uhhh yeah im a Pooh Bah now, wtf?????

[D.L.M.]

This is my pooh pah post, as with everything i write this may seem unorganized and half ass ed, I'm sorry for that. This is not going to be one any 1 topic, well it is, Poker. I'm going to briefly discuss some things that all of you can do to become better players. I will do this in a odd fashion, I'm sorry I'm not very talented at writing....... SO here it goes

first.... Learn from others at the table. what does that mean... it means that you must observe your opponents, see what types of plays they make, put them on hand ranges, and decide what they might have to make their play, or maybe decide what you think hand they SHOULD have,this will provoke your poker mind, you will decide... well if he has this hand he is dumb for doing this, and this is why, or if he has this hand then hes a genius. you ll teach your self about poker just from thinking about what others are doing. This also will help your hand reading alot.

2nd.... If you want to become a better player... and also follow the advice above, you need to drop your table load. you cant improve a single bit by insta clicking during a session. you miss alot of value, and poker experiences by playing more than 6 tables.for some people 4 tables is too many and that's OK. Nl is very much about adjusting to others, and I'm sorry to tell you that there is a reason that you 12 tablers don't have that high of a winrate. I used to do it too.

3rd don't be afraid to bluff, everyone has to bluff in one way or another, but some do it too much, IMO many dont do it enough. sometimes a bet will be the most appropriate bluff, sometimes you know a bet will be called, but you think that a cr wont, if the money it costs you to make the play is laying an ev edge than take it. don't be afraid to bluff the turn, and the river with all your chips, sometimes you ll get called, theres no way for sure that you ll know hell fold, but he will fold sometimes, and if he does it enough to make it ev, than do it.

4th, dont bluff too much LOL, i say this because you cant bluff too many times in a row, and you also cant bluff certain opponent. and you also must represent some sort of hand, you cant just make a weird looking raise, youll get looked up, if you are playing idiots it might work, but even then....

5 play lots of poker.....but think lots of poker...after any hand that you think you coulda played better, you should think about it, and also you should change the hand, if you had something else, what should you do then, once again this will open your eyes to things you've never thought about. It will also help you develop and unexploitable stragedy.

6you can have horrible sick downswings. the more aggro you play, and the more aggro the game is in general, the worse this can be. i can account that i had 15 buy ins of downswing that i had no control over, I played very well. This will happen, dont let it get you down
WHAT YOU HAD IS WHAT YOU HAD, AND WHAT YOU HAVE IS WHAT YOU HAVE. YOU CAN BE PLAYING VERY WELL AND LOSE MONEY.... ITS OK.

7-Finally a bit of poker strat..... make your decisions earlier in the hand, if someone raises you on a dry flop and you have qq, make your stand there,you cant just call and reevaluate, you must call planing on backing your whole stack up, theres no point in putting another 15 bbs in the pot with the intention of folding if things get ugly, just fold now.the information you get from the call isnt valuable and isnt cheap enough to help you on the turn, decide if this guy is dumb, full or it, or a nit who would rarely bluff, and play the rest of the hand accordingly, there are of course exceptions but not many. once again you can really play the spots well when you dont have many tables going.

- also when you are oop and the pot is getting kinda big, and theres more money in the pot than money left to bet then the pot is the main concern now and the remaining money left to bet isnt as much of a concern get aggressive once the pot gets big, dont give free cards in a big pot. If you have aa kk, you arent soo worried about free cards on a dry board, but theres no point in giving a freee card on a drawy baoard etc....

-preflop.... is not a science it is an art. personally when people tell me to loosen up my requirements against loose players i laugh this is mainly a LIMIT concept. when im hu against a donkey who will stack off with top pair, and make call downs with worse hand Im not really interested in playing aj with him. basically against donkeys who limp call preflop and do other dumb things you need a goood kicker, cause chances are your gonna try to stack them and youd hate to be the one who ends up with the short end. spec hands are ok, but your gonna have to fire some 2nd barrells if you dont hit and that kinda sucks when your donkey calls them, but its what you have to do.

-picking off bluffs.... this is hard to explain and not easy to do while playing lots of tables, but what i can say is that if you opponents knows you are weak... why would he bet so much........? look for those types of situations, and if you arent a station you guy might very well be trying to bluff you.

Ok im sorry but this is the end of my poohbah rant... in conclusion

BLuff more, Bluff less,
Once you have a good understanding of Nl start to analyze every big hand you play, change things about it and decide how that will change your play.
big pots oop are more important to take than remaining stacks since the pot can be won with out a showdown!
Make your decisions and plans earlier in the hand, youd hate to give up xtra money just cause your villian has the stones to fire big 2nd barrels

IF any points i made arent clear to you, just post a reply in this thread and ill try to explain a bit better, hopefully i did an ok job!

GL,
DLM
[img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[acidca]

[ QUOTE ]
personally when people tell me to loosen up my requirements against loose players i laugh this is mainly a LIMIT concept.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm going to have to disagree with you here. Say you are on the button with AJ and a loose player, say 20/12 with 40% steal blinds, opens for a raise. You should be raising here EVERY time, whereas against a tighter player you might call or fold.

The same applies if you are in middle position and a loose player to your right limps in. Here you can isolate with a wider range than usual because his range is pretty weak.

The idea being that when your opponent's range is wider, there are more hands that will be ahead of his range.

edit: rest of it is very nice and I liked it.

[D.L.M.]

btw that point was meant more for when in mp and a fish limps in early position, against loose passive opponents who also slow play. think about it, in a blind steal situation things change drastically, same if villian is loose aggressive.

[LearningCurve]

[ QUOTE ]
- also when you are oop and the pot is getting kinda big, and theres more money in the pot than money left to bet then the pot is the main concern now and the remaining money left to bet isnt as much of a concern get aggressive once the pot gets big, dont give free cards in a big pot. If you have aa kk, you arent soo worried about free cards on a dry board, but theres no point in giving a freee card on a drawy baoard etc....



big pots oop are more important to take than remaining stacks since the pot can be won with out a showdown!


[/ QUOTE ]

DLM,

This is really good stuff. The only point I'm not sure about is above. Is this just suggesting pushing early when you are oop and in a big pot, preferring to fold villain out rather than risk being outdrawn? I think so but wanted to make sure.

Thanks,
LC

[D.L.M.]

yeah basically, once the pot is big enough for a villian to push his stack in at any time he wants, and you believe he has a chance to improve past your hand,then just go ahead and get your chips in first. If the pot were smaller, the amount villian could bet wouldnt be as large therefore you dont have to be soo aggressive.
so like if you have aa and you think your villian has kk then you can play it however you want to, but if you have like qq and you think villian could have ak then you still need to protect the pot if it has gottan large somehow.

you also dont need to to go ai, it depends on the stacks left and how big the pot accually is, but you deffinitly want to bet atleast half the pot, and alot of times more, or yeah you could just go ai.

[_Apollo_]

I liked the advice but this one is the most important one for anyone that needs to improve his game or who is running bad and loosing confidance.
[ QUOTE ]
2nd.... If you want to become a better player... and also follow the advice above, you need to drop your table load. you cant improve a single bit by insta clicking during a session. you miss alot of value, and poker experiences by playing more than 6 tables.for some people 4 tables is too many and that's OK. Nl is very much about adjusting to others, and I'm sorry to tell you that there is a reason that you 12 tablers don't have that high of a winrate. I used to do it too.


[/ QUOTE ]

I had problems to motivate myself last month because I was barely winning where I normally felt I should be able to do much better.
I played 6-8 tables to keep the winrate up and to clear my bonus faster. I still think that you should play as much tables as possible for your skill but its better to step down to 2-4 for a short while if you feel you can do better.
Or even 1 table, you'll be surprised how much more thinking you can do (about other players' hands most of the time) if you have plenty of time to do so.

I started reading opponents hands again in stead of just playing mine and I quickly improved again to a level of skill I did not reach for over a month because I was too much instaclicking and not thinking as much as before about other players hands.
Good advice from OP.

[Phresh]

[ QUOTE ]
personally when people tell me to loosen up my requirements against loose players i laugh this is mainly a LIMIT concept.

[/ QUOTE ]

Uh, you want to isolate and play many hands with the donkeys.

[D.L.M.]

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (8 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: 2+2 Forums)

saw flop|<font color="#C00000">saw showdown</font>

<font color="#C00000">MP1 ($423.40)</font>
<font color="#C00000">Hero ($97)</font>
CO ($221.30)
Button ($125.55)
SB ($30.85)
BB ($87.50)
UTG ($60.90)
UTG+1 ($109.65)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, UTG+1 calls $1, MP1 calls $1, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to $6</font>, <font color="#666666">4 folds</font>, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls $5.

Flop: ($14.50) 5[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
MP1 checks, <font color="#CC3333">Hero bets $9</font>, MP1 calls $9.

Turn: ($32.50) 7[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">MP1 bets $22</font>, Hero calls $22.

River: ($76.50) 6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">MP1 bets $47</font>, Hero calls $47.

Final Pot: $170.50


MP1 has Js Qd (one pair, fives).
Hero has Kh Kc (two pair, kings and fives).
Outcome: Hero wins $170.50. </font>

uh if you can play shity hands agaisnt a donkey like this when you havent paired up. let me know!!! with a loose passive, yes you can isolate with anything you want to, but it would be retarded to try and play this guy hu with 67 suited.

but you know everything so maybe you can tell me im wrong here.

in this case if you hadnt had kk youd get pwned from your newly isolated donkey.

[Phresh]

Uh, yes, I could play "marginal" hands against him. It's very easy. Play a big pot with a big hand and give up without one. Any player with decent postflop game will easily rape a donkey. I'm not sure how this concept is foreign to you, but you want to play MORE HANDS with people you are better than.


[ QUOTE ]
n this case if you hadnt had kk youd get pwned from your newly isolated donkey.

[/ QUOTE ]

Uh, yeah, cause I'm definitely gonna stack off 100BBs without a hand for no apparent reason? Listen man, I've tried being cordial with you, but it's totally obvious that you are a lost cause. Good luck with everything.

[bottomset]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
personally when people tell me to loosen up my requirements against loose players i laugh this is mainly a LIMIT concept.

[/ QUOTE ]

Uh, you want to isolate and play many hands with the donkeys.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree