Random tidbits

I just thought we should make this thread for small little tips, concepts and theories that may or may not be big enough for their own threads. I'm half asleep so it may not be as good of an idea as I'm imagining it as. I'm reading a handful of new books and finding plenty of new and old stuff worth posting.

Please don't post here unless you have some good info or ideas to post. If you want to discuss anything that someone else has posted here, start a new thread on the topic so that we can keep this clean and somewhat organized.

first tidbit:

The most costly mistakes are the ones that you're given the most frequent opportunities to make, and not the ones that seem to be the biggest.

The example they (Sklansky, Malmuth & Miller) use is having the odd leak of folding a royal flush every time you're dealt one. You're only likely to have this happen maybe once a year, and you may lose $100 or $200 on the hand. They then compare it to losing a measely $1 every time you cold call a bet with a marginal hand, or play a marginal hand out of position. Even though it's cheaper per 'mistake', the latter will be way more costly since you'll be doing it thousands of times a year as opposed to the one time you fold a RF.

Another, copied and pasted from another post of mine:

Think of [playing poker] as you running a casino. You never see the casino whine and complain about losses - regardless how big they are. They know they'll win in the long run if they give their opponents the short end of the stick, and they do.

In other words, be the casino that gives your opponents negative expectation in the long run.

Good "tidbit." I pointed out this concept recently here.

But I think that the underlying concept of long term EV could easily have it's own (very long) thread.

Two bits:

1) Dont just make notes on your opponents play, make notes on their perception of you too. If you play a hand badly (use that to your advantage at a later stage, even if not on the same day)

2) Dont eat yellow snow.

Oh no, here comes the influx of joke advice

Seriously though, 1) is something I've often thought about but have never done. Nice point, caliban.

"Will never trust me again" is a note that I've put on a few of my opponents who've called me down a lot when I've been bluffing. It's useful, because it stops me from bluffing them, but also allows me to profitably bet pocket deuces unimproved on the river.

'Listen to your gut instinct'

This one is very true for me - when in a hand and you think you now what hand your up against or a card is dealt and you instantly think your behind,

If alarms start ringing listen to them and work out why they have gone off.

I have ignored them a few times and each time i was wrong to do so


'Enjoy it when your playing'

If when you are playing or it gets to the point in the day that you are just clicking away and not really enjoying it or bothered by the game - STOP.

The game will always be there the next time you want to play so why carry on when your not in the right frame of mind.





*Caliban 'Play up Pompey'

Sorry for my ( on reflection) poor joke Chuck. Anyhow here is another number 2). which is closely linked to the first.

2) As well as understanding your opponents, Understand your image to the table and your own betting patterns.

Once you understand all three then you have a great chance of controlling hands and the table.

No problem, caliban. I really don't care about a joke or two, but I don't want it to turn into a 'who can make the best sarcastic joke' thread.

Very good points though Thanks for the input folks!

Razz is profitable like a mother****er. Seriously. Go play on stars and play the most basic game you know and tell me you didn't profit.

I quadrupled a buyin last night in a couple hours

Also via Sklansky and Miller:
Make your mistakes small ones; induce your opponents to make the BIG ones.

Here's one I've believed has definitely helped me when I've felt myself going on tilt:

If you feel yourself going on tilt and you can't leave(like if you're in an important tournement), then become a "machine." In other words, pretend you're a robot with no emotion that just plays the odds. Another thing that always helped me was a funny little philosophy: "Folding hands helps take you out of tilt." I know this might sound strange to some, but tilt makes you play too many hands, so this helps cure that. It makes your mind feel clearer and then you can focus more.

sorry that was a little long.

win big, lose small. as simple as this sounds its hard to do.

example: if youre on an open ended str8 draw after the flop and someone moves all, it should be an easy fold early in a tourney.