How do you unlearn being loose and become great

Hi guys I need to unlearn being loose I am not real loose but I am loose when it really matters I play a lot of different cards that good player would play i play a lot of suited connectors pairs and the like I guess i really need to learn when to play what cards I know that sometimes it good to play even 7 2 but how do you learn when it is ok to play these mid grade hands. I am working on my hand ranges and putting other on a range. I really need to learn when to play what cards. I am really great at building a big chip lead early but than when i comes to mid game or even close to the bubble i loose my chips do i need to tighten up come mid game and even more tight closer i get to final table. i have the early game down pat it is once mid game comes and i just can't seem to get past that part too often. I often loose quickly once i get to final table. I play micro and low stakes tournaments how can i learn to get better at tournaments are there any books i can read or videos i can watch If i can get as good at mid game and late stages as i am at early stage i can win more thanks and any advice would be greatly appreciated

https://www.cardschat.com/odds-for-dummies.php

This should help, also poker books/videos would be your best option, there's so much to learn about ranges and stuff I don't think anyone can put it in one post here, also I don't think 72 is playable ever, perhaps you can limp in or raise as a bluff and if it flops well.

Lots of folks play loose in the early stages of most tournaments. You know this because so many bust out early. Luck is the name of the game for many at this reckless stage. I've won my biggest pots when I was the underdog and JUST GOT LUCKY.

Poker is really all about what you are able to do after have a large stack (whether you got it thru luck or skill) that you need to protect and grow. It's not how loose or tight you play; it's how well you play. That requires a lot of different skills. There are no one or two things that will make the difference other than ability and discipline.

I’ve been reading through the CardsChat strategy guides which can be found under the menu in the top left corner. Lots of good information there especially for beginners like me.

its not learning to slow down your play. you should already know how 2 slow it down as well..i almost don't understand how this is even a good question. not to be disrespectful, but tightening your play can't be all that hard! when it comes to playing not very strong starting hands. it's all about your gut feeling, stack size, position, and do you know your opponents well enough to make a bad play and turn it into a killer hand?!!!!!

NeoBandit said:

Hi guys I need to unlearn being loose I am not real loose but I am loose when it really matters I play a lot of different cards that good player would play i play a lot of suited connectors pairs and the like I guess i really need to learn when to play what cards I know that sometimes it good to play even 7 2 but how do you learn when it is ok to play these mid grade hands. I am working on my hand ranges and putting other on a range. I really need to learn when to play what cards. I am really great at building a big chip lead early but than when i comes to mid game or even close to the bubble i loose my chips do i need to tighten up come mid game and even more tight closer i get to final table. i have the early game down pat it is once mid game comes and i just can't seem to get past that part too often. I often loose quickly once i get to final table. I play micro and low stakes tournaments how can i learn to get better at tournaments are there any books i can read or videos i can watch If i can get as good at mid game and late stages as i am at early stage i can win more thanks and any advice would be greatly appreciated

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Can your defeats depend on the game with such hands as: 7.2 and the like?

Reconsider the range of hands.

First you learn to use comas and periods. And then you can start learning other things.

Everything that follows is from the perspective of a learning player who also struggled with ranges for a while. I had this idea of what my 'range' was, but I had little real understanding of why, or of the importance of position, and the reality was that I made uninformed excuses to break from my range so often I may as well have not had one. My game has definitely improved since I got serious about my pre flop range, and did a lot of reading/watching on the subject.

Look at your opening ranges, and go look up several examples of standard/advised opening ranges for the type of game you play most often. Read up on just why the correct range is important, and take some time to really think about it. Make sure your range is positionally correct, eg you might be playing 10% UTG but 50% on the button.

Think not just about your opening ranges, but your calling range, your 3bet range etc, and think about it from every position on the table. You need to adopt a different strategy in just about every seat on the table. If you have a great opening range that you stick to, but then when it opens before you you're limping every pot hoping to get lucky, you'll be donating money. Pre-flop is about more than just an all purpose opening range. Are my raising/calling/3betting ranges perfect all the time now? Probably not. But I'm much more aware, I've done a lot of reading/study rather than just blindly following (or ignoring) a magic chart, I'm confident tinkering with my own ranges now because I understand what I'm trying to achieve much more often.

I do have a document with my ranges open all the time when I play. I don't need to refer every hand, but if I have any doubt it only takes me a few seconds to check if it is a spot I am not sure of. If I feel I am drifting from my ranges and getting into trouble, or feel myself tilting a bit, I will start checking my range more often. You have to be tough on yourself, if it is out of your range do not play the hand unless there is a very good reason. You don't want to be breaking from your range very often in early or mid position, too much can go wrong ahead of you. In late position you can make a lot more opponent dependent decisions, I'll often open up a bit if players are very tight to steal their blinds or see more flops with speculate hands that might crush their premium openers when I hit the board and get lucky. If there is someone at the table to my left who I feel is weak I might also play more hands because I feel confident that if I connect with the flop I can take their chips.

I've found when I show discipline and stick to my range I am rewarded. When I am reckless, loose and start gambling with hands I should be folding I am more often than not punished.

A range should be a guide, there are times to break from it that is true, but there is no shame in sticking religiously to a tight range to improve your game and to start feeling like a winner, then building on your ranges from there. If things go wrong then you have a fallback to a position that you know was a winning strategy.

Also, many do advise sticking mostly to one format of play, ie cash or tourney, so playing your opening range (and other standard plays) becomes second nature to you.

This is an issue of self discipline not "how to be tighter". You need to be able to keep yourself in check when you play. Not follow the allure of loose and fast. I'm not saying playing loose is always the wrong choice. But I have a feeling we are talking about more than selection choice.

I think first you need to start identifying those situations when you are making a loose play before you make it. Then you need to evaluate what you really should be doing in those situations. Replay out the action that got you to that point and consider what is your best course of action. Once you make the decision, if possible, reflect after and determine if that were the right play. If you made a call, don't just determine if it was right or wrong by the outcome of that one hand, but how would you have done if you played that out the same way 1000 times. Would you expect to be ahead or behind.

The more you practice that, the easier it will be to identify those situations and easier to come to more profitable decision.

The best thing I did for myself was use play chips. I then would "challenge myself to not play any hands til say 20 hands were dealt. I would instead concentrate on figuring out what the other players had on their hands by their betting.
Then I would only play on the button and always with a 3 BB raise, that way I could see the reaction I was getting. Using the play chips I had no stake what so ever in the game and it also helped me to relax during a tourney.
I also would take into account on how many hands I was playing percentage wise. If I was playing say over 50 percent of hands dealt, it was way too much.
Poker at times should be boring, then action packed for a few minutes, then boring again. The more you don't play out of position with junk, the more you can appreciate the ideal of watching others play and find out how they are playing.

NeoBandit said:

Hi guys I need to unlearn being loose I am not real loose but I am loose when it really matters I play a lot of different cards that good player would play i play a lot of suited connectors pairs and the like I guess i really need to learn when to play what cards I know that sometimes it good to play even 7 2 but how do you learn when it is ok to play these mid grade hands. I am working on my hand ranges and putting other on a range. I really need to learn when to play what cards. I am really great at building a big chip lead early but than when i comes to mid game or even close to the bubble i loose my chips do i need to tighten up come mid game and even more tight closer i get to final table. i have the early game down pat it is once mid game comes and i just can't seem to get past that part too often. I often loose quickly once i get to final table. I play micro and low stakes tournaments how can i learn to get better at tournaments are there any books i can read or videos i can watch If i can get as good at mid game and late stages as i am at early stage i can win more thanks and any advice would be greatly appreciated

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Id join a training site: UpswingPoker, RunItOnce, or RaiseYourEdge.

Gotta learn the game!

NeoBandit said:

Hi guys I need to unlearn being loose I am not real loose but I am loose when it really matters I play a lot of different cards that good player would play i play a lot of suited connectors pairs and the like I guess i really need to learn when to play what cards I know that sometimes it good to play even 7 2 but how do you learn when it is ok to play these mid grade hands. I am working on my hand ranges and putting other on a range. I really need to learn when to play what cards. I am really great at building a big chip lead early but than when i comes to mid game or even close to the bubble i loose my chips do i need to tighten up come mid game and even more tight closer i get to final table. i have the early game down pat it is once mid game comes and i just can't seem to get past that part too often. I often loose quickly once i get to final table. I play micro and low stakes tournaments how can i learn to get better at tournaments are there any books i can read or videos i can watch If i can get as good at mid game and late stages as i am at early stage i can win more thanks and any advice would be greatly appreciated

Click to expand...

Well, first you need to know who your opponent is - if you can not figure it out, then you will not know what to do, let alone what you're doing.
The problem is to read, watch video and not stop to reflect for yourself, let's do some reflections, based only on the range of strong hands suggested to open raise, come on:
MTT / 9PLAYERS / TEXAS HOLDEM
Utg: TT +, AQs +, AKo
above is the (recommended) range to open from "utg" observe the hands that are shown at the end of all hands. a player in "utg" once shows 66, 77, 33, A8, kj at this time you mentally make the opening range of this player 22 + A8 + kj +
we know that it is not eTight - this is the basics to move around - that is, learn the fans with loose and tight hands, etc., then check where the opponent fits and only then act against him. other considerations are necessary, and elás comes naturally - but this is the main one. Now you see the player opening their hands or you open your hands and do not know what is happening, so when you reach the final stages you lose your chips and this also explains why in the beginning stages you win.
in the final stages you are already marked, everyone knows how you play, and in the initial stages most can not see what you are doing, and most of them play tight in the initial stage.