CARDRUNNERS

What's Your Edge

Sawcruhteez's Poker Blog

March 30, 2009

I think I have spotted one of my biggest leaks that has been haunting me basically since I started playing cash games. One of my biggest problems is trying to win every single pot, and having trouble realizing that I can't win every single pot that I enter.

If I come in the pot with a raise I basically try as hard as I can to win that hand, and have trouble noticing when it is just time to give up. I think this might be why I have been so much more successful with more players at the table. My WR is higher the more players that are at the table, which seems counter intuitive, but I think this leak in my game probably explains that.

At full ring games players are much more passive and much more likely to put me on a big hand when I bet, and lay down their hand. However the less players that are at the table, the less respect my bets get. So players, especially good ones are not near as likely to lay down their hand to my bets. And I try harder and harder to win every pot, getting crazier and crazier, like a runaway train.

This line of thinking has caused me too, C-bet way too much, 3-bet more than the maximum profitability percentage (if that makes any sense at all) and most importantly it keeps me from getting away from certain hands once the pot gets too big.

Instead of just getting away from a neutral EV spot, I am way to afraid to lay down the best hand and I get my money in bad. I have to remember the age old saying, "If you don't fold the best hand sometimes, then that means your calling too much." I can't worry about just giving up and folding, and when I actually do that, I am extremely amazed at how stress free and seemingly easy the game can become.

Like for example earlier today I open the SB w AQs and got 3bet by a nit that I only had 30 hands against in the BB.
Now AQs is at the very very top of my range for opening the SB, so when I get 3bet I feel that I should be able to go with it. But when I look at it more closely and realize that OOP, against a nit this hand plays pretty terrible, and even if I am slightly ahead of his range for 3betting the BB, it is going to be tough to play a big pot OOP w this hand, and I am not giving up much by folding.

That's what I have to ask myself...Am I giving up too much here by folding??? The answer is almost always NO and I can make a really good laydown.

*I am pretty sure that there is a very strong corrolation in my game for how big my WR is, and how often I am folding.

When I am folding a lot and getting away from situations where I would otherwise call, that is when I am almost always booking big wins. I keep saying this over and over again, I don't have to win money in these games, I just have to not lose it.

As long as I am not losing money, I am almost certainly winning money. These games are so incredibly soft that I can literally win 5/7 days, and go on some pretty ridiculous streaks, as long as I am not losing the money myself.

By not losing money, that means absolutely minimizing the times that I call, and spew. If I am remaining tight, and keeping a descent amount of respect at the tables then I am just going to be crushing it for a huge WR. The key to raising my WR is folding and checking more.

Don't think that you have to make money from these mediocre spots, just don't lose more than you have too!!!

After I went ahead and folded that AQs earlier today I realized, Wow that was easy! Because I knew that no matter what flop came out my life was still going to be hell, but for whatever reason I wanted to win that pot cause I had AQs and opened in the SB.

That is not how to think about poker, and quit getting so damn attached to your hand, and take a step back to consider what their hand range consists of. If it is crushing you then it is a very easy fold, and if it's 50% againt your hand, then you are not losing any money at all by folding.

So please QUIT TRYING TO WIN EVERY POT!!!!!

Entry Tags:

Mar 30, 09 20:27:52

FOLDING is your best friend. Sure every now and then you get bluffed off the best hand but long term it will show a huge profit for making the correct laydown.

ZaRolla

Apr 1, 09 15:15:07

One of the hardest thing for me to do was to bet/fold. Saved me a ton because most villains are not bluffing when they raise you.

AppleSeed

Apr 1, 09 22:15:37

This was a really good post!

wordhappy