Absolutely. Most players lose because they suck. Many good players win less than they should because they pick the wrong games.
On defending the blinds. This is such a difficult area and it's one I'm really trying to concentrate on. There are some players (presumably not you!) against whom you should almost always defend your blind -- check-raising them if you hit anything on the flop. Against many more players, you almost always defend if they raise first-in in either cut-off or on the button. However, against some players, with less adaptive raising standards, a raise first-in on the button is nearly as strong as a raise first-in under-the-gun.
But blind defence is definitely an area where I am weak (particularly in the small blind -- which would seem to indicate that I am not defending it enough!).
Just looked at my stats for Party over the past three months at 2-4, where I am only just above break-even.
Of 1,500 SB hands, my VPIP is 33.86%, of which I won 33.6%, for a net minus of $1,196 (minus -0.19 BB per hundred compared with a target of -0.11).
I went to showdown 24.9% of the time and won 50% of showdowns. I have a pre-flop raise of 7.1%, and this is higher than it used to be. One of my attempted cures was to raise more often and to try to take down pots uncontested, rather than limp with something like AJo.
It's a puzzling area and not really linked to this thread. I shall return to it at a later date.
It's not variance or cheating...
On defending the blinds. This is such a difficult area and it's one I'm really trying to concentrate on. There are some players (presumably not you!) against whom you should almost always defend your blind -- check-raising them if you hit anything on the flop. Against many more players, you almost always defend if they raise first-in in either cut-off or on the button. However, against some players, with less adaptive raising standards, a raise first-in on the button is nearly as strong as a raise first-in under-the-gun.
But blind defence is definitely an area where I am weak (particularly in the small blind -- which would seem to indicate that I am not defending it enough!).
Just looked at my stats for Party over the past three months at 2-4, where I am only just above break-even.
Of 1,500 SB hands, my VPIP is 33.86%, of which I won 33.6%, for a net minus of $1,196 (minus -0.19 BB per hundred compared with a target of -0.11).
I went to showdown 24.9% of the time and won 50% of showdowns. I have a pre-flop raise of 7.1%, and this is higher than it used to be. One of my attempted cures was to raise more often and to try to take down pots uncontested, rather than limp with something like AJo.
It's a puzzling area and not really linked to this thread. I shall return to it at a later date.
PJ