You're a Bunch of Factors

Ok a recent convo in a another thread got me thinking.

and i understand if people don't want to share their percieved strengths and weaknesses with everyone but ill start.

I think my strength is my ability to put players on a narrow range of cards (although i can always get better at this) but my weakness is not adapting my game well enough to respond to how each person will play those cards differently.

e.g. (this happened the other day). the turn brings a third flush card and a third straight card, and i have my oponent on either second pair, or a pocket pair less than the highest on the board.

So ill bet big, knowing that many players will fold here, and most of the time they will (lets say i have a lower pair or a draw). however i will get caught out by players (often less than average players) who will call down with a big range. So my read was good, i just couldn't predict well enough what they would do with their cards.

last week at my regular i put a player on top pair, with a medium kicker after i bet ace high and they called. The turn paired the board with the second highest card. i was certain the guy hadn't made trips, so i went all in (i was short stacked at the time). The guy (twas mark ruccuito's dad actually - good bloke on a side note) insta called with K8 for top pair kings.

so again my read was good, but i wasn't good enough to know what he would do in each situation. Probably a reason why i find it a little easier playing against the better-than average players as apposed to the less than average payers or beginners.

yes the better players are more equipped to make a move on you and skillfully take your chips, but most often i can norrow these players hand ranges and predominant betting patterns down more specifically than the beginners.


any tips?

my strength is i'm a luck box.

Strengths:
- Memory. I can recall at lot of hands, the action that followed.
- HU/HU situations. I like to control pots vs one player, not a group.
- I can play position well.
- Analysing bet sizes/the right amount to bet.
- When to give up a pot.

Weaknesses:
- Reading. I can't read players that well. Definitely an aspect of my game that needs to be improved.
- Knowing when not to give up a pot.
- Playing back at someone when I am sure they're bluffing.
- Stack size, when tournaments get deep. Adding this in because in the last two state finals when I've ran deep, I made two crucial errors. One was not noticing a player's shove was for 50k, when I figured it was 20k (my fault). I had 90k at the time, and was crushed.

- On Sunday I opened for 20k with ATo. I had approx 35k behind. There was a raise to 50k. It was an easy fold (he had AK). The problem I made was putting so much of my stack in the pot preflop - why do that if I'm going to fold? I should only be doing that with a hand I'm willing to go all in on, QQ, AK, etc.

Not that I take much notice when I'm playing poker anyway. Normally it goes like this:

1. Look down at monster.
2. Shove.
3 ????????
4. Profit!

maccatak11 wrote:So ill bet big, knowing that many players will fold here, and most of the time they will (lets say i have a lower pair or a draw). however i will get caught out by players (often less than average players) who will call down with a big range. So my read was good, i just couldn't predict well enough what they would do with their cards.

bennyjam!!!!!!!!! (lol you have pretty much described my weakness as well, except you said "bet big" instead of all in)

you do realise you have described the exact same thing that you were ribbing me for in the other thread?


seriously, this is my exact problem as well. most of the time, the range that i put the other player on is relatively good.

sometimes however, i make plays that, if were made to me, i would fold. but this doesn't mean the other player is going to fold, and it doesn't mean they should either., it means i didn't predict what they would do well enough.

i suppose in some of these cases, i decide to jam all in (or bet big) and gun for a fold. to be honest, it works 80% of the time, but that still doesn't make up for the 20% of the time when it doesn't work.




Strengths:

- Memory. Lol you should have been in the car when me and aaron went up to berri - i think we recalled every hand we had ever played!!
- Not afraid to shove my chips in light if i think the other player is weak.
- Putting the other player on a range of cards
- Maths

Weaknesses:
- Betting my draws to often - get paid off when you do hit, but still a negative EV play
- the opposite of aaron - i can't give up on a pot when i know i am beat
- Not afraid to shove my chips in light aka bennyjam.(my biggest strength and weakness)
- I know the maths like the back of my hand, and i analyse hands after i have played them all the time, but i dont use it enough during a hand
- re-evaluating on the turn/river. sometimes, there is an "obvious" backdoor straight/flush/set that the other player has made. after the hand, it seems pretty obvious that they have hit by the way they bet. so if i re-evaluated better after each street, i may have got away from my hand.

Strengths

- deep stack tournament poker, all we ever play in home games, seem to always go deep or get extremely unlucky in state finals as well
- my reading ability is something i think is a strength


Weaknesses

- inability to do well against players such as rcon, hes my hero
- play a bit too tight for NPL
- lose patience in regular npl games
- oh and for pete, my poker face

yeah i do realise that what i described is pretty much a bennyjam, but my game is different for the following reasons (these are based on my perceptions of your game).

i think i can conserve chips relatively well, in that controlling pot size has been a big focus for me lately. i have found that against most players, a 1000 bet is viewed the same by them if the pot is 3k or 3 hundred.

so against beginners i have stopped viewing bets in term of pot size, but in terms of BB size. in this way i can conserve chips, and if i get caught 'bennyjamming' (or maccabetting as the case may be) i won't loose all of my chips, just some of them.

I also think that my VPIP is much lower than yours, normally 15-20% online, but in live games this gives me a tighter table image. it means that i have greater fold equity because my opponents calling range is smaller.

so i have elements of benny the cunt and elements of bruce in my game. actually no i cant believe i just said that, i have NEVER flat called a standard raise with KK and check on every street even though the board is raggy unconnected under cards (this was what bruce did at the PGCC after the forum freeroll and i will never forget it for how ridiculous it was).

so ill re-evaluate it, i play a bit like benny the cunt with a smaller range and a tighter table image (i think anyway).

obviously i know that i play a little on the loose side, that it was i am working on, just stopping myself from getting into tricky situations

not saying that either style (loose or tighter) is better or worse, just stating differences. i know heaps of good loose players that use both fold and fear equity, but i prefer tighter. which is aslo why i either run deep or out just after the second break in NPL. i never play loose enough to build a huge stack and people dont pay me off when i do get a good hand.

a missed a week or two early this season, so if i get out of contention for states i mighht try changing my game style up a bit.

maccatak11 wrote:yeah i do realise

so i have elements of benny the cunt and elements of bruce in my game. actually no i cant believe i just said that, i have NEVER flat called a standard raise with KK and check on every street even though the board is raggy unconnected under cards (this was what bruce did at the PGCC after the forum freeroll and i will never forget it for how ridiculous it was).
so ill re-evaluate it, i play a bit like benny the cunt with a smaller range and a tighter table image (i think anyway).

OMG

Ive played the PGCC twice/three times...you remember me play KK as above I'm honoured you remember.. Think i made the points that night and you must have played ' I gotta go home early routine...


elephants have good memories and it appears so do MacDonalds.

i am very aggressive as every 1 now knows and it kills me