[Closed] going against my instinct

Questions and Answers

Last Post by pleno1 15 years ago

2 Posts

2 Users

0 Reactions

407 Views

RSS

_Anonymous_

07.04.2011, 15:13 0

I've been playing since sept 2010.
as a live player I do quite well because I can read my opponents pretty well but online I don't have that so I usually play tight aggressive with the occasional bluff to mix it up.

My problem is sometimes I know I have the best hand let's say I have the nut flush on the turn and the board pairs on the river. I can just feel that I've been outdrawn. I still call a huge river bet and sometimes I even put in a bet myself. I can't go around putting everyone on full houses when the board pairs but sometimes my intincts are telling me to fold and I don't.

Another example is I have top two pair and I've been called to the river and a flush hits. I know I would be behind to a set but based on the action I'm confident I have the best hand until the river.

Did anyone else go through this as an amatuer and is there away to get around it?

This is really annoying because i can run real deep into an online tournament then implode my stack in these situations.

any ideas?

1 reply

pleno1

Coach

Joined: 19.11.2010

Posts: 5,552

07.04.2011, 15:57 0

Hey herner02,

Its not only beginners who go through this kind of phase, almost every poker player from 2nl to 10000nl will go through a phase where they doubt their ability. I know sometimes I will go on a hot streak for a month, play bad for a couple of days and start doubting myself considering whether it was all luck or not.

You say that you go on your "reads" alot in live poker but struggle to transfer these into online poker? Have you got Holdem Manager or anything similar? On these programs you can use something called a "HUD" which stands for Heads Up Display.

ON the HUD you can see lots of different stats on your opponent including betting %'s (good for assigning ranges) and flop/turn/river aggression (good for making hero folds/calls) . Lets use a hand for example.

You raise pre flop with A5 of hearts.

The flop comes KQ7hhx. You bet and the guy calls.

The turn is the 2h :f_biggrin: and you bet with the nuts. The guy calls and you now after looking at his tight pre flop stats put him on two pair or a set.

The river comes down an ugly King of spades. We bet and the guy goes all in and you go to look at his stats. We can see from the HUD that his river aggression is 0.5 (very low) although its painful, its a pretty easy fold and we let it go.

Change the situation to a guy who has a river aggresion of 4 and we know he likes to turn hands into bluffs and be very aggresive, we of course call and we are very happy about it.

Now lets think about how this relates to your live play. There is an old guy who plays tight as a rock. He shoves the river and we hate life and eventually fold. The same situation comes up next week and a drunk, loud guy who likes to outplay people does the same play, we are obviously never ever folding.

As you know from your live poker experience, knowing your opponet is critically important, however IMO online is just as important.

Good luck and keep posting

Patrick Leonard
Ask me anything about 6max!