R
RVladimiro
Visionary
Silver Level
As I mentioned in my introduction I feel I got to a crossroad of some sort with my poker. I would really appreciate your opinions.
Where am I?
I currently play in play-money no-limit hold'em SNGs. I play in 9, 27 and 45 men SNGs and usually get in the top places. If I had a graphic of daily average position in SNGs I would be seeing a clear climb lately. I feel extremely confortable in SNGs and I have this kind of guilty pleasure of looking at the current standings after the very rare hands I play because I get from low to high positions with just a couple of hands.
What I think I do well
I believe I read the table well. I get a good sense of how people are playing and why quite fast. I take notes, not too many, just the ones that pinpoint specific actions of players. Due to the way I choose the hands to play I present myself as a very thight player and as soon as that happens I get very aggressive and take short stacked players out with some ease (notes help!).
One thing I believe I do well is to determine odds but lately I feel that on SNGs it is not as relevant as in ring games. I have some split feelings about it. For instance I have Ah and the flop shows 3 hearts. Someone immediately raises and I believe that he has a flush. The raise is not high enough so the odds are on me and I call because the Ah flush will win me the hand. Although statisticaly I would be making money if the odds are right, it is obvious that I loose valuable chips on many hands. If it was a ring game, I'd be right, on SNGs I'm not sure.
Just because I think I do this well, doesn't mean I am IN FACT doing it well, please criticize.
What I think I do wrong
Too many things really...
I just cannot handle the end players. I know what they are doing and if one or two of them have more chips than me, I'm usually doomed because they steal blinds up to the point I make a mistake and it's game over.
I'm a terrible reader of the flop. I simply have a hard time in detecting straights. If I have a weak hand, it is easy to fold, but if I have a strong hand I usually fail to observe and blindly raise.
I'm fooled to many times into betting for another player. Like someone holding QQ and I have a T and the flop is T-x-x. I feel I have the hand to win, I raise, he just calls, constantly. I cannot pinpoint that I'm being trapped, when or how.
Where to go from here?
I'm not sure if I'm ready for money games. There are too many holes in my game, some of them big, I want to play poker for recreation and at least break-even and don't loose money.
I read a lot and I have a couple of poker books heading my way. I study a lot everything I do, but I don't know what tools I should use to study my game.
My goal is to improve my game to the point I feel confortable in playing money games as I believe those will be more competitive. On the other hand I have not yet understood how I can improve and study beyond reading and playing.
So... what do you all think?
Where am I?
I currently play in play-money no-limit hold'em SNGs. I play in 9, 27 and 45 men SNGs and usually get in the top places. If I had a graphic of daily average position in SNGs I would be seeing a clear climb lately. I feel extremely confortable in SNGs and I have this kind of guilty pleasure of looking at the current standings after the very rare hands I play because I get from low to high positions with just a couple of hands.
What I think I do well
I believe I read the table well. I get a good sense of how people are playing and why quite fast. I take notes, not too many, just the ones that pinpoint specific actions of players. Due to the way I choose the hands to play I present myself as a very thight player and as soon as that happens I get very aggressive and take short stacked players out with some ease (notes help!).
One thing I believe I do well is to determine odds but lately I feel that on SNGs it is not as relevant as in ring games. I have some split feelings about it. For instance I have Ah and the flop shows 3 hearts. Someone immediately raises and I believe that he has a flush. The raise is not high enough so the odds are on me and I call because the Ah flush will win me the hand. Although statisticaly I would be making money if the odds are right, it is obvious that I loose valuable chips on many hands. If it was a ring game, I'd be right, on SNGs I'm not sure.
Just because I think I do this well, doesn't mean I am IN FACT doing it well, please criticize.
What I think I do wrong
Too many things really...
I just cannot handle the end players. I know what they are doing and if one or two of them have more chips than me, I'm usually doomed because they steal blinds up to the point I make a mistake and it's game over.
I'm a terrible reader of the flop. I simply have a hard time in detecting straights. If I have a weak hand, it is easy to fold, but if I have a strong hand I usually fail to observe and blindly raise.
I'm fooled to many times into betting for another player. Like someone holding QQ and I have a T and the flop is T-x-x. I feel I have the hand to win, I raise, he just calls, constantly. I cannot pinpoint that I'm being trapped, when or how.
Where to go from here?
I'm not sure if I'm ready for money games. There are too many holes in my game, some of them big, I want to play poker for recreation and at least break-even and don't loose money.
I read a lot and I have a couple of poker books heading my way. I study a lot everything I do, but I don't know what tools I should use to study my game.
My goal is to improve my game to the point I feel confortable in playing money games as I believe those will be more competitive. On the other hand I have not yet understood how I can improve and study beyond reading and playing.
So... what do you all think?