Well I am now at -30bb/100 over 800 hands at the $50 NL level. wtf am I doing wrong, I was at 10bb/100 over 4k hands at the $25 level. I really do not want to move back down. Some are beats, some are just me tilting cause i can t get a hand, and if I do get a hand i get no action.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?550146

http://www.pokerhand.org/?550154

I overplayed AJ in both of those, but how the hell could I have read that.

relax and play your normal game dont get too anxious or you will overplay every hand...also if u play when you are upset you will never win big

AJ is not something you should be betting heavy on unless you're a) certain you've got the only Ace if it hits on the flop and b) you hit the Jack also, or a straight draw.

er ..yes..
at this level I would have folded the the turn...just taking standard play the AT (minimum) is obvious - the set isnt out of the question. Its a very dry flop. no draws... if hes a donk (which they mostly are) he's telling you he's hit... and he's not afraid of AK, AQ... Your raise was early so he must have strength..

If you did have PT on him then only against a complete maniac is your play justifed (and even then its questionable).

You gave any guy late wonderful implied odds ( you defended an initial $1.50 bet with $34. Someone in late is justifed in calling you with 72 os if they get the read....

Don't fall in love with top pair...

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http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...405&q=xxdemexx

Doberman: "but Sarge, isn't poker gambling and just luck?"
Sgt. Bilko:" not the way I play it"

Hand #1- All you really beat is A9. You still need to be raising more preflop. Open the pot for 4-4.5x in these games. If you're not willing to do that with the cards you hold- limp and fold just about every flop or fold preflop. I think you're losing money raising AJo in early postion in full ring because it seems profitable to CB a lot of flops, but you're spending a lot to win so little.

This is a flop where you don't have to bet big at all because your only getting called as a 4:1 or 8:1 favorite or getting raised as an 8:1 dog or drawing dead. This a flop where with a pot of $3.75, your bet is fine, but you're seeing where you're at- not value betting here. He told you where you were at. I never play full ring anymore, but this seems like an easy fold. It'd be a lot trickier and more player dependent in 6max.

Hand #2- This was fine outside of my preflop point from above. You're splitting this pot and he has a Queen enough to keep firing. You stayed in control of the pot which is different from Hand #1 where you lost control of it and tried to get it back too late.

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When you have what you consider a bad beat just pretend your opponent had a different hand.

E.g. Here you are upset your AJ lost to AT because your dominating preflop. Pretend he had AQ or AK - you'd have done nothing different and still lost.

Heres your solution: fold AJ in EP.. also fold AQo in EP... <-- once i started doing both of those my bb/100 drastically increased.

This will increase ur BB/100 because majority of the time ur raising from EP with a weak hand - relative to position that is (this basically includes AQ-AJ and anything under this) you will get involved into a larger pot postflop, in which case u can easily get outplayed because of the fact that ur OOP to EVERYONE and you will also be worrying about ur kicker most of the time u hit the A. If you track your play from EP with AQ and AJ you will realize that ur actually losing money playing those hands in a full ring cash game.

BUT.. as played:

Hand 1: Fold to his min raise OOP - min raise usually means strength at these games. Hes min raising to induce a re-raise (this works cuz most donks who overplay TPTK/overpairs will re-raise the min raise on the flop). If u were in position you may be able to call and hope to improve. But if ur hand goes unimproved you have to fold to a turn bet.

Hand 2: By flat calling, your opponent just told you he could either have a set, maybe AQ/AK, or a flush draw. Due to the PF action, the only possible set he could have is 55. But since a 5 came on the turn, its that much more rare that he could have 55. What I would do in this hand is maybe check-call the turn for pot control, then lead out on the river for 1/3rd of the ps. But you see, I dont play AJ from EP, so If I was actually in a situation like this one, I would have the AK, in which case I would only really be scared of AQ. But since u played AJ from EP, oop, your now scared of AQ AND AK.


heres my solution to you.. and im sure this will help u improve ur win rate by alot... fold AQo AJo/AJs in EP and anything under this... only limp in if ur planning to play ur hand for implied odds (so basically pocket pairs 22-99, or 22-TT, and JJ if u have trouble playing TT/JJ in EP)

and once u start folding AQo and under from EP, you will notice that ur win rate will start to increase, cuz ur seeing less flops without a made hand when ur OOP.


Also.. start to play AJs/AJo more like its AT. This is currently how I play AJs/AJo: EP=fold, MP=limp and fold to a raise, LP=raise. AQo i fold from EP, and open raise from MP-LP, or the blinds.

The only hands I raise from EP are TT-AA, AK, AQs.


Also another thing u might want to start doing.. Open raising for 4xBB minimum, instead of 3x BB. Also do this, add +1BB to ur raise for every limper in the pot.


Essentially, what you want to do is to tighten up in EP, and open up ur game from LP (do this part slowly, as u get better at postflop play, pot control, and reading ur opponent).
For example, over the last half a year, I have tightened up my game drastically from EP (i used to do such donkish things as limp with AT KQ KJ QJ in EP, or raise AJ in EP, now I just fold em), and loosened it up from LP..

For example, here is what I raise with from LP (provided there is 1 limper or less, if 2 limpers before me, then I will just limp in instead:
suited connectors 56s+
suited 1-gappers 57s+
suited 2-gappers 69s+
any pocket pair
KQ KJ QJ AT.

6 months ago, I would not even play suited connectors, or any 1-2 suited gappers, let alone raise them.

I agree fold this garbage...also fold lower PPs, at least for me they dont turn profit in EP.

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Thanks, I know I need to start playing more suited connectors, I did not know that I should be playing those suited gappers like that. Thanks. So you still raise TT in EP? I have found that I get too many callers even with a 4BB, and I just end upplaying it for set/straight value anyways, so I just limp.

I know I overplayed the AJ in hand 1, but I have been card dead for well over a week, and AJ in early position is starting to look like KK. Poker office said that this guy was loose and agressive, but I should have still realized the min raise.

In hand 2, I had to keep leading out here because more often than not a donk with ace rag is going to pay me off.

Deme, could you explain what you meant with the implied odds, I did not follow. Thanks

What do you think about calling with them from the blinds- I've seen good players do it in tournaments. The idea is here to either flop a monster or just hit the flop against AK.

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