Message Board : Random thoughts - game strategy

Mike,

I’ve noticed that you made a post here and a couple more
posts at ITH which no one answered. I think you are asking the
kind of questions that no one really feels sure about, so no one wants
to jump in. I refer to your ITH posts about "poker mindset" and
also where you said you felt "burned out".

So… I’m going to jump in but I’m just like everyone else, I’m not sure if this will help you or even if it’s what you need.

There is such a thing as "trying to hard". I know it could aggravate
you a little to hear that - after all, everyone is always saying how
poker is an extremely difficult game, that it takes "hard work", "a
lifetime to master" etc. But most of that type of advice is for
the average person, who, let’s face it, is more than a bit lazy.
They need to be prodded into doing "real work".

That may not be the case with you. I get the impression that you try to hard, and that you think too much.

Everyone always talks about having a "Zen attitude", but very few people really
know what it means. It is necessary to expend effort to attain a
goal, but it needs to be an "effortless effort". If you haven’t
read "Zen and the Art of Archery", I recommend that you do so.
The Master’s explanation of "the doing of not doing" and "the effort of
no effort" may help a little. Also I recommend Suzuki’s "Zen
Mind, Beginners Mind".

Like I said, I’m not sure if this will
really help but it’s the only thing I can think of. I read both
of those books many years ago, so hopefully my memory of what’s in them
hasn’t failed me (I also read other books on the subject so there’s
some possibility I could get them mixed up somewhat…).

Your analysis of the tight/loose preflop player is certainly interesting… what you are getting at though is poker is a game of winning the battle of mistakes.  You win money (in the long haul) when your opponents make mistakes, and you lose money when you make mistakes against them.  Obviously the more expensive the mistake, the bigger the win.

Being too loose before the flop is just one possible mistake.  Skilled players who play loose before the flop compensate for this mistake by forcing their opponents to make more expensive mistakes after the flop.  In essence they are swapping their current mistake (loose preflop play) for a more expensive mistake by their opponent.  But your loose preflop player appears not to have a post flop edge over the tight player, so his preflop mistake is costing him money in the long haul.  I disagree with your statement that you need "loose/bad" players to win… playing tight/weak players is certainly profitable as well…

You finding with the tight players all losing brings up another important point.  If poker players all exist on a bell curve, with some being exceptionally good, some being exceptionally poor, but the great majority living in the middle, with no rake the players above the 50 percentile may all show a long term profit (I say ‘may’ because it’s not necessarily right there, but for arguments sake purposes we’ll pick the 50 percentile as the profitability point).  But the rake shifts the profitability point higher… probably alot higher than most people think…  So in order to profit you need to be better than a significant portion of your opponents…

-HJ

The more interesting aspect of this simulation is how the the players play post flop.  Do these simulations allow for a wide variety of different styles of post flop play?

For example, your 16% preflop player, how does he play after the flop?  Does he muck anything less than top pair?  Does he play overcards aggressively?

What I’m really getting at is, can you accurately simulate post flop play which is similar in style to your own play?

Mike,

I just realised that you’re the same poster from ITH that I was referring to in my "Thanks Ed!" post.

The advice that Ed gave you in that thread has worked wonders for me.  I had tried so many different "winning" strategies and was getting nowhere, but when I used the advice given in that thread I actually started to win!

I assume that you haven’t really played the way Ed advised, but you should, at least until you get more belief in your play.

Don’t rely on computer simulations, take advice from an expert (Ed, not me!) build big pots preflop and on the flop, you actually don’t need a high winning percentage when the pots get large, hang on when an opponent gets aggressive on the turn and river, and make sure you see the showdown with good hands, DON’T FOLD THEM.

If you play B&M I would suggest opening an online account and play the micros, they’re not going to make you rich, but you can play with freedom and actually see the results for yourself without risking any real money.

Mike Hammer said:

Mike,

If you play B&M I would suggest opening an online account and play the micros, they’re not going to make you rich, but you can play with freedom and actually see the results for yourself without risking any real money.

I can beat the micro limits on pokerstars for 1.6bb/100 hands but since the "ban" and since I am a US guy I do not like to play there much any more. My wife plays MTT’s using points.