Topic: Let's talk Texas Holdem poker hands and how to play like a PRO? (Read 713 times)

This is indeed very hard to find the ultimate aggression level when playing poker and until today I make mistakes with being too aggressive with the best starting hands, many times losing significant pots when the hand hasn't improved. This is a really hard spot to be in because when you start to check it is obvious that you have nothing and from the other side to bet aggressively only with the high card is not so wise also.

I agree that we should learn from our mistakes and constantly try to improve the play. I like to treat poker as a hobby and not as a source of income because when I put too much pressure and think about the money it doesn't end up well, majority of times. When I don't think about the money and play just for fun because I have a few hours to spare the play looks totally different. I don't know but maybe the right mindset is the key to success?

I'm a small/micro stakes MTT tournament player mostly. I have been finding minor success playing cash games. Up until last month I could say I was ahead if I walked away. Then I had a run that just felt like it wouldn't end. Definitely was getting tilted not so much with my cardplay but my buy-ins. I would run into a bad beat or something and either late reg in the last 2 levels or jump into another game. This was rarely going to go well for me.

Couple that with expected variance and my bankroll went from comfortable to looking at a reload. For me I tend to play most of the week when I am off and not at all if working... apart from the odd forum tourney. So I can always come back refreshed. Apart from the bankroll management the plays themselves weren't the worst as I'll go over some of the spots while I'm away from the tables.What was a killer though is my PC that I was using to study and review has had issues so I didn't have that winddown ritual to go through anymore, and I think that contributed to the tilty rebuys.

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Really though it wasn't all that bad. I say this because I have learned from the situation. Plan my tournaments and bullets I'm willing to fire before I get going and stick to that. I also buy-in more micro than lowstakes tourneys. I have also dialed back my aggression a bit on what and when I'm willing to get it all in and when. Overall as long as you can take something away from a bad situation then you're headed in the right direction.

I also have to remind myself that I really only started to take poker more seriously a few months ago after binking a decent tournament. I have casually played for a few years in spurts of a week or 2 here. I would load 30 buck or so and see where it would take me. The fact that I've played 1000's of hands and learned to pick spots apart better all from that is a pretty big accomplishment in itself. 

I thought a lot and finally changed strategy when I play draws and semi-bluffing. When I have such a hand, then I try to play very slowly and keep the pot size small because fishes and calling stations or even maniacs will call you the majority of times on micro stakes, so the best way to play with them is to not try to bluff them, only when I have something, then I start to bet. Of course, few times I have lost anyways, but this is not so significant as it was before when I was losing almost every hand.


I don't think so, as you can see I am playing poker really long and can handle tilts. I am not angry, frustrated or something. Don't change my gameplay immediately after losing a hand or do something stupid like go all-in with low pair pre-flop. Don't short my ranges, change strategies, play much looser instead of staying tight. Indeed in the last session, I changed something, but it was just a small improvement, in addition, it was a thoughtful decision, not some spontaneous one.

After our talks and quotes you provided, I started to dig the luck topic deeper and found many very interesting articles about variations, deviations, probabilities and the impact they have on the game. Indeed, it just could have been a super long streak of bad luck.

Funny to read stories exactly as mine:


https://www.cardschat.com/f57/longest-run-bad-luck-345527/

This next quote explains exactly what happened to me in the last few weeks by the tables:

https://www.gamblingsites.org/blog/good-luck-and-bad-luck-at-the-poker-tables/

P.S
I changed the thread rules because they were not relevant anymore and allowed talks about poker as a whole.

i dunno man, you sound kinda tilted to me. you should be happy people are calling down with such garbage. soft games! it's just a bad beat, maybe a run of bad beats. but if you can't shake those bad beats off, it's going to affect your game.

mid stakes is definitely more aggressive, less calling stations. tougher games.

Thank you for your comments and sorry that I am so late with my post, but the notifications bot broke to my surprise and all quotes or mentions from this thread are not showing up.
I just check the bot in my daily forum routine and that is why it took so long to find your posts.

Anyways, just as advised I made already a week break from the tables and hope it is enough to get back on track with my play and bankroll. In the last 3 months, I have played maybe not too long each session, but almost daily and I see that I am again already addicted  , just can't wait to try my luck today in the evening European time on Americas Cardroom tables. I will try to save some hands and hope that we can discuss our play further.

I wonder how long are you playing poker already and on which stakes? What is your ROI? Are you winning, losing or maybe break even in the long run?
I am very lucky to be winning because I was able to use multiple high no deposit bonuses in rooms like Party Poker, Pokerstars. PKR poker and many others, almost 10 years ago and learned to play poker for free.

Just look at my Bankrollmob account:



and this is only one account on my name, second I had for my better half and few others on multiple similar sites like Yourpokercash or others which are nonexisting today.
One day I counted and in total, I got almost 3000$ in no-deposit bonuses, we have to remember that there were only minimal requirements.
These beautiful times are long gone, there were no IP checks and one was able to take as many bonuses as he wishes in 2010 - 2013.

EDIT

When this happens consistently, hand after hand, especially when losing with calling stations because of pure luck, they will hit two times 4 on the river and turn when holding 4,2, to win with AK on AQJ board calling all five streets, then I start to think that maybe the good way of playing poker is wrong, but for sure this also happens more often on low stakes where I am now playing.

Maybe on higher stakes, people are just playing better and all-ins with pair of 5 happen not so often as on micro stakes? They will call you more often on lower stakes because it cost randomly a buck or two to call all five streets almost a pot high every time. A different strategy is needed as on medium stakes, where I was playing a few years ago.

+1, just a high variance hand, but should be profitable over the long run. @BitcoinGirl.Club was a 60-40 favorite, and i think his play was solid considering villain's possible range---namely KX, flushes, and flush draws on the flop.

the tough thing about poker is we're forced to make decisions on large pots with wide odds. even if you consistently make the right move, you're gonna lose a lot of big hands. even if we give @BitcoinGirl.Club an extra 5-10% chance based on fold equity since he shoved into villain, that's still losing 30-35% of the time.


another thread for you: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/poker-talk-specifically-holdem-hands-and-or-strategy-5214582

we also have a forum NLHE league. check it out: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/2-bitcointalk-poker-series-005-btc-big-btc-ticket-sponsored-by-swc-poker-5245365

There is something that you should not lose when you already have some experience in poker, and it is your bankroll, if this happens you are playing outside of bankroll, that is intrinsically related to your game, the reality is that one should not bother losing 100 hands in a row, but if that loss affects your banking it is a big problem.

There is something in poker that is the "correct move" regardless of the negative outcome and a good example is the OP's hand, in fact the evaluation made by the player who had K3 is correct. As he mentions is HUH and the range of hands changes, you can't play the same opening ranges at a 6 player short table or a 9 player long table. He is comfortable with his analysis and that is what is really important, although as always there is subjectivity in the analysis of hands, but in this case I am sure that many of us will share that the hand played well, the punctual result is bad, but the long term will bring profits.

Now, the long term with ROI in green is governed by the dictator called variance, in my case I measure my ROI every 20,000 hands and if things go wrong what I do is play another modality and forget about the Holdem for a few days.

_______
Thanks for the thread I was really surprised that there were no more threads dedicated to Poker and especially to NLH.

you're not alone. you've basically just described my last 3 weeks---card dead, turn/river suckouts when i do actually have it, and some coolers like set over set for good measure.

i generally just play through it, knowing that it's just the nasty side of variance and will even out over the long run. if it starts tilting me at the tables, i take a few days off. there is not much else you can do.......

When we are waiting for a hand to discuss, I will share with you that in the last weeks, I have totally no luck in playing poker.

I lost almost half of my bankroll, only in two weeks. I see that I keep getting trash all the time, literally yesterday I got only one time AA, when I was playing on 4 tables, 3 hours long and I lost all in with KK. Of course, I wasn't the one pushing all in to be more fun. I get sometimes suited connectors like 5,6 or 8,9 but mostly trash like Q3o, K2o or 92.

It is just insane when I see other players showing QQ, AA, AK, AJ, JJ every second hand, but I also remember times when I was so lucky and got the highest cards 9 times in a row, winning a couple of all-ins with overwhelmed opponents. Still, even if you can play it is just hard to not lose with such shitty hands, or you have to be Apostel in god mode, to win each time with nothing  .  

I tried to wait a few days, changed the room, played fewer tables, more, nothing helps. Yesterday, I started to count and I got one decent hand in 88, which was this unlucky AA where I lost with KK, when the third K hit the board, of course on the river. That was the only good hand from the starting 5% range and I see that happens every day.

I keep sitting and folding all the time and even if I have something, then nobody will play with me when I raise even slightly or everybody folds when I am on BB with a strong hand. It is just insane and makes me mad lately. I know that when I start to play too many shitty hands, I will lose my bankroll finally, but if you get only these types of hands, finally you will start to defend blinds or just play because everybody is checking/folding before you and lose in the end with a higher second card, pair or flush.

I wonder what you are doing when such a time comes, that it is obvious that the luck is not on your site?

Yes sorry i must have forgot to "attach it". Yeah that was the best thread I found that had most of the relevant info updated.

It was a funny read that's for sure. It's funny I'm not a big fan of 2+2 forum, so that was part of the motivation for starting my poker talk here lol. I did get a kick out of reading through the thread, people are funny creatures lol

no link---are you talking about the megathread in NVG? https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/mike-postle-cheating-allegations-faq-first-post-1753388/

i forgot all about NVG.......always such a shitshow over there.

it's true, there's nothing like a juicy controversy to re-kindle interest like that. i wasted a whole day digging through all the videos when i heard about it. and once you do that, you just gotta play some cards.

Postle the godmode runner. I owe this dude a lot, mostly because his scandal turned me back on to poker. I got a YouTube hit for Doug Polks video and then i fell down the rabbit hole of poker hand review videos.

Joey Ingram went deep in his investigation for hours and days. I like to reserve judgement but I would be hard pressed to find a reasonable doubt of collusion.

I'd have to dig but they showed a week where the stones manager/poker room organizer was away for a week. During this time Mikes magic was gone and his table demeanor was very different. I will try and fine the video/article. I think this was the only such week where his gameplay suffered during his winning streak. Again speculation but I can't recall all the details.

There is also some interesting stuff posted by berkey that implicates someone at stones through his understanding of rfid. A lot of their errors he says aren't possible, and he shows how easy it is to create a shareable link to display table hole cards.
Edit: Here is a  massive thread on the case. From 2+2. The OP has been updated with links and references.

There was a video that shows a pretty average if not bad play of Mike, just after the scandal and outside the stones room, but I can't find it now.

Anyways, there is another video that shows Postle playing a pretty normal poker style and losing hands when bluffing into the nuts, just a few weeks before the live sessions on stones started and where he was playing like a totally different player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT0NHSsPv3Y

We can clearly see that Mike behaves just like any other player in this game and doesn't do all these suspected moves, never looks behind his legs or cover his eyes and head.
Additionally, he is literally saying by the table that he has not the best year ahead and exactly in this hand, we see on the video, he was bitten by a player with whom he will be playing only a few weeks later in the "god mode" and crushes him with no problems at all.

Just think about this, better stats as the "absolute poker's infamous potripper" - to achieve this you have to be some kind of poker guru (we have never seen before  ) or... cheating.

PS
If anybody has any interesting hands, please drop them here that we can discuss further. Every hand is welcome, but such hard once as we have discussed already are the best.

i watched that video, as well as veronica brill's which kicked off the whole controversy. i'll admit it's suspicious as hell---lots of circumstantial evidence, and amazing that his stats are better than absolute poker's infamous potripper.

but.......how do we know he's not just an incredible hand reader? this is live poker, not online, after all.

i agree with doug polk. we need to see postle play somewhere besides the stones cardroom. let's see if he can pull those amazing soul reads live streamed at the bike.

This is exactly why this case started, the statistics where very disturbing because somebody compared them with the last scam when there was a superuser that could see hall cards and the win ratio of Postle was much higher!!! Because it was live-streamed people found out his very suspicious way of playing, he was making very strange moves by the table and there is no doubt he was looking at the phone almost all the time.

Here is one YouTuber who made few videos about this scam and is worth looking to know the case and especially to look at majority the suspicious hands when he Postle was playing in the "god mode", which means - he was winning everything from everybody bluffing and going all-in with literally nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kDtE9vrRiA

There are more in deep videos on this channel if somebody is interested, but this one I linked above is the shortest and most to the point one.

i've been loosely following that case---"postlegate" as it has come to be known. we have still yet to see any hard evidence of hole card knowledge, or a conspiracy between postle and the card room. it's all based on statistical data, despite the fact that all the play was live streamed.

i wonder how it will all play out. 90% of the 2+2 forum seems to think he's guilty as hell and the numbers do suggest that, but without any hard evidence......

Yes, I have learned to play flash draws also the hard way  .

Not only many missed all-ins, but also many times, even when I hit the flush finally, there was somebody with a higher card than me. When I got busted with suited 8,9, then this is not a big deal, but when I lose holding KQs with A6s, then it hurts so much.

Still, to this day is hard to play draws if Villian with top pair goes all-in post-flop to make it hard and very costly decision, to check.

That's something I wouldn't fold; may be because I'm yet to be the expert poker guy. Earlier, I had lost 2k chips on SwC with AA on hands and there was three diamonds as well in the flop (Four including my one). Guess what, I didn't get any diamond in the turn & river. I was busted  I would have folded like you did.

If you have any interesting hands, please drop here that we can discuss further.

I like this discussion because we have all different styles of playing poker and each comment added something new, but we all agree that this was a pretty unlucky flop for our Hero and even the best player would have hard times playing post-flop this hand further.

I have to admit here that I have folded such hands as KK or AA on such bad post-flop boards when multiple draws were possible and Villian bets aggressive, of course, it could be a bluff and many time for sure it was, but the majority of times when I try to catch such bluff it turns out to be a total failure and very often they had the nuts indeed  .

I know one player who always won such hands, bluffing and going all-in with literally nothing putting others under enormous pressure, but later turned out that this was a total scam and he can see the cards. That explains such perfect bluff play.

https://www.cardschat.com/news/mike-postle-poker-cheater-evidence-88866

This is the beauty of playing No Limit Holdem that you have to deal with such decisions as to go all in and risk hall stack or just to fold and wait for a better hand.

there were only 2 diamonds on the flop. the only options are to 1. call all-in on the flop or 2. fold. i only had a 12.5% chance of hitting the back door diamond flush. that isn't the value i'm calling based on either since i know Ad and Kd are in his range.

anyway, we should move on to some other hands. rehashing the hand myself (and considering @Steamtyme's take) i think the call was acceptable. good chance to double up, just unfortunate to run into a bigger monster starting hand.