Weakness is my game.

[kansaspoker]

Well, I have been playing poker for roughly two years now and managed to fine tune my game. I still have many weaknesses, and I am going to share one with you. I have noticed that many players have too inflated ego and will not admit to themselves that they have any leaks and weaknesses, thus not ever improving their game.

Time after time, they continually lose money, only to fault it to other circumstances other then their own bad play.

Here is a timeline that I have come across as my improvements as a player and eliminating my weaknesses in my game.

#1 Playing too many hands. --- Wow, what a leak this was. When I first started out, I was playing way too many hands. I was all about seeing flops because any two cards can win. Well, this was the first major leak I fixed. There is no real way around fixing this leak until you lose many times.

#2 Calling with overcards. --- Ok, now I only played good cards, so now that I had them, I gotta get good use out of them. So I start with Ace Queen and call and see a flop. Flop comes out 2,5,9.. I completely missed the flop. I waited so long to get these beautiful starting cards and the flop completely misses me. The big blind bets..... I gotta call... the turn might be an ace or queen..... Turn is a 10.... I missed again...... Big blind bets again... I cant lay down Ace Queen... there is the river.... I might get an Ace or Queen... I learned that can not get married to a hand, you gotta learn to lay it down.

#3 Those small pocket pairs --- Sitting in late position, there is a raise in front of me, I got pocket 8's.. I gotta call, if I hit an 8 on the flop, I can bust him. Of couse, the 8 doesnt hit on the flop. He bets again... I call, because if I hit an 8, I can bust him. Now I know that hitting a set is a long shot. 1 out 7.5 times will the set hit. I know now that 8s to a raise is an easy lay down and if I am able to limp in, its an easy fold if I do not get an 8 on the flop.

#4 Chasing straights, flushes--- Boy oh boy.... These are tough to let go. Flush draws and straight draws...
Lets face it, they are tough to get rid of. What are these things called pot odds anyway, all i need is a 9 for the straight. Calculating the relation of the bet size facing you and the odds for hitting your card are very important tools to be a successful poker player.

#5 Position-- You mean you gotta play AK different when you are in Early position then the time you are on the dealer button? Wow, why is that? They are still the same cards, why do you gotta play them differently?

Fast foward to #1093803984038, thats where I am now. Here is my leak in my current game. Lets say I am in early position with pocket 9s and I limp in. Its folded to the dealer button who raises it, (limit game) and the blinds fold, where I call.. This could be my first mistake... Should I reraise it in this spot and take control of it? I usually just call here and place him on Ace King.
The flop comes Jack, 2, 4, rainbow. I check it to him, (is this another mistake? I mean he could have pocket aces) Turn comes an 8, seems like no help to a late position raiser right? I check, of course he bets, and I call again. River comes a King now... I check, he bets and I have to call now. YEP, he had Ace King... I let me have it because I played too passive and let him hit his hand. So, how do you guys play it in this situation?

If I reraised him on the flop and he had pocket Aces, I am facing a reraise here, costing me more bets.

I am trying to figure out the best way to handle this for future senarios. Now, I usually only play interent poker which makes it hard to get reads or establish playing patterns because people are constantly leaving and coming back.

Should I reraise preflop to see where I stand? If he just calls I know that I am probably ahead here. I bet the flop if no King or Ace comes, but check to him if an ace or king comes on the flop? This is kinda bad because I am letting him steal the pot from me if he had pocket 5s. How do I play this!!!!

[card4]

Congradulations on all of the improvements that you have made in your game. As always, there is more than one way to play this game and make money. Different situations and going to require different moves. For the most part, here are some general guidelines for the hand you mentioned.

Preflop

From the early position you may want to pass on a pair of 9s. Yes, you can make a strong hand hitting your set, but you are only going to make it 1 out of 8 times. You need to have good pot odds (a lot of people limping in) in order to make this profitable.

If you are first in, you might consider raising to mix up your play. If you have been playing solid and only raising w/ AA, KK, AK not only will your opponents respect your raise, but if they do call, they are more likely to misread the strength of your hand after the flop.

Limping and then reraising in limit (anything under $5/$10) is probably a bad idea. Anyone who raises you preflop after you limped from an early position will not fold for another bet and it really doesn't give you any information about where you are at. If only one other person is in and they raise I'll just lay this down before the flop and save a bet.


On the flop

You didn't hit your set and there is an overcard. A lot of hands beat you at this point like AJ, KJ, J10, or any big pocket pair. I'm folding in this spot.

If you do want to play, betting out isn't a bad option to represent a hand like AJ which is a decent hand but one that you would probably limp in with from early position.

Check calling is never good unless you are slowplaying. A check raise isn't a horrible play. Its more agressive then I like to be but if you dont mind fluctuations in your chip stack then playing this way could make your more in the long run. At least with a check raise, you know if you get called that you are probably beat. Then you can just check and fold if you don't hit a 9 on the river.

As far as the turn and the river go, check calling isn't the way to win poker. This guy got lucky and did suck out but what I don't understand is if you put him on AK the whole time, why call on the end when a King hit? Just save a bet and trust your read.

To be fair, I think the guy playing AK played too agressively. This is a problem many players have playing AK in limit poker. No limit is a whole other story but in limit where you can't make a big bet to get someone to lay down a medium strength hand or a top pair, weak kicker hand, you need to be careful w/ AK. I see players get married to AK all the time. They see that it is ranked as a good starting hand in all the books and can't get away from it when the flop completely misses them.

Just my two cents. These are pots that heads up in a tournament are huge. In a ring game, winning these isn't as crucial. Why get involved heads up with someone who you don't have a solid read on, for a small pot with less than a premium hand. Don't lay it down all the time or so much that you are getting run over but don't try to win every pot too. Playing sheriff and trying to sniff out bluffs is not profitable. Let your opponents think they have your number and win some of these so you set them up when you have a big hand and can win a big pot.



Quote:
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Fast foward to #1093803984038, thats where I am now. Here is my leak in my current game. Lets say I am in early position with pocket 9s and I limp in. Its folded to the dealer button who raises it, (limit game) and the blinds fold, where I call.. This could be my first mistake... Should I reraise it in this spot and take control of it? I usually just call here and place him on Ace King.
The flop comes Jack, 2, 4, rainbow. I check it to him, (is this another mistake? I mean he could have pocket aces) Turn comes an 8, seems like no help to a late position raiser right? I check, of course he bets, and I call again. River comes a King now... I check, he bets and I have to call now. YEP, he had Ace King... I let me have it because I played too passive and let him hit his hand. So, how do you guys play it in this situation?

If I reraised him on the flop and he had pocket Aces, I am facing a reraise here, costing me more bets.

I am trying to figure out the best way to handle this for future senarios. Now, I usually only play interent poker which makes it hard to get reads or establish playing patterns because people are constantly leaving and coming back.

Should I reraise preflop to see where I stand? If he just calls I know that I am probably ahead here. I bet the flop if no King or Ace comes, but check to him if an ace or king comes on the flop? This is kinda bad because I am letting him steal the pot from me if he had pocket 5s. How do I play this!!!!
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