Plug small leaks and get better at poker (very tl;dr worthy)

[agt]

Nice post. Thanks. Just finished my first 10k hands and this is all good info to consider.

Cheers

[OziBattler]

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Great post. Clarifying question:

You say your goal is to get your WTSD down, but then you later say "My WTSD is still <32%, but..." Spider's FAQ advises WTSD of 28-32. Is the "<" a typo for ">"?

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good spot. Yes, thats a typo.

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Great post. I still don't like reading "bet/raise to get info," but I trust you mean that you're just getting incidental info after a bet/raise for value.

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you assume correctly. Im trying to think of a good example and what keeps popping into my head is situations where we raise on the flop when some relatively passive donk bets into us, get 3 bet and then same guy donks the scary turn.

I find that these spots I speak of usually come about when my bet/raise was also done to eliminate players, given bad odds for draws, isolate some predictable fish and/or protect marginal/ok hands

[ QUOTE ]
I have a WTSD of 36, is that bad?

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if your W$SD is like 42-48 with this W2SD then I dont think is great and taht you may be able to identify spots where you should have folded. If you W$SD is somethink like 55-58% then your are running hot.

in short for me my W2SD was around 36 and my W$SD was NEVER above 50. It was always in the 45-48 range over a decent sample. However now, My W2SD has decreased a point or so and it was (over a certan sample size) even <32 at one point but then I hit that 300BB streak and both numbers have risen. When my streak ends, that will be a good test to see where the number goes.

Regarding btspiders FAQ, I follow that closely. For me and the games I play in I think 31-32 is reasonable. if I got my W2SD to like 28 I think I would be making too many incorrect big laydowns.

Now, if your W2SD isnt 32 then there may not be great cause for alarm IF you W$SD is reasonable and/or you have a nice win rate. Remember that it is just a stat....a stat which for me turned out to be a clear indicator of a leak. Plug the leak...fix the stat. word.

What I find is that on the better tables
1. pots can be bigger which means calling more bets on the river with marginal hands
2. you get more free showdowns (sometimes I think 'ty for the free SD but you sir are a [censored] for not value betting when I would have folded and my W2SD just got worse. lol)

[ QUOTE ]
You, and some other posters, have extolled the value of learning to play short handed and learning to play HU. I have bitten the bullet as far as short handed goes and feel like I am making progress at learning it by playing a few K hands of 6-max. I agree that it is helpful in some ways with playing FR. I haven't brought myself to HU yet (except in NL SnG's the more of that I get the better I like it of course) but as far as trying to learn HULHE what do you think is the value and how does it help a persons game overall. Perhaps you and other posters might expand on this.

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I think playing HU for nano stakes is quite important and is sort of a crash course. Pure HU play isnt quite the same as when you get into blind defence spots in FR or 6max but they are similar.

regarding posts, all I can think of off the top of my head is some post str8fish made during/after the recent HULA or to visit the HeadsUp forum.

however, for practical purposes, I think you just HAVE to play some HU for real. If not HU then 5-6handed games. HULA was great for HU so be sure to play next time Wookie runs it. Stars used to have 2c/4c HU games but not anymore. doh.

[Jago]

Thanks for the reply ozi.

On closer inspection my WTSD is 34.6 with W$SD at 54.5, which seems to suggest im running a bit hot [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[snakekilla88]

My results after reading your post at hand 13k.

[OziBattler]

snake, wow...you played 6k hands in less than a day? surely not...Im happy to claim credit for the upswing as long as youcut me in for 10% of the profits...holla. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[VirgilStarkwell]

Thanks for the great post.

Glad to hear I wasn't the only "ignorant fool playing ubersoft paradise games." I thought maybe it was all a figment of my pre-legislation imagination. Man I miss playing 40/5/1 and running 9BB/100.

[OziBattler]

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Glad to hear I wasn't the only "ignorant fool playing ubersoft paradise games." I thought maybe it was all a figment of my pre-legislation imagination. Man I miss playing 40/5/1 and running 9BB/100.

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thx bro

FWIW It aint just pre-legislation....the site is still basically inhabited by bad players.....so take a guess as to where about half of that beautiful upswing on RHS of that graph is coming from. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Bona]

We hear by the grapevine here in the US that Senator Frist is retiring and moving to Australia. Going into politics there I think.

[OziBattler]

[ QUOTE ]
We hear by the grapevine here in the US that Senator Frist is retiring and moving to Australia. Going into politics there I think.

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he doesnt have to do that...all he has to do is tell George Dubya to tell our Prime Minister to jump and he will say "How high?". Fortunately, the current PM should retire or get voted out b4 poker here gets popular enough to warrant a banning....of course he will be replaced probably by someone as eager to please the US as he is. holla.

[22pajo]

hey oz, great post.

I must admit that when i read it yesterday i skipped straight to your graph because i'm totally results orientated [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

having re read it today i can relate to a lot of your poker experiences; kids (well 1 kid) and work taking priority over poker, trying to cram hands in between demanding priorities, playing while tired, tilting etc.

i'm curious to your "drawing a line in the sand" analogy.
i have played 20k hands now and am down some 100BB so far.
now this in itself is not a problem as i too consider this a "poker educational expense" but i realise that i don’t play well enough. And i, like you before, chase losses and tilt when playing patient and disciplined poker only to be sucked out on time and time again by fish that chase cards to the bitter end and then hit them.

Anyway enough about me, I’m replying to your post with a question: how exactly did you "draw a line in the sand"? What did you do to "start afresh"?