I suck at this game.. please help

[chiachu]

I started playing poker again like 4 days ago, after a 9 or so month break. I dl'd party poker and discovered that i could 10x table if i wanted to (used to do 4x). Deposited, started clearing bonus at .50/1 to get used to 9x tabling... and now this:



so now im a bit frustrated, and a bit confused. These stats seem similar to what they used to be a year ago, and im confused where i went wrong. Yes, i realise i am way to tight, and im going to try to work on this gradually, since suddenly playing another 5-10% of my hands seems like a bad way to approach the problem (since i would suck at playing post flop).

edit: my post flop aggressions is 2.47

Now i realize that 6.5k hands isnt THAT statistically signifcant, but -1.91 bb/100 over that many hands still seems pretty bad. I think im going to take a few days off from playing to go through hand historys to find my main problems.

[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

But to start out, a basic preflop situation im still not completely comfortable with.

Hero is on the button or CO and has one of the following hands:
AJo, AJs, AQo, KQo, KQs

Folded to MP who raises (lets say with a PFR of 6%). Its folded to hero...

At what PFR value would you change between folding to calling or raising? How about against an unknown?

How does your answer change if there is one caller between you and MP? what about 2? 3?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

[Mog]

Like you said, you don't have a huge hand sample, so it could be you're just running bad. Looking at your stats, though, you've pretty much identified your problem- you are playing entirely too tight preflop. A typical VPIP% for full ring games at .50/1 is around 18%. Your PFR% is also a little low.

Loosen up some and try to follow the starting hands chart from SSHE (it's linked somewhere on the forum). I'm going to guess that you're running into the trap of first running poorly and thinking you're getting beat every time (monsters under the bed syndrome). This might be causing you to fold hands where you could be the winner or have proper odds to continue in the pot.

I wouldn't worry as much about specific situations like you list below- that's probably focusing on a narrow part of the problem (though for the record I would call with AJs, AQo, and KQs unless I had reason not to).

I'd suggest loosening up preflop and playing more attention to your postflop play. Are you folding winners and strong draws? Failing to value bet good hands? Things of that nature. Posting hands you have questions on would probably help out a lot as well.

[SoftcoreRevolt]

You are playing WAY WAY WAY too tight. You need to be at 18-20 VPIP and raise your PFR a few points.

[marchron]

Try, er, not 9-tabling.

See how that goes.

[tehox]

games are not as good as they used to be, you can't get away with this super tight play and just get paid off with your monsters. GO down to two tables and work on your game a little bit

[jakbse]

Looks like you have to pass up too many good opportunities because of the multitabling.

[chiachu]

[ QUOTE ]
games are not as good as they used to be, you can't get away with this super tight play and just get paid off with your monsters.

[/ QUOTE ]

this is what i was afraid of [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

thanks for the responces.. im going to read through SSHE again before trying this again with the preflop section of the book open. (with less tables of course) [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[UATrewqaz]

You're way too tight, VPIP < 15 is grossly low, I play pretty tight and sit at around 17.

You should be playing suited aces/pocket pairs/suited connectors more I'm guessing.

[BobbyShaftoe]

[ QUOTE ]
You're way too tight, VPIP < 15 is grossly low, I play pretty tight and sit at around 17.

You should be playing suited aces/pocket pairs/suited connectors more I'm guessing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Play them in LP or even EP if the table is loose and passive enough that its unlikely to get raised behind you. When the table is running 40/3, I'll play anything up front that I would normally only play in a large unraised pot in LP. You'll see a good number of tables like this at .50/1.

[Lawman]

Way too tight and folding blinds too easy.

[ QUOTE ]
At what PFR value would you change between folding to calling or raising?

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds a bit too mechanical to me.