cheetaking

Having just read Caro's Book of Tells, and now in the process of reading this one, I have to agree that it is significantly better. Caro explains that a certain action means strength or weakness, a brief description of what it means, and what action to take when you see it. This is useful, yes, but reads more like a rule book, and can be a bit shallow at times. And some of the mentioned tells are downright useless, such as the ones about people reaching chips into the pot before it's their turn, smoking, and several others that just don't happen in real life anymore.Navarro's book goes so much

Just to post the results, if anyone really cares...I trusted the read and folded. Villain turned his cards up and revealed pocket Kings. When an ace failed to hit, I patted myself on the back for making a good fold. However, about 25 hands later, I still hadn't seen another decent hand. I got forced to take a risk by pushing all-in preflop with an unsuited Q/J and an M of about 5, and got caught and knocked out, so I was wondering if I should have taken the risk when I had the chance. Anyway, thanks for the help everyone. Bad luck, I suppose... or maybe just a bad tournament structure...

Fold. If the other guy was a short stack pushing all-in, I'd call in a heartbeat. But since he is under no significant pressure, and neither are you, he probably has a good hand and there is no reason for you to take such a big risk yet.The rest of the decision is read-dependent. Is this guy passive, aggressive? Does he represent the flop? Is he tight? Loose? 6/6 is such a tough hand to play after the flop that you are going to be in a tough situation no matter what. In a live game I might call and see if I can outplay the guy after the flop with reads, but not online... and especially not in

I encountered this hand last Friday in a $20 NLHE tournament.This was the first time that I was making a legitimate effort to stop and study player actions before making my decisions, so I was still kind of unsure about a lot of my reads, but I was seeing them for sure. This is what made this one confusing for me.THE TOURNAMENT:$20 NL Hold'em. 3000 starting chips, blinds start at 25/50, double every 20 minutes.Level III... blinds 100/200.8 players remaining at table, 43 players remaining in tournament. Payout = top 7.PLAYER INFO:Hero:Has only played one hand to showdown... 7/4, which flopped t

Basic rule: Don't bet on the river unless your opponent will either call with a worse hand or fold a better one.This board is way too dangerous for a raise on the river. Once that flop hits, your best bet is probably to just back off and hope to get to showdown for as cheap a price as possible. Raising on the flop or the turn might help you figure out where you are in the hand, but there is NO WAY that you should be raising on the river. the board is way too dangerous.With the bet you made, he's not calling with anything weaker than your trip aces except maybe a set, and he's definitely callin

Phew... glad there are others out there. For a minute I thought everyone was going to say "you're a complusive gambler, you need therapy, quit the game." So thanks for the BR notes, and I'll try to learn that. Until I've learned restraint, though, I think I'm just going to swith to tournament play, the only game which I consistently crush, and can't lose a bankroll in one night at. Then. maybe once I've learned small-ball strategy and BR management, I'll go back the the cash tables... anyway, thanks for the replies everyone.

yeah, I do have a huge problem with winnings patience. I have problems playing at any limit below .10/.25, regardless of my bankroll size, because the results don't come in fast enough and I get tired of the slow, steady climb. I know this is a huge problem, but I can't seem to stop. And this is probably why I keep losing.My pattern is basically buy-in for 50 dollars, play great poker for several weeks and get it up to 250 or so, and then either prematurely step up limits or start playing too maniacally and lose it all in 2 days. I can't keep a cap on it, and no matter how hard I try, the impa

RESULTS:I called, barely thinking about it, because I was too blinded by the fact that I had hit a straight. I didn't even notice at the time that there was a potential better straight out there, so I eagerly tossed in my last $63 for the call without even stopping to ponder.Villain revealed K/J for the nut straight, and just like that I had lost 90% of my bankroll. Since I only allow myself to add an additional 50 dollars per month, that means no more poker for me until my next paycheck.The bad part is that this is the third time that something just like this has happened to me, and I still h

Today I did something that I will hopefully never do again, yet I still keep doing it every time I get money-hungry... playing out of my bankroll. I've been building it, and doing very well, from the .10/.25 and .25/.50 tables for the last month, but today there was an opening at the loosest .50/1.00 table I'd ever seen, so I took it. Take this hand as a lesson as to why you should never do that. Regardless of the results of this hand, I was putting a month's worth of winnings on the line on just one hand. And if I lose this hand just once, I'd be broke. So, anyway, here's the hand.PokerStars

Seems like no more replies are coming, so here are the results:Hero didn't think about it very long. He called almost instantly, sure that he was catching the Villain on a bluff.Villain, unfortunately, was far from bluffing this time. He showed K/K for the full house, and had led Hero along through the hand like a dog on a leash by overbetting with his monster on purpose, and making a completely unorthodox bet on the river. I, too, was surprised from my 3rd person perspective, because I was sure that the maniac had been caught. BUt apparently he was smarter than everyone thought, and cashed ou

I'm definitely against re-raising pre-flop. K/Q suited is more of a drawing hand than anything. And if you re-raise and don't hit the flop, you're then forced to make a continuation bet out of position, which is often a recipie for disaster. Call, and wait to see the flop before you commit any more chips to the pot. Once the flop comes and there is a bet/call, shoving all-in is the only option. Since this is Bodog we're talking about, your shove is getting called by any set, 2-pair, big overpair, and maybe even just an ace-high flush draw. That's 4 groups of calling hands which you beat versus

My goal is basically just to quit donking it up. I make the right plays almost all the time, and can go on huge runs when I just play the game straight-up, but I have still never been able to supress my natural tendencies to throw out completely stupid bluffs every 50 hands or so. So my goal isn't any specific winnings goal, but rather to go through the whole month without throwing away more than $100 on bluffs. Also, my goal is to learn to play small-ball strategy so that I can get away from my traditional over-aggressive old strategy.December Goals:-Build any sort of bankroll from my $50 buy

Oh... okay. I didn't get that part.I still say check, though. He's a fellow small-baller, so we can't be sure enough of what he has in order to risk lots of chips with just a jack kicker on top pair. Once he calls on the flop, I'm probably just hoping to check it down. But since it's Mike, another smallish bet of 1/3 of the pot seems like a good option too, since the flop call could easily just be an information call. But since he has position on us, we've got to be careful.

I say check. The opponent is a grinder, and showed interest by calling, so he's probably calling another bet on the turn and we don't really know if we're ahead or not. I say check. If he fires back, drop it, if he checks behind you then he was probably calling with a mid-pair, and you can check/call the river. If he makes a bet on the turn, I think you can honestly be worried enough about K/Q and A/K to fold since he's the grinder. Betting the turn will only win the pot if he had a mid pair, which you would win anyway by backing off, and then you're wasting another big bet if he does indeed h

I had always been one of those hugely aggressive players who threw away lots of chips by trying to force the pot and getting re-raised a lot just because people knew I was bluffing. I was getting sick of it, so I'm glad that I read this topic. I knew that something was missing from my game, had seen DN check & call a lot before, but never why he did it. Simply by reading the basis behind the strategy, it finally all came together and I had seen a better way to do things. I had to try out the small-ball strategy for myself, and so I did at the .25/.50 tables on PokerStars last night.Well, t

This is an interesting hand which just came during my semi-nightly trip to the Pokerstars .25/.50 tables. I wasn't the hero, but I thought it was a fun hand to look back at.PokerStars Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2007/01/01 - 04:42:15 (ET)Seat #4 is the buttonSeat 1: Villain ($96.80 in chips) Seat 2: ($52 in chips) Seat 3: Hero ($166 in chips) Seat 4: BUTTON ($36.80 in chips) Seat 5: SB ($92 in chips) Seat 6: BB ($51.90 in chips) Seat 7: ($22.45 in chips) Seat 9: ($26.30 in chips) NOTES ON PLAYERS:Hero has played a very smart game so far, and has clashed with Villain numerous times. Villai

Push!

I'm guessing Ace/King. That would mean that the raise pre-flop was legitimate, the flop bet was a standard continuation bet, and then he said he had the straight to try and intimidate you so that he could bluff at it. Ego players love trying to intimidate you... so he's got sh*t and is just trying to bluff. A/K.

Yikes! That was actually a very gutsy play on your part. Villain's stats are very tight, and his high showdown win % means that he's a very good player.CONSIDERATION 1:This very tight, good player, raises from UNDER THE GUN! That should immideately be sending red flags up in your head. He needs at least A/Q to make a bet like that IMO.THE FLOP:He bets it. This doesn't mean as much. It could easily just be a continuation bet. But then...CONSIDERATION 2:He re-raises you, out of position, after betting under the gun. More red flags should be going up.CONSIDERATION 3:He bets again after you call o

The key to this pot, I believe, is that the villain's stats. He is 36% VP$IP, and on the short stack, which means that he's a losing loose player. That means that he is calling your pre-flop raise with a lot of hands, and unfortunately, lots of them beat you on the river. There's no apparent reason for us to believe that he is smart enough to play a completely varied game, because of his low chips and apparently bad statistics, so we can definitely make generalized assumptions. The pot odds are 4.7:1, though, so we'll have to be pretty sure if we're going to fold.PRE-FLOP:Limp/Call from 2nd po

True, True. Then that's just even more proof.

I agree... a big leak. Limping and calling small raises with weak aces will cost you TONS of chips. Me personally, I use the following theory for deciding when to enter a pot.Don't enter the pot pre-flop unless:1. You are raising2. You are willing to call a raise after limping3. You are in late position and are calling because you have the proper odds.Weak aces aren't good enough to raise with unless you're in late position and nobody's limped in before you, there's no way you are calling someone else's raise with them, and ace high is definitely not an odds hand, because every time you hit th

Any reads on the villain? Again, I think how you play the hand best depends on his past behavior.

MP2 is 45? Wow. In that case, I'd definitely re-raise more pre-flop. Stick in another 15 or so, and let him make a donk call. After that flop, I'm betting too.Since MP2 sees so many flops, but seems to not raise a lot, that makes him a generally loose player, who probably just got very lucky by sucking someone out to win all of those chips. So I say bet the hell out of the flop. The flop is draw-heavy, and he's loose anyway, so he's going to call you with a lot of stuff. I'd bet about $20 here, and force him to make a call against the odds.With the way that you personally played the flop, I'm

A bet on the flop follwed by a check on the turn after a call seems like a bad pair to me. Especially since you're in position, and a raise could easily be a "hey he's in position, he's just representing the flop. I'm going to catch him" re-raise. He could just be stone bluffing, but most of the time I'd expect a second bet on the turn if that's the case. However, considering that he limp/called before the flop, J/10 is right in the hand range for that. No way would 2-pair check it, or even check/raise the flop for that matter, because that board is too scary with draws for that. Same goes for