Am I a fish?

Stacks: - sutata with $10.90 - JRT1712 with $9.25 - Ridge_Manion with $10.50 - SiLingPhann with $6.65 - Lechrac with $9.90 - KingKong2008 with $2.90 - lunchmoney98 with $5.20 - Gravil with $17.15 - lesnos with $5.20




Blinds: $0.00/$0.00
Site: pokerstars
* - Dealt to JRT1712:

* - Sklansky group 8
Preflop:
* - lunchmoney98 calls [$0.10]
**- 3 players fold.
* - jrt1712 raises $0.40 to $0.50
**- 4 players fold.
* - lunchmoney98 calls [$0.40]
* - Total folds this street: 7
* - Potsize: $1.15
Flop:

* - lunchmoney98: checks
* - JRT1712: checks
* - Potsize: $1.15
Turn:

* - lunchmoney98 bets [$1.10]
* - jrt1712 calls [$1.10]
* - Potsize: $3.35
River:

* - lunchmoney98 bets [$3.60] [ all-in ]
* - jrt1712 calls [$3.60]
Results:
* - lunchmoney98 shows three of a kind, Fives:

* - JRT1712 doesn't show.
* - lunchmoney98 collected $10.05 from pot

Ok I raised with K9o which is a little wierd but i had been sat doing nothing for god knows how long. Anyway I can hold my own in tourneys but whenever i sit down in a cash game i tear down my bankroll. I always seem to wind up in situations like this. comments please.

Poker Hand Converter By Cardschat.com Poker Forum

Um, yeah. There's a lot that's wrong with this hand, and you definitely made some fishier moves...

My advice to you, would be to tighten up your hand selection preflop. Playing a tight & aggressive style is a lot easier when you're starting out. Playing loose requires more playing your opponent, which can be a lot trickier (and usually very fruitless) at lower stake levels. At 10$ NL, your opponents just aren't observant enough to play a loose & aggressive style. They just look at their hand, if its better than top pair, they play it. So raising with junkier hands & trying to make plays on weaker opponents is a bit silly.

To get to the specifics of the hand, here's what I would change:

1) Only make this raise PF if you have a specific read that the short stack is a weak player, and will fold if raised. And even then, do it with better position. Or better yet, just don't do it all.

2) I would c-bet this flop, and I think that's another big mistake in the hand. When I saw the K come on the turn, I figure you rammed up against KT or KJ, and just got out-kicked.

3) The last mistake is that your top pair no kicker just can't stand up to this kind of action. Also, you need to realize that when playing shorties, you need to tighten up your hand selection, since you have a lot less room to maneuver, and they will likely be getting all in very shortly.

So my advice, especially for 10$ NL, would be to tighten up. Maybe if you know that a super-tight big-stack limps in front of you, then you can consider raising with some off-beat stuff. But even then, K9os is pretty much trash that should find the muck 99 times out of 100.

If you're getting bored, listen to music, take notes on other players at the table, multi-table a few free games to go with it, chat with your friends online, and try not to play trash! In the end, you're probably only trapping yourself.

Patience is the key. In ring games you should be ready to sit and fold until you get cards or are in favorable position to make a play. K9 really should be mucked but you know that. If you are going to play it, why didn't you cbet the flop? If you had cbet the flop he would have likely come over the top and you would have folded with your stack intact. If he had nothing (although maybe a better hand than you) he likely would have laid it down.

When he went all-in on the river what did you think he might have that you could beat? A worse King? Very doubtful. You're really only beating a bluff and you have to be willing to fold.

Edited to add: Just read the post above mine. Adrenaline said everything I posted but more clearly.

ok cheers for the feedback. You are right i was only beating a bluff but when all i see is raise raise raise from every single player in pretty much every hand its hard to believe your opponent. I do generally play tight with a few outing with weaker hands. But i always get repopped for a huge amount.

If i have TP with a mediocre kicker with 2 other players i bet, get massively raised on a scary board see a call so i may fold and find both players have a lower pocket pair. It's things like that that make me a non-believer when i get raised. When i finally make a stand, the above happens. I am willing to accenpt im a terrible cash player and no matter what i do i always lose.

Tourneys are a different story for me although i'm going through a major dry spell (constantly getting outdrawn blah blah but i don't want to moan about that). its just strange that when i observe my players they are playing any two cards but when i raise them they have the stone cold nuts.

What kind of things do you look out for to see if your opponent is bluffing or not? cos right now I can do no right.

If players are willing to raise you with mediocre holdings, the answer is not to play mediocre holdings yourself. The answer is to only play holdings that you can play aggressively & confidently. If they raise you, you should be playing hands that you can raise them right back with.

Also, if you're betting, and then getting raised, it sounds like you're playing out of position. If you have a hand like TPTK, you want to try to control the size of the pot. If you know for sure that your opponent will bet, then check to him. It keeps the pot smaller. Or better yet, play in position, so you have more control over the action.

Being successful at $10NL is a lot about reading players. Players have hugely varying play styles at this limit. Some players are maniacs, some are passive calling stations, some are rocks, and some are actually good players. Work on reading players, and playing hands that you don't mind getting all in with if it comes to that.

And don't bother trying to catch bluffs. Its just not profitable. Just make good hands, and push your chips in the middle in pot-sized increments.

c9h13no3 said:

And don't bother trying to catch bluffs. Its just not profitable.

Click to expand...

I think this is one of the many reasons I fail at online play.

JRT, if you're going to raise with some weak hand, it's better to have something without an weak ace, king or queen that could be dominated by whatever is calling you. For instance if you had 5-6 suited and raised preflop it would be pretty hard for the other guy to think you hit a flop of 5-5-3.