the best questions i could ask myself part 1

first of all i apologize for the extremely long post that you wont want to read, but plz do, and tell me what you think. i am interested in wirting more so tell if you like or give me pointers.

i always get in fights with my self about poker, i'm my worst critique but that is what most people do. the key is to analyse and isolate the most benifitial arguments and work from there, for exapmle yesterday i was dealt 87 in the big blind flop came 783 so i'm in with top 2, but instead of using agression i checked a guy into two pair with jack on the river. i had to go back and look at this hand a couple of times the guy had 8j. if i raise on the flop would he have called it? to me it isnt enough to be wrong, i need to know what i did wrong and why i did it.
i have come up with a seiries of questions after every real bet, and every real win or loss at the table. my goul being to limit my mistakes over time and keep my self from making those mistakes.

the first set of questions are that wich we all learned in grade school, and actualy work better than anything i've read in my life, as they are very easy questions to ask. best when used on present hands as no value goes into reevaluating your play with these.

who...
why...
what...
where...
how... much

WHO
this is the best question to lead with and the hardest to answer directly. to me poker players only come in four types: the sheer agressor, who will bet at anything with anything, i like to call him doyle. the fish, a person who has no real concept of hand value, i like to call him gus( with no dissrespect to mr. Hanson). the third type the mind reader is the scareiest to me, he is normally correct in his reads on people and knows when people show signs of weakness to pounce. this player is the scariest because he has to play your hand, so his hold could be anything. i call him daniel. the forth and final is the diamond mine, very tight only willing to play premium hands, i call him alan.

this is a key question to ask. is he bluffing? if i push back is THIS opponent willing to go all in? alan would with the best hand, doyle would on the nut draw and a pair, gus wouldn't without a med-high hand at least, and daniel would if he has the read that you will fold.

so it seems very important to know why.

WHY..
why is very simple and has nothing to do with you or your cards, the opposite is true. the concept is to let your opponets play the pot for you. this question is designed to analyse patterns. for example your oppenet has showed down three winning hands in a row, when he bets a certain amount on the turn and river, so in this hand does he probably have the best hand, yes.another example is if someone raises 3x the blind the past three hands, gets called once and lays it down on the flop. the next hand he preforms the same way. my money would be on a steal once again.


WHAT...
what does he like to bet, pairs, draws, only top hands? bluffs? has he gone to a showdown with, a par when there is 4 to a flush on the board?

WHERE...
is he in a stealing position or under the gun. quality seems to be significantly higher the earlier the positions.(preaching to the chior i know but i have to ask my self this)

HOW...MUCH
how much is the bet compared to his stack size? is it worth reraise? will you take his stack if you do? will he go all in?




as i said i am my biggest critique but these questions help get my self off me.

tell me what you think or what you do in situations to help you.

A better than half decent post oh poetic one. Can't add much other than another HOW...As in how do I appear to the rest of the table? Am I a Doyle, Gus, Daniel, or Alan? Their image of you my be erroneus but that won't matter when that guy with the 8,J rivers you even when you did raise with your 2 pair on the flop, because he thought you were pushing him around. Often your table image can and will appear artificially tight or aggresive based on the hands you've been playing.

Well thought out, good post. Poettic1, have you read Super/System II yet? The LHE section by Jennifer Harman touches on this kind of analyization on the fly type of play and is very, very good. It is by far the most comprehensive poker text I have read to date. Not to say it is the best for specialization in any one discipline, but the LHE section especially is rediculously good.