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Live Cash Game $1/$3 NL Hold Em

OK, first question. I had planned to play $1/$2, when I got to the casino the guy had lied to me saying they had $1/$2 games when I called I got there and it was only, $1/$3 and $2/$5. I had a total of $270, with $70 of it being my lunch money and smoke money. Should I have drove another 20 miles to the next casino or played here? I did play here.

OK mistake 1, I got 85o in the blind, saw the flop and had an open ended draw, I bet out $6, because they say if you have a draw bet it, to get money in the pot. Well there were total of 4 players until the raise by another player, I was open ended and re-raised I think the bet was raised from $6 to $15 and I re-raised or either called a $35 bet. The turn came and I bet another $35 got called and only 3 player total. Missed on the river card and the winner had a pair of TT.

Mistake 2 or not, I figure I learned my lesson not to loose a lot of money chasing a draw, but I picked up K2s in the blind and flopped open ended draw, well I bet like they say I bet $6, with the thought in mind that if it is raised, I am going to fold. I got 3 callers, the turn was a blank. I bet $12 the river was a blank and I folded the winner had like top pair or something. So instead of loosing $79 on a draw I lost $21, is this better?

Mistake 3, Got KK and third to bet seat four raised $15 I raised to $40 and a guy that is capable of bluffing called. The flop was 799, I was first to act or it was checked to me and I went all in.

This was not my plan I blew up. I meant to bet about the same $40 or $60 or even check to get the bluffer tricky guy to bluff at me. But I had waited so long for a hand and a win, that I wanted this pot now, why because I had KK and I feared the A. I did not want to allow those suckers the privilege of seeing another card and hit and Ace on me I would have been mad and on tilt may have even lost my entire roll.

Mistake 4 or not, I planned to play for 5 hours a day, now I think it will be 6 hrs a day. However I wanted to go see my girl, so I left 4 hours into the game instead of 5 like I planned, I had just started to win a couple of pots.

Mistake 5 I had A9o in late and I wanted to leave to see my girl. So I figure I was messing up all game long so I thought I would play this hand, well the flop came A66, I bet they tricky guy called, I thought for sure he had something I think he was wanting to bluff me but got scared or either I have a bad tell on me. How will I know if I have a problem with giving my hand away or being able to read easy? How do I work on this in live play at the casino, it is not like bar room poker live nothing like the internet. Anyway the original bet was I raised to steal the blinds $10, I think so he may have been defending anyways, I should pay more attention to what is what. I can’t remember I know I was first to act, so I could not have been so he must have already been in the pot. Anyway I felt he was tricky and wanted to bluff me out of the pot too. I don’t know I just felt like I did not get full value from the the KK, and A9o.

Mistake 6, I got KK in the small blind everyone folded around to me and the BB, I raised the big blind $10 he did not call. I did not want to let him in cheap from the BB and have him beat me with a lucky flop, so I wanted him to pay to see the flop. The players don’t like me much because I do not chop the blind, they keep saying you will either win a small pot or loose a big one. Well I am just too dumb to understand isn’t every pot won either a big one or small one?

Please help me play better poker, my life depends on it, because if not I am going to die trying. If I don’t have poker I have no hope!!!! PLEASE Help me.

Ill let the good players give you the real advice but I have a few questions/tips.

because they say if you have a draw bet it, to get money in the pot

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Who? Who says this? I am not being facetious as I really wonder. It sounds like good advice on the surface, but I question it's application in ALL circumstances.

I DO think sitting down with your entire bankroll at a higher blind than you wanted to play where the whole BR wasn't 100BB was a bad start.. so did you I think. In that circumstance, if I were you, I'd already be in with "scared money" a little bit. And I might play a little tilted.

It sounds like you played a little tilted.

Did you watch the table for a while? Did you have a good idea who you were up against?

Back to the draws. I imagine you know your outs/chances of hitting an open ended straight draw. It's a long shot. It is a long shot in the BEST of circumstances. And when some of those outs are poisonous due to flush draws or other straights it gets a little worse. Betting into it on a soft table when you have a nice cushy bankroll might be one thing. But I would be a little more careful at first here. And IMHO trying to "pad" the pot with little bets is an odd/bad strategy. But I have lots to learn.

Both of those hands are instifold hands. I assume you got to play without calling a raise?

I just wouldn't start out chasing so much. I think you know this already.

#3. You know whats wrong here. All in on that board is inviting doom.

#5. Did you fold? lose? win? A9o is pretty marginal with any more than a few players. A66 flop is really kind of the exact reason why.

#6 Was not a mistake IMHO.

Anyway. My impression is you went in compromising your strategies from the beginning and kept doing that as you played. It also smelled a little like scared money to me. Even blind-dumb me might have been able to feel that from you at the table...

best,
cAPS

well. first lets see, your actual bankroll was 200. and your at a 1/3 nl table. typically, minimum buyin is 100, maximium 300 in most places. its good to have at least enough for a 2 or 3 maximum rebuys to withstand the variance. it does sound like you were anxious/nervous during your session. was this your first time playing live? if it was, and based on how you were playing, i would recommend playing at a limit table. it will give you a chance to get a feel for playing live, and you dont have to worry about risking your whole roll on one hand. that being said, there are times we all get frustrated, or impatient at the table, but you simply cannot do this at a nl table. you just cant. not only will you likely lose your bankroll, but the other players will remember you next time they see you. but like i said, i would say play some live limit poker until you can get a handle on your emotions. it will allow you to make mistakes without going broke in one hand. yeah its not as exciting as nl, but you can still make good money there. best of luck to you.

Thank you guys so much, you can tell everything and I feel better somehow just hearing your responses. It helps me to understand what went wrong and what I must work on next.

Thanks so much!

Question 1: TBH, there's no guarantee a $1/2 game will play much different to a $1/3 game anyway - standard preflop raises are probably in the order of $10 in either game and it's only costing you $1 extra per round in blinds, so the only real difference is in the starting stacks. Unless you're sitting down at a newly formed table chances are half the table will have more than the maximum in front of them anyway, so even this doesn't end up being a huge issue. If it's a "mistake", I wouldn't say it's a big one.

Mistake 1: Hard to tell what actually happened in this hand - I'd say the biggest lesson you can learn from this is to pay very close attention to what's happening. If you want to analyse a hand later (and it's often a good idea) you need to remember things like position, stack sizes of your opponents, cards on the board, etc. In general though, don't feel you have to bet your draws, especially in a multi-way pot. Sometimes the best thing you can do is take a free card off.

There are worse things you could keep in mind than small hand, small pot, big hand, big pot. Like any generalisation there'll always be exceptions but this was a small hand, and there'd have been nothing wrong in playing a small pot with it.

Mistake 2: Again, it's hard to tell from the action here. With K2 though, I'd be even more likely to just try to take a free card and draw cheaply because you've only got a one-card straight draw, and it's possible you could be drawing thin or dead against better (or even made) straight draws.

It's better that you lost less money on this hand, but you didn't actually have to lose any money other than your blind.

Mistake 3: I've gotta get this straight - you raised preflop with KK, got a caller, then shoved a 799 flop. I take it the villain folded?

Whether you made a mistake on the flop really depends on stack sizes. You do want to bet in that spot, for a number of reasons. You're very likely ahead, you don't want any weird straight of flush draws to see a cheap turn card, and you're likely to get action from TT-QQ and probably some other weird stuff besides.

If the villain has a lone ace in his hand, he's only about 6% to hit another one on the turn, so that should be the least of your worries. Bet this for value.

With regard to stack sizes there's gotta be what, about $90 in the pot already? If that's about what you've got left in your stack then shoving is fine. If you've got $200 behind, a smaller bet would've been better.

Betting $40 would've been a mistake, because any draws would be getting a good price to call. $60 was probably an alright amount, as a player with AQ/AK might think you're on a dry c-bet and try to shove and steal the pot from you (note: we want this to happen). As mentioned above though, if betting $60 only left you with $50 or something behind you're better just getting it all in.

A different option in this spot would be going for a check-raise, if you thought the villain was aggressive and likely to bet here. We should be happy to get our whole stack in at this spot, the move we make should be the one most likely to achieve that goal.

Mistake 4: You're really the only one who can address your priorities. Suffice it to say that whether or not you'd won some recent pots, if your mind wasn't 100% focussed on the game any more (for whatever reason) then it was a good time to leave.

Mistake 5: You got involved with this hand for all the wrong reasons. Don't play something just because you've been "messing up all game". If you're starting to feel that way, just walk away with whatever you have left. It's better that money stays in your pocket than someone else's.

If you want to work on concealing tells, rather than playing a hand like this, use the money to buy yourself a copy of Read 'em and Reap by Joe Navarro. The chapter on concealing your tells is fantastic (as is the rest of the book, on reading tells in others).

Mistake 6: No big mistake here - it's just a shame the big blind didn't have a hand he could call with. You could try to slowplay occasionally (you have to stop being so scared of an ace when you have KK) but there's nothing wrong with the raise.

Whether you should chop the blinds is really up to you. If everyone else is doing it sometimes it's easier just to go with the flow (kinda like games with a live straddle) but I'd only do it if everyone is doing it.

Thank you for the reply, this was the best one ever. I really appreciate the advive.

I've chopped the blinds with some decent hands and I don't mind doing it. It keeps the other players [esp. the one on your left] from getting angry at you and you just might get a little more respect. Everyone's happier.

I also agree with all that has been said. You do not 'have' to bet draws, in mistake #1 you were first to act with several people left to act behind you. What are you trying to accomplish here besides building a pot in which you are most certainly behind? Betting here will not get anyone to fold and will most likely get you raised in any situation. Check and then weigh your options when someone else bets and get out for cheap. Figure out your pot odds and go from there.

In the BB I'm folding anything less than 2 pair. The only way I would stay around with k2 is if it was checked around and a free turn card came about.

It sounds like your thoughts are impeding your play and you have a lot of 'notions' that are not all correct. The way you described how you played I can see the other players viewing you as loose and weak. Once they have reads on how you play and betting styles it's all over.

With KK on a 799 board I don't think shoving is the best option. Like Oz said, you want to bet it for value. Someone with QQ would probably stay in the pot or even re-raise you thinking you're on two high cards and are just standard c-betting.

Also if anything is causing you to lose focus of the game (girlfriend, hunger, sleepiness etc) you're better off getting up.

Scared money is a big issue as well. I was playing with scared money once and folded the best hand when my opponet bet $60 into me on the river. I folded top pair and he showed me his bluff. If it wasn't for the 'scared money' emotion I definitely would have called. It affects your game more than you might think.

Next time try to pay more attention to the table. Instead of worrying about tells in yourself, look for tells in other people. Specifically the people around you, since they will most influence how you play. Start out with the two people on your left and the person on their right. Watch how their hands move when they bet. Watch how their chips are thrown in. Do they arrange them in little piles, or just sling them out there? It means something. Everything means something no matter how little. It's taking all these little nuances and digesting them with logic to arrive at a conclusion. In my opinion it's the most fun part of playing live.