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I am so not playing my 'A' game at the moment. That, or I'm just unluckily making wrong decisions. And I write this after winning a few bob this morning (albeit only half what I lost yesterday). But, hell, I left so much on the table against some truly abysmal players. It's as if all of the things I have taught myself to do, I now forget to do, as if my brain had suffered some kind of poker stroke. Where are my thin-value bets on the river? Why am I so scared of a check-raise that I'm only taking down small pots with TPTK?
Part of the reason, of course, is that check-raises are more frequent these days on rag-flops. There are a number of ways to adapt to this, and I'm trying, but I'm not doing very well. It's annoying. I know what I should be doing, and then I go right ahead and don't do it.
It's maddening, mainly because I know that I am capable of doing this right. After I dropped from +$260 to +$140 in two simultaneous hands this morning, one of which I went all-in against a shortish-stack and a very short-stack (but I shouldn't have) and another where I folded on the river to a 30% of the pot all-in and a call, I just stood up from the tables. On that second hand I was getting 7-to-2 for a $60 call and, with a board of 44489 and TT in my hand, this would be a stone-cold fold during the week. But I had under-repped my hand earlier on, (that old weak-tight weakness coming back into play) and the caller was a bit of a calling station. The initial player was LAGGY and probably pegged me for AK. Unfortunately I was focusing on the other table at the time, and I didn't give the hand as much consideration as I should have. I folded and, sure enough, original bettor turned up with 98 and caller turned up with K8.
That's one of the penalties of muti-tabling, of course (even though I was only six-tabling 3x$100 and 3x$200 buy-ins), and I really paid it this time. It's not a single-hand problem, it's a metagame problem and an innate natural tendency for me to go too weak-tight when there's three or so LAGs at the table.
It's the metagaming principles that I have to focus on, and if I fail to do so I don't see much future for me. I've deliberately moved down to $50 buy-ins on Stars to work off my $200 bonus there, and in the short-term I'm winning a couple of buy ins (2,000 hands or so) while cascading 10 to 14 tables. I've got to start pushing my hand more on flop and turn and not rating TPTK as weakly as I do. Sure, I'll lose a few full stacks by so doing, but I'll win an awful lot more third-to-half stacks in the process.
The one saving grace is that the multi-table Russians and players from the old satellite states like to think that they have come up with a really clever couple of wheezes that they use with half-stacks or short-stacks. Trouble is, now that I've spotted it, it doesn't matter that I haven't played the guy before or he hasn't tried it on me before. I recognize the move and promptly shove my whole stack in with any thin value holding (and, pre-flop in a button vs big-blind situation, this can be very thin indeed). I'm eliciting folds to my 4-bet shove more than 90% of the time.
The other play is a check-raise on certain types of flop. Same principle applies.
But, four months in, and it's been a galling year so far. Hope springs eternal, but at the moment I think that I will be happy to get to the end of 2011 with a break-even against my name.
_______________
Part of the reason, of course, is that check-raises are more frequent these days on rag-flops. There are a number of ways to adapt to this, and I'm trying, but I'm not doing very well. It's annoying. I know what I should be doing, and then I go right ahead and don't do it.
It's maddening, mainly because I know that I am capable of doing this right. After I dropped from +$260 to +$140 in two simultaneous hands this morning, one of which I went all-in against a shortish-stack and a very short-stack (but I shouldn't have) and another where I folded on the river to a 30% of the pot all-in and a call, I just stood up from the tables. On that second hand I was getting 7-to-2 for a $60 call and, with a board of 44489 and TT in my hand, this would be a stone-cold fold during the week. But I had under-repped my hand earlier on, (that old weak-tight weakness coming back into play) and the caller was a bit of a calling station. The initial player was LAGGY and probably pegged me for AK. Unfortunately I was focusing on the other table at the time, and I didn't give the hand as much consideration as I should have. I folded and, sure enough, original bettor turned up with 98 and caller turned up with K8.
That's one of the penalties of muti-tabling, of course (even though I was only six-tabling 3x$100 and 3x$200 buy-ins), and I really paid it this time. It's not a single-hand problem, it's a metagame problem and an innate natural tendency for me to go too weak-tight when there's three or so LAGs at the table.
It's the metagaming principles that I have to focus on, and if I fail to do so I don't see much future for me. I've deliberately moved down to $50 buy-ins on Stars to work off my $200 bonus there, and in the short-term I'm winning a couple of buy ins (2,000 hands or so) while cascading 10 to 14 tables. I've got to start pushing my hand more on flop and turn and not rating TPTK as weakly as I do. Sure, I'll lose a few full stacks by so doing, but I'll win an awful lot more third-to-half stacks in the process.
The one saving grace is that the multi-table Russians and players from the old satellite states like to think that they have come up with a really clever couple of wheezes that they use with half-stacks or short-stacks. Trouble is, now that I've spotted it, it doesn't matter that I haven't played the guy before or he hasn't tried it on me before. I recognize the move and promptly shove my whole stack in with any thin value holding (and, pre-flop in a button vs big-blind situation, this can be very thin indeed). I'm eliciting folds to my 4-bet shove more than 90% of the time.
The other play is a check-raise on certain types of flop. Same principle applies.
But, four months in, and it's been a galling year so far. Hope springs eternal, but at the moment I think that I will be happy to get to the end of 2011 with a break-even against my name.
_______________
