10 reasons why you play "TAG" poker at micro limit ring games and still lose money...

[jdeliverer]

What do people mean when they say you are a giant implied odds machine?

 

[paulwall01]

Is it even really smart to play the micro limits with so many bad players out there? My opinion is that you are handicapped because you cant make moves or set people up effectively because they can't see their own danger. They are just gambling and could care less about their money.

 

[c9h13no3]

What do people mean when they say you are a giant implied odds machine?

Implied odds are how much you can expect to win if you hit your hand.

So for example, if I'm holding a flush draw, and I know you have top pair & you have 20$ left in your stack. The pot on the flop is 2$, and you bet $1.50. I don't have immediate odds to call this bet with just a flush draw.

However, if I can make more money when I hit my flush, my incorrect call on the flop (a small mistake, like -$0.5 in EV) can become a HUGELY profitable play (if I take your stack when I have a flush, that's like +20$ EV, since you're drawing almost totally dead).

This is where new players screw up. They raise with AK preflop, they hit top pair top kicker, on lets say a As8s9h board. The turn comes a 9, and the river comes the 7 of spades. And yet, even with all those terrible turn & river cards hitting, they still proceed to get all in by the river. So while yes, your opponent may have made a small mistake by calling a flop bet with JT, you are making a HUGE MISTAKE by calling his big bets on the river.

Cash games are played deep stacked, and new players who think they're playing TAG often end up with a mediocre 1 pair hand with a lot of money left behind on the river. This is just a recipe for making terrible mistakes.

Is it even really smart to play the micro limits with so many bad players out there? My opinion is that you are handicapped because you cant make moves or set people up effectively because they can't see their own danger. They are just gambling and could care less about their money.

This makes absolutely no sense. You're telling me that I'm at a dis-advantage because players are so willing to put their money in bad at these stakes? That's like saying its easier to score touchdowns in the NFL because the players are so much better.

You don't make your real money in poker from fancy bluffing moves, or "setting people up". Most of my wins come from making strong hands, and letting my terrible opponents call my very large bets. When I moved up to 25$ NL from 10$ NL, my win-rate dropped dramatically because its so much harder to get the players there to go broke with weak hands.

 

[DocMccoy]

Thanks C9

Thanks for that post. I had been wondering what I was doing wrong at those micros. I can say that I'm guilty of most of those No No's. Think I'll play one now and keep all those tips in mind.