally (I'm writting this reply at the same time as 4 tabling!).

I think I certainly helps if you enjoy poker, as it means you won't be as distracted when you play. The less distractions the better. Don't read 2p2, don't watch porn, just concentrate.

It helps if your body and mind are both in shape. When you're not playing, get regular excersize, eat well and sleep well.

When you're playing, make sure you take some breaks, and if you feel you're playing badly/are too tired, just stop.

Also, a lot of people say its good to get into the "poker frame of mind" before playing, so read 2p2 for 5 mins or so before playing

<font color="blue"> Q How can I avoid falling into a rut of bet/fold flop, check turn bad flops when I raise preflop? </font>
I will presume you are talking about cbets when you miss the flop?

If you are, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. Just C/R turn a bit with good hands and double barrel with a draw a few times and you should be fine

<font color="blue"> Q Why do I seem to be playing too aggressive after reading 2+2?
I seem to either stack people or be stacked, is this correct play? (I am playing either 0.05/0.1 or 0.1/0.25)
</font>
You seem to be playing more aggressive after reading 2p2 b/c we try to tach you here to play aggressively, which is the best way to play.

Getting stacked shouldn't matter as long as you play hands well and stack people more often than you yourself are getting stacked.

<font color="blue"> Q As I’ve moved up to NL50 I’ve noticed people watch me more and realise i c bet so many flops and have started to CR me a lot. how should i counter this? or am i being paranoid and they usually have the goods? </font>

You are being paranoid. This is most likely just some varience. if you get real worried about it, just cbet a tiny bit less and dont cbet on really wet boards. But I'm at 200NL most the time, and even up there they aren't picking off my cbets with air and I cbet ~100% of the time HU

<font color="blue"> Q For me the absolute hardest parts of playing poker are:

1. Bringing my A game consistently, and every session
2. Variance/down swings
3. Losing sessions

Thus, do you have any "pre-session" strategies you employ to get you focused? (Recently I have begun reading and/or replying to some SSNL posts to get in the frame of mind)
When do you decide to quite if you are in the middle of a losing session? I consistently get in the mind set of trying to get even...which is horrible ------ev.

I am very competive and still have problems accepting that losing sessions, days, weeks, months happen. Any advice on how handle variance and the like? </font>

I actually think it is not just your or my greatest leak, but really just about every1's.

Personally the 1 bit of all this I'm very good at, is quitting when I'm -EV. Just don't chase, you don't need to.

After you lose a pot, try asking yourself "did I play that badly?", "what could I have done better then?", "If I took a break, would I be playing better?", "am I actually lpaying better than other people on the table".

I think the main thing, is that we all know when we're not playing well. The key thing is being able to stop/take a break when this happens.

I am like you in the way that I'm very competetive. The thing to note is that this is a good thing, not a bad thing. The important thing is that you channel this competitiveness correctly. If you start raising 72o in bad position etc just b/c you feel the need to "make something happen" or if you start to slowplay wrongly, b/c you feel the need to gain every extra bit of value, then you are really losing out. If however your competitiveness leads you to concentrate for longer and play your A game for longer b/c you cant stand to lose, then this is good.

So to summerise, the important thing is to keep playing your best poker, and if you're not...just stop. It's also important not to keep doubting yourself. I know I always do when I'm losing. The thing to remember is that you're a good player and are a winning player

<font color="blue"> Q LAG or TAG? And why? </font>

TAG in EP
LAG on button and to a smaller extent on CO.

b/c playing marginal hands OOP is a hassle that is not needed and b/c playing any hand in position is +EV most the time

<font color="blue"> Q which ones of your suited connectors are winners overall? </font>

In my bigger db at full tilt, amazingly I'm a loser with AKs, also a loser with 56s. 45s and 23s are slight losers and all the others are in the green. FWIW, 67s and 78s are my biggest winners, both at 0.75 BB/hand

<font color="blue"> Q what are your standards for raising them? (suited connectors)</font>

I raise them 80%+ of the time in CO and on the button (limp the rest) and I fold them UTG and UTG+1 90%+ of the time.

I think the reason that I'm losing with some of them (apart from small sample size) is that I've been calling too many raises with them preflop

<font color="blue"> Q How do you play AJ/KQ/KJ/A10, all offsuit, on the button or cutoff with two limpers? Assume the table is a little on the loose side. </font>

Raise AJ/KQ 100% of the time
Raise KJ/AT 85% of the time and fold 15% of the time (when my cbets are getting no respect)

(later addition - yeah, i guess folding is a bit weak. I just really hate playing TP hands in limped pots. But yeah, I do agree that calling&gt;folding.)

<font color="blue"> Q Recently you argued that it is a big mistake to complete in the SB with any two suited and then a couple days later argued that calling a 4-5BB raise from BB with A5s is an automatic play. </font>

With the hand you were refering to, the raise was only 4BB I think and we were BB, so it was only 3BB more. The most important thing though was number of callers. We were closing the action on what was going to become a 4 way pot. The other factor that I think might be more important than all the others, is that it is a raised pot, so our implied odds are better. Let me explain what I mean by this. If the flop comes 855r in an unraised pot and we just bet it out. The most likely outcome is that every1 folds and we just win whats in the pot. In a raised pot though, theres a much higher chance some1 has an overpair, and so we stack some1. Also, if the flop comes A5x, again, we stand to win a big pot from AK/AQ. If however we just complete with 72s in the SB and the flop come Q72r or something, again, most of the time all we do is win the blinds. Lastly, when we flop a big draw, although we will have less FE, there will be much more in the pot to win.

Also, I consider Axs to be a very nice hand multiway. You are always drawing to the nuts flush. Normally, any draw you flop will be a 12+ out draw and when we flop 2 pair, we get paid big time from a strong ace.


<font color="blue"> Q What is the largest downswing you have ever had (in terms of buyins)?

What is the longest breakeven streak you have ever had?

Do you take any special steps to recover from downsing/breakeven streak/frustrating set back...?

Do you have a stop-loss in place? (End session at X amount of buy ins lost?)

Did you experience a decline in the pleasure you get from poker after you began playing for the purpose of making money? If so, how severe?

How many hours do you play per day/week? How long are your sessions?
</font>
I think I had a 10-12 buy in downswing when I 1st moved up to $200NL (I was still at full ring at the time). After this, I cashed out all money and didnt play for a month or so. When I returned, I played 100NL 6max and it was as a direct result of TWP's sweating session here.

I've had a 15k b/e stretch or so I think and it was depressing as hell

IME, the best way to recover from a downswing/ b/e stretch is to stop playing for a while

I don't have a stop loss. Stopping should be about how good the poker is you are playing, not how much money you have won/lost

As I've played more and more poker, the enjoyment has just slowly started dropping. I don't enjoy it all too much at the moment.

My sessions are 2-3 hours usually. I plan to have 2 per day, 5 days a week

<font color="blue"> Q why do I make 1 big mistake every day that ruins hours and hours of hard work? Every day - 1 mistake, day ruined. Why? </font>

We all do this unfortunately. The less often we do this, the better we become.

Half the battle is knowing what to do, the other half is actually doing it. Both are as important as each other, and both are as difficult at times as each other

<font color="blue"> Q I know when I used to play FT 1/2 a while back, you ventured in the games as well. How would you compare the FT games to party poker? When school starts again, I plan on moving my roll to party. Can you compare the two? </font>

Even though my PTBB/100 is higher at FT, I think PP has the softer games. The games ARE different though. In general, the FT games are a lot weak-tighter and as a result, you can button steal and cbet a lot and take a load of small/medium size pots. At PP, its all about findig a very loose table and making hands and value betting the hell out of them. The other big difference is the regulars. At FT, its hard to find a table without DianaAA or stc5k or any of the other regulars at it. While they are w/t in general and can be pushed around/manipulated, they won't just throw stacks away like fish will, and so them being at the table takes away a spot for a fish and also is some1 else to stack the fish.

2 other differences is that there are FAR less shorities at PP. I can easily find 8 tables if I wanted where every1 has over 70BB or so. And lastly, the buddy list is brilliant at PP

<font color="blue"> Q How much different is the 200nl game from the 100nl game on party? </font>

I find it quite a bit different. The 100 games are truly shockingly awful. The standard of even the "good" players there is just terrible. At the 200 tables, the "good" players are a lot better, the fish are still fish, but the inbetween players aren't as bad.

I find there more 3-betting preflop and also a bit more floating. The game is def ridiculously beatable though. I do think table selection is more important though

[Grunch]

Well done, Dory. Although this doesn't really qualify as a PBP, I'll need to figure out a way to get this in to the master sticky.

[goofyballer]

This is great! Thanks a ton for compiling it.

[ilya]

Thank you Dory

I don't understand why dbitel seems to recommend folding hands like 76s UTG while at the same time advising to raise/limp hands like A2s-A5s. The only argument I can see is that having an Ace makes it somewhat less likely that one of the 5 players behind us has one too.

Would anyone be so kind as to shed some light on this?

[abarrenfuture]

Awesome, thanks for the hard work Dory

[SilverLining1]

Dory - could you be so kind to explain to me what you look at when you begin to select your tables (i.e., "table selection?").

A'

[Jim C]

What an excellent post! Thank you.

Can you or someone else post a link to this sweat-session you referred to? I'm assuming this was a screen-capture video?

New to this forum... A reforming limit player [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Jim

[Dory]

Silverlining and JimC - These questions were answered by dbitel - a poster and poker player with a lot more experience than me.

I just compiled the poker content from a thread of general questions that dbitel was answering. Unfortunately I think that Dbitel has stopped answering questions in that thread now, but you can have a look at it here .

The sweat session he mentions I think was done over IM with aj playing and discussing his hands real time. I don't think it was converted to a video - although other posters have posted videos. There was a very good one by a MSL player thedustbustr a little while ago. It'shere

You might also want to check out PokerAvi

As for table selection (I'll answer this even though it wasn't really me you asked) I still play 25NL 6-max, and most of what I look for is a table with none, or only one short stack. After that I will evaluate the table as I am playing. If it seems that there are two other people who know what they are doing (this is relative at 25NL, but I am still a beginner myself) I will generally look for a better table.

Thanks for the responses everyone.

[munkey]

vnh [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Thanks for this Dory (john?)

[Dan Bitel]

droy,

really nicely dont. Thanks for this.

I think if maybe you or some1 else could do this after every well thread (I'm sure a title will be up for grabs for it), then we can just link all the summery of well threads through the master sticky