My worst leak is mental ... how do you stop this?

[Arizona Willie]

My worst leak is putting the villain on a better hand but calling him anyway to see if he does or thinking he may be bluffing.

I do it time after time and get burned burned burned.

My own dumb fault.

But how do you make yourself not call someone you think probably has a better hand?

Like I might have K's and Q's and I have the villain figured for trip K's.
Yet I call him.

Stupid.. you bet.

Of course, once in awhile I catch 'em bluffing but not near enough to pay for the losses.

Discipline is my problem. How do I improve my discipline and stop this huge leak?

[Lunatic973]

Check auto fold

[Arizona Willie]

Thanks so much, Lunatic--always right there with helpful advice.

[Bacco777]

Buy -and READ- The Poker Mindset and explore and accept other possibilities other than your own cards.

[Enki]

Check auto fold

can't find he checkbox - need help!

lol

[Enki]

to get back to the topic:

i know by experience that this a serious problem, as it can (and does) cripple both your winnings and the fun playing poker.
After some time off the tables and thinking about it, i came to the conclusion that this mostly happens when i am too much concerned about the growth of my bankroll.
Greed makes you bleed.
So i stopped thinking, " you have to win X $ today", just led it happen (you can't force winning at poker) and the fun playing poker, and winning, came back.

Hope this didn't sound too stupid.


P.S.: one positive aspect is that i know now that my hand-reading skills are pretty well developed (although this "knowledge" has cost me huge chunks of my bankroll, lol).


gl

[_Loki_]

Hi Arizona Willie. How do you like taking advice from a Nordic devil?

What you need to do is play wearing a big hat & spurs while singing these Kenny Rogers lyrics (sorry, but he's from Houston, Texas)

THE GAMBLER

On a warm summer's evenin' on a train bound for nowhere,
I met up with the gambler; we were both too tired to sleep.
So we took turns a starin' out the window at the darkness
'Til boredom overtook us, and he began to speak.

He said, "Son, I've made my life out of readin' people's faces,
And knowin' what their cards were by the way they held their eyes.
so if you don't mind my sayin', I can see you're out of aces.
For a taste of your whiskey I'll give you some advice."

So I handed him my bottle and he drank down my last swallow.
Then he bummed a cigarette and asked me for a light.
And the night got deathly quiet, and his face lost all expression.
Said, "If you're gonna play the game, boy, ya gotta learn to play it right.

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.

Ev'ry gambler knows that the secret to survivin'
Is knowin' what to throw away and knowing what to keep.
'Cause ev'ry hand's a winner and ev'ry hand's a loser,
And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep."

When he'd finished speakin', he turned back towards the window,
Crushed out his cigarette and faded off to sleep.
And somewhere in the darkness the gambler, he broke even.
But in his final words I found an ace that I could keep.

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.

Michael

Yee Hah !

[Lunatic973]

After that post above, betcha you want to rethink what you reply to me...lol

What I was saying that if you are playing in a hand and you put your villian on a range that is crushing you and let's say you check to him. If you're already so sure that he's got you crushed, just check auto fold, and if he bets it folds for you. If he checks you can quickly just uncheck it, and see the next card.

I wasn't trying to be a smart ass.

Let's say you have KK preflop and you two are in the blinds, and you raise from SB, he 3Bets, you 4Bet, and he just calls. You're OOP in a 4Bet pot, against a likely range of AA/KK/AK. It's of course unlikely he has KK because you have that. If he had AA, he would have probably shoved over your 4Bet, but maybe not since he has position, he maybe trying to get you to shove a flop. Flop comes AXX rainbow. Are you CBetting (adding more chips way behind your opp. range) if checked too? (some FE, but not much because the pot is so large and his range is so strong) Or checking to him and calling his shove? (no FE) Best case scenario you're splitting the pot, worst case scenario you're drawing to a 2 outer, maybe even drawing dead already.

This is perfect for auto fold. As soon as the flop comes, you're auto folding. Most people at small stakes aren't 4Betting/calling 4Bets with less than AA/KK/AK. Some lunatics (no pun intended) might do this with QQ, but it probably would have been a 3Bet shove. This auto fold will allow you to go with your gut, and not let you talk yourself into a call where you know you're beat, BUT you just have to see if he's bluffing.

[_Loki_]

What's helped me (in addition to HM) is keeping a simple handwritten notebook record of every session I've ever played with date, time in & out, stakes, how many BB's I brought to each table. profit/loss & most importantly how I feel - was I tired at the end? Was I more profitable in the early, middle or late part of the session ? I also have a kitchen timer & I don't allow myself to play longer than 50mins - then I take a 10min break & LEAVE THE ROOM WITH THE PC & walk a bit - make a hot drink, If I feel jaded I wash my face & generally refocus ready for another 50mins.

Bankroll - make sure you're not short or you only worry about losing chips all the time. I say that if you are a NLHE cash player you MUST have at least 2,500 BB's in your BR. If you haven't got this then move down til you have. With poker you can't do well if you aren't aggressive & a little deceptive - you can't easily be these things without first having a confident table image & having a decent BR helps with that

Try varying your buy-in amount. Try 50BB's for a week. Try 75BB's, Try 100BB's etc etc. Keep notes on how you feel. Your whole style of play will change depending on the buy-in & you'll find out all kinds of things about yourself. If you buy-in short stacked it gives you a lot of freedom to make some moves on your ops & you will find you are having FUN too.

If you try all these things you WILL make a lot less dumb mistakes. Think about what you're doing. If you catch yourself thinking about the "outside world" then you aren't playing at your potential. For some reason your mind is elsewhere. Figure out why & take steps to rectify the problem

Michael

[_Loki_]

I know it's obvious stuff...

You haven't got to be the best poker player at the table to be profitable. Try playing with better starting hands. Simplify & become ABC for a while & gradually loosen up only when your graph is going up. By only playing better hands you make fewer, but usually better decisions.

Stop losing many small pots. Start winning a few BIG pots. Make sure that you dominate the table & your ops believe in you