Texas Calculatem and Poker Office Blog

 

# _Kronsdat wrote at 8:07 PM :

Hi M & J. Some comments on my recent change in fortunes. Having read a few on line articles and a couple of books I started playing at Laddies about 4 months ago. I made steady progress at the 10/20c limit tables and made over 100 in a couple of months. Then I got ambitious and had a few forays higher up the limits and to no limit. I got hammered. :-(

Ok - regroup I cried and returned to 10/20 to rebuild my fortune. By now I was playing really tight 23% flops seen. Steady decline continued and I was down to my last 30 or so.

Then it clicked. I wasn't paying enough attention to the other players on the table. If there were very few raises around pre-flop then there was every chance of limping in cheaply and seeing a lot more flops with weaker hands. Provided I crashed out immediately if I didn't hit top pair or a good draw I should be safe. It has worked like a charm. In 10 days I am back up to nearly 70.

The lesson for me has been - study your opposition and adjust your strategy accordingly - don't go in with a pre fixed strategy and expect it to work in all situations.

Perhaps you are already employing this approach, but it was a major learning curve for me.

I don't like losing and it was starting to irritate me :-)

All the best

K

 

# Juice wrote at 9:19 PM :

Hello Kronsdat,

I think you have made a very astute observation. When I first started playing i hadnt studied at all. The Edge told me to just play premium hands ut that is far too tight. when I told him my flop seen was 40%. He told me that was far too high. I then started trying to fold more just to get my flop seen down. I managed to get it around30% but i didnt seem to be making money. I think flop seen is a useful tool but you do definately need to have a fixed basic pre flop strategy. Of course this is adjustable to loose/tight games and also whether there has been raises before you enter the pot. You have to realise that certain hands play better then there are lots of people in the pot for example suited connectors (J-Qs)and small pairs, 66-22. Whilst Big Pairs such as KK-QQ generally do better with fewer opponents. Havings a good basic pre flop strategy will help you understand when people are winning with poor hands. Remember position is everything. You can become more loose the later your position but dont play rubbish from early position. You dont want to be commited to the pot with K-T off in early position with 2 raises coming back at you! nightmare.

Im glad to see you are making progress. I do enjoy the social aspect of poker. And having you contribute to Mauzj and my blog is great!

Good luck on the tables!