Help with my leaks!

Pontus · #1 03-06-2007, 05:09 PM

Hi again everybody! Now I have been thinking and thinking about making this post or not, but I decided that it couldn't be more then bad.

 Gray=Background story and not far to relevant. No need to read if you just want to post a quick tips or something like that 

 Black=Actual question, basically. 

I've been playing for a year with about $15 a month, it's not much and it's definitely not any kind of bank-roll requirements but since I haven't got a lot of m
money to spend to be able to afford all other kinds of things I'm up to, I realized this would be okay. Either I win or I lose. It's not the world and it's not a great amount of money.

Over this year, the maximum amount I reached was $100-$120 something and then lost it all in a week or something. But now, after about a years playing, I've gained some experience which has helped my play a lot. Now this month, I've actually swallowed my pride and got down to the lowest of the low levels. ($0.01/$0.02 NL). I've read like two books or something. The first one, a Swedish one, called Pokerhandboken helped me a lot since I read it before I started playing and got the basics in my head. (But everyone who has been playing for a while knows how much those "basics" stays in your had. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]).
The second one, Hold'em for advanced players. I can't say that I got anything out of this. At least not what I remember.
I've also read a big part of Theory of Poker and now I reread it to take me through the whole book in a couple of days so that I won't just stop.

By this I got some tactics, really basic stuff. I've also started to frequently read at these forums which has already helped me a bit.

Why am I saying this? Well, at that low level, I've actually for the first time felt that I didn't play for money that I couldn't loose. If I'd loose $8 on the $0.05/$0.10 I'd be close to busted out for the month. At this level, I've got the feeling that if I loose the buy-in, it's not the whole world, it's just a buy-in, which I can win back by playing good.
This feels really good. I've also started to realize the importance of position the last week and started to fold a couple of hands OOP.

I ain't got the hang of the reading hands thing yet but I think that I have a much bigger problem now.

Now I've been playing lowest limit 6-max, since I'm not getting any thrill out of fullring tables. I maybe will when I'm able to multitable more than two tables.

It's not that I've been playing bad postflop, I think, since I often win more than I loose. I win about 50% of the pots I play if you count the poker softwares built-in statistics which I don't really thrust.

The real things that I am having a mess with is the preflop hands, which hands are really good and such, but I think that I am playing too many. I tried not to today and played quite tight but still as aggressive as I'm playing but it didn't seem to fix my leeks that I can find right now.
To get the best advice out of this, I'll try to write down ALL the hands I usually play and this is taking a little guts to actually do. Here they come:

AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT (raise with those, a little heftier raise with JJ, TT and maybe QQ if someone raised before me)

AK, AQ, AJ, AT (usually play and raise with those)

KQ, KJ, KT (still very aggressive as with the ones above)

QJ, QT, Q9, Q8s (I don't think that I play more queens then those, I try to keep it to QJ, QT but I've heard they are not so good though, but it's 6-max so I don't know)

JT, J9s, J8s (tries not to play J8o-J7s but it happens sometimes)

I usually limp when I'm not UTG or UTG+1 with:
AXs, K9s-K4s, Q7s-Q4s, J8-J5s, All scs over 56s. Maybe some One-gap higher sc, like T8, 97 and such.

Well, that's pretty much my hand range but I'm not sure I only play those cards. It seems like it's far to many or what do you guys think?

Even more? Yes! When the flop comes, if I'm in position against someone I know is weak, I don't drag myself from bluffing a pot-pet at quite a bit. I don't think this has made me loose any money.

When I hit top pair on a low flop (like 2, 4, 7 and I have A7), I don't mind raising a pot bet to quite a nice amount. Maybe I'll just call depending on my hand and who's the opponent.

When I hit two-pair and there's a big pot, I'll try to pick it down right after the flop, specially if there's a drawy flop.

So, what do you guys think that I should do with my play? All tips are welcome and I'm very happy for any response.

=) Good luck at the poker tables!

tsearcher · #2 03-06-2007, 05:28 PM

Sorry, I was too lazy to read your whole post. But the best way to find your leaks and fix them is to post hands in the appropriate forums. Be sure to read the FAQ's and use a hand converter before you post.

SweetPea · #3 03-06-2007, 05:53 PM

If you want to improve your game (and I don't claim to be a great player) then there can be no "sometimes I do this, and sometimes I do that".

You must have a reason for why you do every single action during the game, and be able to explain how you reached that conclusion. Just the process of doing this and making it a habit will show you leaks you didn't even think of previously.

After you can explain in black and white the various reasons that caused you to call/bet/fold, then come here with some hands that you believe were played poorly, or that are shown by PT stats to be underperforming for you.

We can debate the theory of why do a particular action, but if you start listening to advice like "be more aggressive" or "leadout the flop less" without knowing why and when you should follow that advice, you are in for a world of trouble in your game. Even if you are able to follow somebody's recipe for success, such as back in the day when playing an ABC, weak-tight wannabe TAG, game could fill your wallet, then you are going to get crushed when the game changes around you.

A perfect example are the hordes of low limit bonus grinders that can't get by on a 12%/5% game anymore. There was a time when you could have written the secrets to success for these tables on a notecard. No longer.

cdlarmore · #4 03-06-2007, 08:58 PM

My abridged bible is shorter than just your black section. Here is what it comes down to...play tight, and aggressive, get pokertracker to run your stats and understand them. Get your stats in the right range, post here and let people tell you why you suck...

P.S. I am convinced that the easiest and quickest way to become profitable is to get hellmuths first book, read the first 8 chapters and use it like your bible, dont vary play, follow his rules and expand hands as you get better.

cdl

mvdgaag · #5 03-06-2007, 09:38 PM

I was lazy, but might point you to some very good advise. Get pokertracker and read this threat... It'll help you very well... Just make sure you have a large enough sample of a consistent strategy.

GL

AnyMouse · #6 03-06-2007, 11:30 PM

so i had pity on you and read your whole post, as i am learning is a very uncommon occurrence on these forums...

the first and major thing is that you're playing about 3x too many hands for how much skill you have. i'm sure the guys in the micro forum can help you more, since i haven't played much at that level in a while (although i screw around just for giggles now and then).

i'm not claiming this is optimal, but it will absolutely help you win more:

everything under AJ Dump if there's a raise in front of you.
when it's folded to you, Don't Limp. open raise.
Stop Playing KT+below, QT+below, any J.
play your pocket pairs under TT/99 for sets.
learn to dump pocket pairs with 2 overs and any resistance (=calling+)or 1 over and any aggression (=betting+).
play suited connectors carefully (=not in re/raised pots) if at all and don't play past flop against aggression without 2-pair or a good+ draw (min 8 outs).

Pontus · #7 03-07-2007, 02:16 AM

[ QUOTE ]
so i had pity on you and read your whole post, as i am learning is a very uncommon occurrence on these forums...

the first and major thing is that you're playing about 3x too many hands for how much skill you have. i'm sure the guys in the micro forum can help you more, since i haven't played much at that level in a while (although i screw around just for giggles now and then).

i'm not claiming this is optimal, but it will absolutely help you win more:

everything under AJ Dump if there's a raise in front of you.
when it's folded to you, Don't Limp. open raise.
Stop Playing KT+below, QT+below, any J.
play your pocket pairs under TT/99 for sets.
learn to dump pocket pairs with 2 overs and any resistance (=calling+)or 1 over and any aggression (=betting+).
play suited connectors carefully (=not in re/raised pots) if at all and don't play past flop against aggression without 2-pair or a good+ draw (min 8 outs).

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for actually reading. I think that I agree with your "tighten up"-think so I'll make a serious try to play tighter for two hours today, I think, and when I've played two hours, I'll see how I did.

The thing is that it is very hard to actually not call with KJ when there is a raise in the pot, especially a small one, but I guess that's one of the hard parts for me.
Any tips there?

Tjorriemorrie · #8 03-07-2007, 05:06 AM

[ QUOTE ]
so I'll make a serious try to play tighter for two hours today, I think, and when I've played two hours, I'll see how I did.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
... Just make sure you have a large enough sample of a consistent strategy.

[/ QUOTE ]two hours?!? u must be kidding. trust me, don't go on 2 hours. you need 10k hands at least.

[ QUOTE ]
The thing is that it is very hard to actually not call with KJ when there is a raise in the pot, especially a small one, but I guess that's one of the hard parts for me.
Any tips there?

[/ QUOTE ]
There's a very good reason not to play KJ when there's a raise and that is that it's very hard to play postflop. If you really want to play a raise, rather play a pocket pair for sets or suited connectors where you'll know if you're WA/WB

mvdgaag · #9 03-07-2007, 10:02 AM

KJ looks nice, but a raise most of the time means AA-99, AK-AT and KQ or KJs... These are all hands that either are favorite to KJ or dominate KJ. So if you hit you don't know if you are good or the other has a king or jack as well, but probably with a better kicker.

Be real tight against raises if it comes to the high card hands. Suited connectors and small pairs play ok against a raise, because if they make a hand like a straight or flush, they can beat a big pair or two pair. Just make sure you have enough implied odds... You only hit a set around 12% of the time and a descent draw with suited connectors around once every four times, but you still have to draw which might cost you more. So be sure the price you pay can be made up by your winnings the few times you do hit.

[ QUOTE ]
play suited connectors carefully (=not in re/raised pots) if at all and don't play past flop against aggression without 2-pair or a good+ draw (min 8 outs).

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree that you shouldn't play them in reraised pots, but I play them in raised pots as long as I'm deep enough.

GL

Pontus · #10 03-07-2007, 11:08 AM

[ QUOTE ]
two hours?!? u must be kidding.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, I'm not, I'll make a serious try today for about two hours. You must realize that only because you need 10k hands to determine weather your tactics May be working or Not, you don't need it to know weather it's worth to keep playing that way or not, since that's what I'll be doing. If I, after two hours of play, still feels some kind of insecurity of playing too many hands etc. etc as I tried to describe in my first post, I'll try to find even more leaks in my game.
This since I feel that you shouldn't need to feel some kind of chill in your body thinking that what you just won was luck.

Hope this makes since to you.