How to develop trust to your reads?

So, I'll start with that I am not really good at putting opponents at range or something like that, but I occassionally notice that I actually was correct or close to that. I'll give an example.

I raise pre on SB with ATo (questionable) and get few limpers. Then rag board comes and I make half-pot cbet and get re-raised heavily.

My deductions.
1. No straight or flush draws on board.
2. If villain held overpair, He'd had me re-raised pre.
3. So, villain must have hit a set

So... I put him on a set... but I still stubbornly pushed all in hoping he was bluffing. And, he of course had lowest possible set. I felt really sick that I couldn't trust my read.

Is it a problem of discipline or trust? Did anyone also had hard time trusting their reads? Any advice welcome.

Good job on the read.

The problem is sometimes we narrow down hands to a single holding or a bluff. The best advice I've ever gotten was: "If you aren't sure.. just fold."

This is especially true if it's for your tournament life.

you have to trust yourself more,you alwaays can be wrong aginst good players,but if your reading is good you will win more then loseing just try not to risk to much if its not wort the pot,in other words don't be to greedy.

fearfizz said:

you have to trust yourself more,you alwaays can be wrong aginst good players,but if your reading is good you will win more then loseing just try not to risk to much if its not wort the pot,in other words don't be to greedy.

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Well, you can be wrong against bad players also. If you're up against someone who 3barrels like 30% of time, once in a time he could have actually something. But oftenly, those maniacs suddenly play sane when they get monsters, I notice this deviation, but I still fail to act accordingly.

I would think that it'd be smart to "trust your gut" in these situations. However, it is also good to remember how your villain has played hands before and if you can read him/her easily because of that.

It'll take lots of time to first get your natural poker instincts up for the level that you can read your opponents well. And even then actually trusting your guts occasinally demand huge amount of self confidence, when you call your opponents bluff with A-high or so.

I can suggest you if you not sure about your hand than better fold but if you want you can read a book "Psychology of Poker" it can help you about your card reading skill. Really good reading I love that book.

I think mostly it s a confidence thing. until you ve played x # of hands and seen the results of ur reads you don t trust them so you call to see or u fold and delay the building of confidence

If anyone has the same problem, then there is a tip from me. I started putting older hand histories of tournaments (which I can't remember anymore) in visual replayer and going all over them and trying to put opponents on range. Good for practice, and if you're correct, builds confidence.

I think it comes from practice, another way to get better is to watch training videos and learn how they make reads

Arnie, that is such a great idea. Man thats solid.

love that idea but I never forget now where was I

Going over hand histories can help a lot. Start with preflop action (block out your opponents hole cards) and list a few hands you think they might have. Then do the same based on the action on the flop, then turn...etc. Reveal your opponents hole cards and see how close you came. Also, the more you play (assuming you are paying attention to individual player actions and not multi-tabling more than 3 tables or so) the better your "gut" will become. Use the above to add to the info you are getting from the villain's actions at the table and you should notice a bump in improvement. GL!

First off good job in thinking thru the hand and trying to figure out what the villians would have done with different hands. Evaluating the players, action and the cards is essential in having poker instinct and from the sounds of it you're well on your way to developing that well.

I also struggled with trusting my gut for a period. Using a note book for pre game warm up I have a list of goals, motivations and reminders for myself... The biggest and boldest note to myself is "trust your instinct!"

This strategy of a pre game warm up I adopted from the mental game of poker books by Jared Tendler. I can not recommend these enough to players who are serious about improving their games.