Nevah play JJ wrote:Hi and thanks all for your answers.
Everything you all said is really good.
Pete: One of the things you said was be specific, so here are the areas I would kill to know about from the get go
Facial expressions, or tells?
Facial expressions or movements can give a simple indication of strength. The best way of identifying this is next time at a home game, set up a video camera on your face, and when the game is over, go through it and see which hands were good, what your face did, when hands are bad what did your face do.
The other side is to ask your mates that play against you. I know we are all after the points and prizes. But we all need to improve our game somehow, and if they feel threatened about it then you just have to work out what can you do, to improve your game and stick it back at them.
Nevah play JJ wrote:[color=#0000BF]What do I do that is predictable?
Same above with the video camera, when replaying the hand, do you always beat three times the big blind with certain hands. Do you always pause before putting chips out when you have a weak hand. Do you stall and chat when you know your ahead. Small things like that.
Nevah play JJ wrote:[color=#0000BF]How do you get past fear of calling?
This is my new catch phrase. "Embrace the Variance"
This is a combination question. download
www.pokerstove.com it is a hand equity calculator. We know Aces are 75% favourite over any random two cards. But as we play against other players we can narrow down the hand ranges. E.g we know Tim only plays AA-10,10 Ak-A10 and Suited connectors to 89, 910.10j,jq,qk
Using pokerstove you can input that hand range and see that now you are possibly an 85% favourite. So now you have to think, i have the better hand, reevaluate on the flop. And then see how his hand range compares to the flop. If he bets, then you have to consider the call or raise, or if you feel like he has you fold.
But being an 85% favourite means out of 10 hands, you will lose 2. But think about the long term, you will win more money than lose.
Once you realise that you will get more money off the player long term, sometimes the call or reraise is a better play and if you lose, just think that you might have lost, but are still better off.
PM if you need a better explanation.
Nevah play JJ wrote:[color=#0000BF]I have had positon play explained a gazzillion times, but honestly, I just don't get it.
Look at the number of people behind you yet to act. The more there are, the better starting hands you want and the less times you will raise. The less there are, the looser the starting hand requirments and the more times you want to raise.
so on a table you have Dealer, SB, BB, UTG, UTG+1, MP1, MP2, Cutoff.
UTG, UTG+1 - You want to be playing quite tight, Raise with your AA.KK,QQ And fold a lot of hands. Usually with the high pairs on a loose table, you will be opting for a call then reraise to the raiser. On a tight table you will open raise with these kinds of hands.
MP1,MP2, - This is where your limpy hands can come in. and also opening to include pairs, Ak-A10. So with you UTG and UTG+1 hands you will open raise.
With your new set of starting hands, you will be calling, and fold to hefty raises.
Cutoff and Dealer - This is where you will be raising to steal blinds, raising big hands to get value, unless everyone ahead has called, then you will be raising for value. Keep them in, and pray they miss and don't get lucky.
SB and BB - Play your relative card strengths, very similar to UTG and UTG+1 - But any raises before hand means you have the pot odds to consider.
Same token in this position, if you have a drawing hand your in bad position. You lead out the betting, so a lot of the time will be check call, or check raise lines, unless on soft tables then it will be raise - call, or raise - fold lines.
Nevah play JJ wrote:[color=#0000BF]I guess the basics to begin is awesome, but to a degree it isn't as simple as posting a senario on the forums to get feedback
However sometimes it is..
I honestly don't play online, because I don't get the same feel for the game, but live is so much more different.
I guess I just want to improve my game beginning from the basics.
Thanks again for the help.
Hope it helps. Starting from the basics is hard, a lot of the time, you know stuff but trying to forget it is harder than it seems. Online is good, because you can get the basic maths and still try and work out what people are playing off, and because you get a lot of hands in small period of time, it means you can stop and go back and analyse it all later and think what could have been a better play.
Those that can't do teach,
Brett.
