A Few Leaks
I have come a long way in my Poker playing. I have read several excellent poker books, Sklansky's Small Stakes Hold’em: Winning With Expert Play almost 3 times now, and have played a lot of games on-line. That being said, I still have a very long way to go and here are a few of the leaks I have to work on.
1. The hand that gets me the most is when a card will come on the turn or the river that will give me a very, very good hand, sometimes almost the nuts, but at the same time will also improve my opponents hand to the point that I can't win the hand. It doesn't happen very often but when it does I am just devastated. Yesterday I was playing .50/$1 Limit Texas Holdem at 7 Sultans Poker trying to clear the raked hands I need to get my PokerSavvy Points. I am in LP when I get dealt the Hilton Sisters, Pocket Queens. I raise Preflop and get two callers. The flop is a beautiful 3, 7, 10 Rainbow. Villain checks and I bet and both call. Turn is a Jack! Another beautiful card as my Queens are still looking very good. I just hope one of the callers has Ace/Jack or Ace/Ten so I can get maximum amount of money. Villain checks, I bet, second caller folds and villain calls. Now I am heads up against just one player. Turn is a beautiful Queen. Oh baby, come to papa.
Villain leads out with a bet and, BAM!, I raise it. He calls my raise and..............................turns over Ace/King for the straight and I am sent packing. That beautiful queen that I thought was my friend turned into the bitch that made the villain's hand. And I walked right into it when he bet. I should have known then something was wrong but I hit that raise button so fast I think my mouse almost melted. I should have slowed down and asked myself why, all of the sudden, was he leading off with a bet when he had checked all the way to the river? I still would have called his bet but I sure wouldn't have raised it. He should have checked raised me to get the maximum amount of money from me.
2. Sets. Sets are my second hardest hand to spot but they don't devastate me as much as the above hand although I do lose quite a bit of money to them. It can be a set of dueces up to a set of Aces that I very rarely recognize. Once in a while I will put someone on a set, especially if I have played them quite a bit and have notes on them that they are a TAG or a TAP. I keep my eyes on them more. Trips don't get me as much as sets unless it is trip aces and then it seems like I keep betting just because when there are two aces on board I have a hard time believing there is one in the Villain's hand. I'm usually wrong and end up paying for it.
3. Large pocket pairs, A/A and K/K that limp in. When the hand is all done and they show the pocket pair of Aces or Kings, I just can't believe it. Especially if they limp in. I must admit that this does not happen very much to me but I see it happen to others when I have folded my mediocre hand. Today, on 7 Sultans, there was a limper with Aces that won the pot but there were 3 clubs on board and when it was all said and done I was really wishing that someone would have gotten the flush to crack his aces. I can't bring myself to limp in with Aces or Kings. I always raise preflop.
Just a few things I have to work on in my game. If it got to the point where I didn't have to work on my game it would be pretty boring now, wouldn't it?
1. The hand that gets me the most is when a card will come on the turn or the river that will give me a very, very good hand, sometimes almost the nuts, but at the same time will also improve my opponents hand to the point that I can't win the hand. It doesn't happen very often but when it does I am just devastated. Yesterday I was playing .50/$1 Limit Texas Holdem at 7 Sultans Poker trying to clear the raked hands I need to get my PokerSavvy Points. I am in LP when I get dealt the Hilton Sisters, Pocket Queens. I raise Preflop and get two callers. The flop is a beautiful 3, 7, 10 Rainbow. Villain checks and I bet and both call. Turn is a Jack! Another beautiful card as my Queens are still looking very good. I just hope one of the callers has Ace/Jack or Ace/Ten so I can get maximum amount of money. Villain checks, I bet, second caller folds and villain calls. Now I am heads up against just one player. Turn is a beautiful Queen. Oh baby, come to papa.
Villain leads out with a bet and, BAM!, I raise it. He calls my raise and..............................turns over Ace/King for the straight and I am sent packing. That beautiful queen that I thought was my friend turned into the bitch that made the villain's hand. And I walked right into it when he bet. I should have known then something was wrong but I hit that raise button so fast I think my mouse almost melted. I should have slowed down and asked myself why, all of the sudden, was he leading off with a bet when he had checked all the way to the river? I still would have called his bet but I sure wouldn't have raised it. He should have checked raised me to get the maximum amount of money from me.
2. Sets. Sets are my second hardest hand to spot but they don't devastate me as much as the above hand although I do lose quite a bit of money to them. It can be a set of dueces up to a set of Aces that I very rarely recognize. Once in a while I will put someone on a set, especially if I have played them quite a bit and have notes on them that they are a TAG or a TAP. I keep my eyes on them more. Trips don't get me as much as sets unless it is trip aces and then it seems like I keep betting just because when there are two aces on board I have a hard time believing there is one in the Villain's hand. I'm usually wrong and end up paying for it.
3. Large pocket pairs, A/A and K/K that limp in. When the hand is all done and they show the pocket pair of Aces or Kings, I just can't believe it. Especially if they limp in. I must admit that this does not happen very much to me but I see it happen to others when I have folded my mediocre hand. Today, on 7 Sultans, there was a limper with Aces that won the pot but there were 3 clubs on board and when it was all said and done I was really wishing that someone would have gotten the flush to crack his aces. I can't bring myself to limp in with Aces or Kings. I always raise preflop.
Just a few things I have to work on in my game. If it got to the point where I didn't have to work on my game it would be pretty boring now, wouldn't it?
posted by Wolverine Fan | Wednesday, November 01, 2006
2 Comments:
If we didn't have to work on our game it wouldn't be boring, it would be simply profitable. Last I checked, making a profit at poker wasn't boring. Good post. We can never fix all the leaks in our games as we have to rely on imperfect information from players who are hell bent on deception as part of the game. So if we rely on imperfect info - is it really a leak or is it simply something that is beyond our control.
It seems like most of the problems you mentioned involved a failure to read your opponents' strengths. Remember not to get married to your hand, even when it looks good. Avoid fancy play also, and push those players out when they are drawing. But above all, pay attention to your opponents and ask them questions with your bets. Try some probe bets and see what they do (think 1/3 to 1/2 of the pot). Look for their re-raises and figure out if they do this with monster hands or vulnerable ones. Yeah, all easier said than done. Also know that there are some hands that are inevitable. GL.
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