The Free Card
I can’t bring myself to take a free card on the river. In the back of my mind I’m always thinking they’ll fold if I bet, so then I do. This weakness is easily costing me 1-2 BB/hr.
Growing Up
My game is steadily improving each time I play. I’ve started reading Small Stakes Hold ‘em: Winning Big With Expert Play for the 2nd time in the last few weeks and I’m catching a lot of stuff I missed the first time around. The $20-some odd I paid for the book was worth every cent.
I haven’t really tilted like I used to in the past few days. When I get beat by someone hitting their two out draw on the river I think completely different from how I used to. Before SSH, I’d think, “Jesus Christ, another fucking miracle card for these assholes!” Now I think, “Keep playing just like that fish. I’ll beat you way more often when you have those cards than you’ll beat me. Push the chips over here next time.” Once you come to the reality that you need players to actually hit these “miracle” draws once in awhile, it makes all the difference. If they never hit them, they wouldn’t keep playing them and paying you off. It’s as simple as that.
I still have leaks/weaknesses in my game. A lot of them. But in a short period of time, with the help of SSH, I’m a lot better player than I was 2 or 3 weeks ago. The single biggest improvement in my game has been increasing my aggressiveness during all betting rounds. It’s winning a lot more pots than the old passive player I was. My post flop play can still get pretty bad at times. I tend to give away bets when it’s pretty clear I’m beat.
Want to improve your game? Buy SSH, buy Poker Tracker, and start playing low limit cash games on Party Poker. If you are serious about your game, you shouldn’t have any problems winning on their tables with all of the fish swimming around. Start small and think big.
Texas Hold’em Odds
I found a very useful pre-flop calculator to see what your chances are with particular hands. The same site also provides a very detailed odds chart which is useful for comparing to pot odds. I think this chart will be my new study guide. Any poker player who wants to be serious should memorize these odds up to 7 or 8 outs. When you get beyond that, the pot is almost always laying you the correct odds for a call.
Giving It Away Post Flop
After playing the past two days on Ultimate Bet, which is much tighter than Party Poker, I’ve come to realize that my post-flop play is pretty bad. I’m giving away far too many bets on the flop, turn, and river. Back to studying SSH!
Tilt-A-Whirl
Last night I realized something. Usually when I have a bad session, it’s related to going on tilt for a bit. I know I shouldn’t do it and I always try to prevent it, but sometimes I just don’t see it coming until after I’ve lost everything I sat down at the table with. Afterwards it’s easy to look back and say, “Nick, you dumbass! Don’t let it get to you when someone hits their hand on the river.”
Party Poker and Poker Tracker
With my recent switch to Party Poker, I decided to give Poker Tracker a try. Let me tell you…it’s one fine piece of software for the online poker player. The program allows you to import your hand histories from a number of online poker sites. It stores everything in a database and gives you so many statistics about how you play it’ll blow your mind. In the next few days I’ll be making the $55 purchase to register the software. I get to import 1000 hands to try it out, but that won’t last long.
Earlier in the week I made the switch to Party Poker because I’ve heard such great things about the games there. I’ve been reading Small Stakes Hold ‘em: Winning Big With Expert Play and Party Poker has all the fish, so I figured it would be a good site to work on my poker game. So far in three sessions of play I’m averaging 20 BB/hr, so there definitely is money to be made. I know that rate won’t last long, but it sure feels good now!
For other beginners out there trying Poker Tracker, I found a page explaining how to track your progress.
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