Help for a $50NL Player

[morny]

Hello, i was a stt player for a while and made the switch to cash a couple of months ago. It took a while to adjust but i now think i have the hang of the following:

Bankroll Management
Pot Control
I can fold TPTK to a passive player thats getting aggressive
I can fold QQ preflop to an all in and can layy down AA-QQ if i think im beat
My blind stealing is good and i finally think im playing draws well.

Im playing about 10,000 hands per week since i recently moved through 25NL on ipoker to the 50NL level and for the first week after about 8,000 hands i was running about 8-10bb/100. Around this time although i had only about 2,000 hands recorded and i posted my stats on a local poker board and someone assesed them and suggested my postflop aggression and stealing werent agrresive enough. The thread is here but im not posting it so you can assess my stats there just there to show you how i was running at the time:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showt...p?t=2055104932
go to thread 11 as the first 10 threads are poker office stats

So anyway i started making adjustments raising more on the blinds from CO and Button but my early positions stayed pretty tight and i also started to try and get aggressive. Im now -2.65BB after 18,000 hands.

I think the changes started to affect my game, im happy with my postflop play but because i started to get aggressive on the flop RR and betting alot and trying not to call i started to get into difficult situations so i am writing this thread in hope that someone can give me some tips on how to get my post flop agression up to scratch.

I understand that we should always be looking for a reason to either fold or raise and we should have a good reason to call if were going to do it. I started 3 betting flops with PP, MIssed Flops etc and this is where i think i started getting into trouble so what kind of flops and turns should i be RR. Only ones where i have lots of out, hands like gutshot and middle pair, FD's, OESD's, 2 Pair, sets and better, TPTK. Is there any other types of hands i should be doing it with and should i be only doing it on a dry flop/turn.

Also what type of hands should i never be RR with, like AQ on a Axx Flop, seems like a bad hand as i might fold out AJ-A2 which im ahead of and is only getting called by TPTK or better, so maybe RR with A9 say on a Axx Flop might be good because i might make a better hand fold.

I think my problem was i was calling way to much and so when i seen my agression in the 1.8 region i felt i needed to raise more so i started raising all types of hands like PP with overcards and completely missed flops on board and then double barrelling sometimes and getting into an awful mess. When im in the situation of deciding i need to call,fold or raise what should i consider espcially for raising and calling. Should i only ever call with drawing hands im getting odds or implied odds and with the likes of QQ on a Ace high board for pot control, when should i never call and what should the reasons be for raising instead of calling: information on villain, fold out a better hand, value etc

Please help me with some advice as i feel im good enough to be at least breaking even and only for my deposit bonus and rakeback of 35% i would be in big trouble and im so determined to be a winning player at this level that ive reduced my hours in my job to be able to play 10,000 hands a week, i play 5 tables for approx 5 hours 6 days a week or so. Fortunately due to it being a family business i can have as much or as little hours as i want but id like to be making a profit so i can build a bankroll and invest in a better monitor and occassionally withdrawing a small wage to feel im getting something back

Sorry for the long post, i tend to ramble alot [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[whyzze]

Stats are important for locating these leaks in your game. But in my opinion chasing certain stats can be bad. Reraising and double barelling because you want your AF up is just not good. You have to go with the flow and learn.

You know what you need to do but you aren't doing it correctly or at the correct time. If you are making changes to reach some stats goal, the changes need to be slow and over time. If you aren't comfortable raising a hand, then you aren't going to be comfortable postflop with it and so on.

I guess the moral of the story is not to chase stats, and if you do, make it a slow process or else you can get into alot of trouble.



More importantly than all of this - you need to post hands to get the responses you want here. Im not going to go over all of your stats, they aren't important...the thought process is whats important.

[Shizzle12345]

the first 15k hands at 50NL went terrible for me, i kept breaking even sucked out on, and tilt and all. Then i ran hot a little, starting to tilt less and now i got pretty decent winrate. ur 18k sample isnt really much.

Also u gotta spot opportunities to bluff and be aggressive, dont force them. often second barrels on dry boards get called, so dont do that stuff. If u really spot weakness u can second barrel, or reraise preflop. For example, some guy was reraising my pos bets alot, and then the 3rd time i 4bet him big. But dont just randomly reraise pple or raise i spots where u shouldnt just to get ur AF up.

U gotta get it up by spotting places where u fail to be aggressive.

[morny]

Thanks, i think ive spotted one thing which was bringing my aggression factor down, i was calling alot with middle or bottom pair on the flop especially against shorties and re-assesing the turn and maybe calling another small bet against a shortie but folding to a bigstack but thats obviously not great because at best im going to win a small pot so now i either check/raise if i think i can get them off the hand albeit ill take this option not too often or check/fold and im being more aggressive with hands that have lots of outs like FD OESD etc and less aggressive with the likes of small pp.

I agree with what your saying about chasing stats but the problem was and maybe is that everyone is saying that 1.5 is way to passive and i taught i needed to be bluffing to be more aggressive as i didnt know the best hands to be doing it with.

I just done a quick session of 700+ Hands i didnt get out of line but i tried my best not to call a hand unless i had a good reason and i was aggressive with my hands that had potential to improve and my aggression factor leapfrogged to 4.5, even when i was bluffing aggressively i didnt have near that i would maybe increase it to 2.5 so it seems my calling too frequently may have been my biggest weakness. Ill keep this up for a while and see how things go and thanks for the replies its just when your running bad you question alot of your play which is good because i feel now ive plugged another weakness.

[C4LL4W4Y]

To me, those stats looked like you were getting to showdown too often with the worst hand. This is usually a sign of calling too much, and not getting an idea of the range of which your opponent is playing back at you.

PM me if you want to talk about your transition, I did the same thing around January.

[fees]

I'll respond if someone gives me cliff notes

[Check_The_Nuts]

My stats show me as a 4ish AF. I probably play close to the style postflop you want to from my stats alone. I don't think this matters much. This is only over 12k hands too, but I'm a 9 PTBB/100 winner.

I raise more often than you. I probably take more non-standard lines with hands than you do. I double barrell more often and will coincidently bet lighter on the turn. I also stack off lighter on turns if I think your playing back or your range could be wider than normal, etc. My fold % and bet % on thet urn is much greater. On the river its the same deal. I also bet much much thinner than you probably do.

One last thing, I am not a bluff-monkey retard. I don't frequently double barrell bluff or whatever. Its a delicate balance between over-aggressive and not aggro enough. Don't become a bluff-monkey retard, you'll never make money that way.