Pokertracker has hurt my game.

[TakenItEasy]

I posted these hands earlier and got no responses. I have since analyzed them and think there are some very valuable lessons here so I am bringing them back. I also posted more detailed reads. I meantioned Pokertracker because I think PT has made me lazy online while my live reads are so much more detailed.

Live $5/$3/$2(button) $10-$200 Spread Limit

Hand 1:
I'm CO TAG ~$450, I have shown down a few good hands and should have a pretty solid image.

Button LAG ~$400, he hasn't shown down many hands, used aggression to take down small pots especially when weakness was shown. His frequency to the flop suggests that he likes to limp with small pairs, suited/unsuited connectors/gappers, suited aces, broadway. His preflop raising frequency suggests that he would be raising AT+ 77+ in this situation.

EP call $10, MP call, I call with K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img],J [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], Button calls, SB completes, BB checks

Pot: $55, flop: J [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img],5 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]
Checked to me, I bet $45, Button calls, the rest fold.

Pot: $145, turn: J [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img],5 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img],2 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]
I bet $100, Button calls

Pot: $345, river: J [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img],5 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img],2 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img],A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]
I check, button pushes all-in, I?


Hand 2:
I'm MP ~$350
EP ~$550, She is a good loose passive player, involved in many pots and has shown down many hands all winners. On many draws she has only acted on the river whether she made her draw on turn or river. However she will protect her hand on a dangerous board. She is not the type to overplay top pair weak kicker and prefers to get those to showdown cheap. She was present during hand 1. Her limp call range in this situation was probably something like 99-, suited ace, AJ+.

EP call $10, EP+1 call, I raise to $50 with K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img],K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], folded to EP who cals EP+1 folds

Pot $115, Flop: J [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img],6 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img],3 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]
EP checks, I bet $90, EP calls

Pot $295, Turn: J [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img],6 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img],3 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img],5 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]
EP checks, we exchange glances, I check

Pot $295, River J [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img],6 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img],3 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img],5 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img],T [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]
EP bets $150, I?

[holyfield5]

you take time to post all this, but its not converted.

[Ralph Wiggum]

[ QUOTE ]
its not converted.

[/ QUOTE ]

[TakenItEasy]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
its not converted.

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

I wasn't aware you could convert a live game.

[holyfield5]

J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] silly me A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] its rocket science K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[TakenItEasy]

Already edited.

[phantom_lord]

fold, shove.

[holyfield5]

fold 1
call 2

[TakenItEasy]

[ QUOTE ]
fold 1
call 2

[/ QUOTE ]

Seems standard on the surface. It's what I would do online and is in fact what I did in both cases although something "felt" very wrong with both decisions at the time.

Think of the hand in context with the reads.

Hand 1: Button is a LAG who hasn't gone to shodown in many hands. He has been very aggressive preflop/flop/turn. Passively playing overpairs, AJ, 2 pairs are very unlikely. Also calling A9 on 2 streets against a solid player who has only shown good hands is also not likely.

He is definately on a draw and with my check on the river, the Ah is too good a danger card to let pass. I knew that he was going to bet his entire range on that card. The Ah was actually a good card for me in that it eliminated all of is AhXh hands which was more than half of his flush draw range. My equity against his range on the river:

Board: Js 9h 5h 2c Ah
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 71.429% 71.43% 00.00% 30 0.00 { KcJc }
Hand 1: 28.571% 28.57% 00.00% 12 0.00 { KhQh, KhJh, KhTh, QhJh, QTs, JhTh, Jh8h, T8s, Th7h, 8h7h, 8h6h, 7h6h, QTo, T8o }

Very clear call.


Hand 2:
The EP player was loose passive who liked to play trappy with draws acting only on the river. The only reasonable draws on the board were flush draws so it wasn't likely that she missed the straight draw and bluffed the flush. My preflop raise and cbet with my solid image showed strength on the flop. I am pretty certain that she was aware that I was putting the breaks on when the flush draw hit the turn and while she could have thought I missed and cbet, she is good enough to not bet a weak J on the river when she will only be called by a better hand and rarely gets a better hand to fold the way she played it. I put her on 2 pair or flush 99% of the time.

Very clear fold.

[TakenItEasy]

I wanted to make this post to illustrate how live reads can vastly imporve your game. I am not well known in this forum, and certainly don't qualify as a Pooh-Bah, but I hope I can make some sense to some of you. I see many more live play posts these days but most seem to lack any decent reads other than LAG/TAG or 2 orbits ago such and such hand happened. Only 6 months ago I tried to post a player read dependant play in MTT where I usually hang out and many players just joked about "looking into your soul" and couldn't take them seriously. Since then I have posted several read dependant posts here and in MTT complete with reads and many come to very wrong conclusions based on the hand alone. It's true what many of the old time pros say about playing the player and not the hand. I hope that with more people having to play live attitudes are changing. BTW try to imagine comming up with the above conclusions using only:
45/25/2.5 and 33/5/.7 for your reads. You might deduce something but not nearly with the same clarity. I'm also not suggesting that you can't pick up more of these pattern reads from internet play but PT has made us lazy. We 4 table while browsing the internet, chatting, posting on 2+2 and it soon becomes too tedious to actually pay attention to hands your not involved in. We barely remember who the preflop raiser was in hands we're in when multitabling. At a casino you are a captive audience and have little choice. Stare at ESPN sports center with no sound or pay attention to the game and people in front of you.

Additional reads:
Hand 1 LAG was not only doing more than his share of PR/CB/Dbl Barrrel but also would call flop and move on danger cards to a point where it was predictable when he would bet.

I first had an idea Hand 2 player was good when the new table first formed. I caught her quickly scanning the players and more importantly the stacks we were each buying and then chose her seat accordingly. While this was not at my home casino and I only had limited play with her previously, she was known and respected by players/dealers. While I am not normally a fan of loose passive play, her style made perfect sense for the structure and the aggression level at the table. Small ball is a difficult style to master ( I have been experimenting with it for about 6 months) yet her play on every winning hand seemed to maximize value from her lesser opponents and it was clear that she had a deep understanding of the game. Certainly enough to know not to bet a moderate hand on the river in hand 2. Her physical tells were nonexistant except when I detected a barely perceptible (and completely believable)false tell of weakness when an opponent was studying her and she had the nuts. I had most of this information within the first hour of play.

I had been a good casual player at casinos for 20 years until the I switched to the internet for its convenience and tournaments. After the legislation I switched back and it's as if I am opening my eyes again for the first time. Even though I didn't act correctly this time all the information was there and my gut was telling me I was wrong. Learning to read players and trusting your reads are two different things, especially after years of internet play, but I am improving daily. I run across 1 or 2 key hands each session where my read dependant play deviates quite a bit from my standard internet play and my results reflect the difference. These 2 hands alone would have been a several hundred dollar swing for that session had I trusted my reads.