Posted Mon Sep 18, 2006 6:51 pm GMT by rlb2252
How much do you second guess yourself? Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Poker is filled with opportunities to do just that. And it's enough to drive you damn near loony.
If you check with the intention of raising, then watch the entire field check themselves, you lament the lost opportunity.
If you fold to a player representing a flush only to watch him defiantly flash a hand of rags, you spit a slew of cuss words.
Hindsight is 20/20. When we put away the mouse for the night, most of us commence some kind of retrospective of our play.
When our bone headed play or high risk behavior leads to an astounding loss, we boohoo the result.
We should have known that Romeo969 was sitting on aces.
Hijinx332 would never raise in early position without at least pocket kings.
But when we win, even as the result of an insane move, most of us are much more reticent about condemning the unwise behavior. In fact, I dare say, that if unwise moves are rewarded frequently enough, we tend to disregard all that we’ve heard to the contrary and begin to incorporate the behavior into our daily play.
I suppose it’s hard to argue with success.
One might even begin to question whether all the poker pundits know what the hell they’ve been yammering about. One might muse (while smugly inking another check mark in the poker win column) that maybe those twenty five dollar paper backs by WSOP runner ups are simply piles of gunk worthy of a gasoline doused burning at the stake.
So, the question: Do you castigate yourself for bone headed moves even if these same moves cause the chips to be shoved your way?
Or do you criticize yourself much more for the actions that cause a freefall in your bank account?
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Posted Tue Sep 19, 2006 1:20 pm GMT by Sid Lambert
I just try to make the best decision that I can w/ the information I have at hand...these decisions usually account for the other person having several different hands...during tough decisions, when i give somebody a 10% chance of having me beat, and they actually have that hand...i may get pissed off, but I don't really second guess myself....I'd probably do the same thing w/ the info I had at the time, for example if I know i have him beat 90% of the time and it only costs me 1/5 of the pot to call, I'll call....I may re-gauge my read on the guy, but unless you know somebody inside out, you are gonna hafta give ppl chances to have a range of hands....you can't expect yourself to have a perfect read on everybody all the time...often times there are more cards to come also, so the given chaos of the shuffler is going to effect things a lot too, not just your play...
When you said 'if you check w/ the intention of raising'...that is doing something you didn't intend to do...its just a straightup mistake...the more that happens, I know I simply need to focus on the game and concentrate...if that kind of thing happens too much, I know I need to stop playing
obviously its easier to deal w/ bad decisions that turn out in your favor, and of course you are gonna second guess yourself sometimes, but try not to let it get to you, otherwise you'll just make more mistakes most likely...
Posted Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:16 pm GMT by rlb2252
Sid, when you said:
| Quote: | When you said 'if you check w/ the intention of raising'...that is doing something you didn't intend to do...its just a straightup mistake...the more that happens, I know I simply need to focus on the game and concentrate...if that kind of thing happens too much, I know I need to stop playing
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Did you mean that you have a problem with using the check raise as a strategy or that if you attempt a check raise and the enemy simply folds it indicates that your read on your opponent is off.
And by the way, I’ve finally deciphered your logo under your name. My eyes aren’t the best. For weeks I thought it was maybe a donkey or something. Now I see it’s a gremlin/monster/alien character playing poker.
On more than one occasion I meant to ask you what the heck it was.
Posted Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:24 pm GMT by UrAteUp
If you find yourself saying shoulda, coulda or woulda too much then you need to stop making these kinds of mistakes. If not your scw's will eat your bankroll eventually.
Posted Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:56 pm GMT by Sid Lambert
| rlb2252 wrote: | Sid, when you said:
| Quote: | When you said 'if you check w/ the intention of raising'...that is doing something you didn't intend to do...its just a straightup mistake...the more that happens, I know I simply need to focus on the game and concentrate...if that kind of thing happens too much, I know I need to stop playing
|
Did you mean that you have a problem with using the check raise as a strategy or that if you attempt a check raise and the enemy simply folds it indicates that your read on your opponent is off.
And by the way, I’ve finally deciphered your logo under your name. My eyes aren’t the best. For weeks I thought it was maybe a donkey or something. Now I see it’s a gremlin/monster/alien character playing poker.
On more than one occasion I meant to ask you what the heck it was. |
Oh, i'm sorry, i misread your post...i thought you were saying that you meant to bet, but accidentally clicked check or something like that...in the case of a failed check raise, its a calculated risk...yer gonna get burned sometimes...adjust your game at this point and recognize that maybe the table is getting a little conservative, or you are playing too weak, don't beat yourself up over a missed opportunity, nothing you can do about it this point except try to learn from it
btw, its stripe from the 80s movie; gremlins...i wish I could adjust my perception to see a donkey, but it just isn't coming to me 
Posted Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:23 pm GMT by golddog
Don't forget every game is a learning experience. How would you realize you should've bet/checked/known romeo had Aces other than by thinking about it later?
It's real important to review sessions and find where you could've played better. Equally important not to let those errors get to you.
You'll never play error-free, I imagine. Review, learn, but don't brood.
Posted Wed Sep 20, 2006 11:28 am GMT by rlb2252
Good Advice, Golddog:
| Quote: | You'll never play error-free, I imagine. Review, learn, but don't brood.
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A lot of it seems to be about mindset and having the proper one for playing poker. I’m finding as I enter my second month of active online play that I do dwell at times on adversity, do brood.
Usually, it’s over the loses, lamenting what I might have done different. But thank goodness I don’t recount an endless litany of bad beats to any who happen to be within earshot. I try also to learn from my successes as well as my failures.
I’ve reached a point where I can be OK with a loss as long as my play was not atrocious.
It’s somewhat satisfying, when reviewing a hand that didn’t go your way, to realize that given the information you had at your disposal, you would have played it essentially the same way.
I know too that I’ve been influenced by reinforcement of some bad habits early on in my playing, such as a tendency (probably the death of any newbie) to play far too many hands.
I rejoiced the first time I got my flop percentages down into the high twenties for full ring limit hold ‘em.
I was amazed at how that adjustment alone turned me from a consistent loser into an occasional winner. I’m also less likely to drop a bundle in a hurry. By playing fewer hands, I can stick around long enough to make an apparent loss less severe or even claw my way back close to break even.
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