What is Your Greatest Poker Struggle? Befolder’s Pooh-Bah Post

[OziBattler]

nice post and congratulations

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I know how to bet for value, build a pot correctly, check/call on the river, induce bluffs, steal blinds, defend my blinds, take advantage of aggressive and passive players, etc

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based on this alone should be making you a winner at the table. gg.

also Bilge's post pretty much sums up my thoughts on progression etc although I suspect he is underestimating his progression.

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This pooh-bah is asking you how you prevent yourself from destroying yourself from this kind of error.

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in the homegame I play in I have a big EV edge. Avoiding coinflips and tough hands OOP seems to work since I dont need to gamble with these guys. a "bet when you have it, check/fold when u dont" game works. If you have an EV edge , try and reduce the luckbox factor and minimise huge gambles...just play good poker and profit.

FWIW postflop, I would need a tip top read to even consider releasing it.

[ottsville]

Congratulations & nice post. It reminded me of something I read in a thread in the psych forum:

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I think a lot of people really miss the main point (as I see it) of poker: To do well externally, you must make a very diffcult journey internally. On that journey you're going to find a lot of things that stand in your way- baggage that you've carried for years, that you've created. Are you willing or even capable to erradicate it?


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The "mechanics" of the game are relatively easy to learn, as are the "mechanics" of the perfect golf swing, tennis swing, pedal stroke, etc. If only we can get ourselves out of the way...put aside the limits that we put on ourselves from our previous experiences, emotions, pride, etc that cause us to deviate from the perfect mechanics of the game/stroke/swing.

In POP, there is a section on card reading and trusting your reads. Dr S has a graph that is used to plot your skill/trust. One axis for "ability to make the right reads" and the other for "ability to trust your reads." Using a graph helped me, because I saw that I didn't need to make huge leaps, but just move that plotted mark in the right direction. FWIW, I think what you are describing is something we all go through in the progress of a player.

[Befolder]

Grat reply Otts. I bought POP and read it once a couple years a go. I think I'm definitely at the stage where my mental focus probably needs more work than my understanding of concepts. I've been letting that slide a bit it seems.

I need to dust that sucker off and refresh my memory of it.

[22pajo]

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I think I'm definitely at the stage where my mental focus probably needs more work than my understanding of concepts.

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My thinking on this is that the mental side of the game should have as much thought and study as the concepts/technical side of the game.

[nomadtla]

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Discipline is being able to admit, and more importantly, accept the fact that you're beat and do what you know you is right and fold ... it's what keeps a solid session solid rather than turning it into a slightly losing session and muttering to youself for the next half hour while your play degrades. Staying disciplined no matter what occurs is an important step in becoming a great poker player. I am not a great poker player.


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I got this quote from This Thread in micro NL. Just thought I'd share it since it is applicable to this thread. I hope it makes you think as it did me.

[DavidC]

finding the motivation to play

playing at my best

finding the motivation to study

[Jurrr]

I did this yesterday. Paired board, I have the flopped nut flush that I rightly or wrongly slowplayed and villain 3-bet shoves for 50BB on the river.

Now if it were 100BB I probably just fold. But he is a halfstack. I type in chat "this is a bad call" and pay off his rivered full-house.

P.S. Oooops didn't notice this is minbet lol.

[Fadook]

I'm probably gonna get a lot of flak for saying this, but what the hell. I understand what you're saying, and feel that these boards kinda reinforce that thinking. Example: You have TT, there are a couple of loose passive limpers, you raise everyone folds except the limpers. The flop comes 66x. Checked to you, you bet, they call. Turn's a brick, they check, you bet, one of them raises. This guy has trips. You know it. This is exactly the type of guy who slowplays with flopped trips. But I bet that a lot of the advice would still say call down, and unwilling to believe that a guy could be limping with a hand with a 6, I do call in defiance of my read, and unsurprisingly lose.

[Bilgefisher]

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I'm probably gonna get a lot of flak for saying this, but what the hell. I understand what you're saying, and feel that these boards kinda reinforce that thinking. Example: You have TT, there are a couple of loose passive limpers, you raise everyone folds except the limpers. The flop comes 66x. Checked to you, you bet, they call. Turn's a brick, they check, you bet, one of them raises. This guy has trips. You know it. This is exactly the type of guy who slowplays with flopped trips. But I bet that a lot of the advice would still say call down, and unwilling to believe that a guy could be limping with a hand with a 6, I do call in defiance of my read, and unsurprisingly lose.

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Actually, many of the quality posters on here will fold that hand. It really boils down to pot size at the time. Reads are mere guesstimates. If the pot is giving you 10:1 odds for calling down. You have to feel you will win that hand at least 1 in ten times to make that call.

[Aaron W.]

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I'm probably gonna get a lot of flak for saying this, but what the hell. I understand what you're saying, and feel that these boards kinda reinforce that thinking. Example: You have TT, there are a couple of loose passive limpers, you raise everyone folds except the limpers. The flop comes 66x. Checked to you, you bet, they call. Turn's a brick, they check, you bet, one of them raises. This guy has trips. You know it. This is exactly the type of guy who slowplays with flopped trips. But I bet that a lot of the advice would still say call down, and unwilling to believe that a guy could be limping with a hand with a 6, I do call in defiance of my read, and unsurprisingly lose.

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It's a pretty standard fold given that you know villain is a loose-passive. It's an brainless fold if x > T. I still call down with AA, for the same reasons I call with AK-AT in this hand: You beat more oddly played donk hands, giving you a better chance of still being ahead.