T
Tublecain
Rock Star
Silver Level
Hello all. I'm a relative newcomer to cardschat, and to 'real' poker (meaning that until a couple of months ago I played occasionally with friends, but had no idea what position, pot odds, implied odds, fold equity, or any of that jazz meant) and am just now getting the hang of it.
I have improved my game using NLHE freerolls as my training ground, and have now several times made it to the last 120 or so out of both fields of 2700(FT) and 9000(PS), as well as winning several of the round one face the ace and main event freerolls, doing more or less ok in the second rounds, (no final tables yet). I play a tight but aggressive game early on during the All In Donk Parties, loosening up from position once the mid level blinds/antes arrive, stealing a few of the now decent sized blinds. However, it is the late-mid stages approaching the bubble that start giving me trouble.
I've read about how its good approaching the bubble to start playing extra aggressive from position to steal blinds, but find that I am often not the only one at the table trying to do it, and the hand is rarely folded or limped around to me in position. I tend to see a lot of raises from EP and MP, and simply can't bring myself to re-raise or call a raise with less than at least a playable hand. Or I see a lot of people aggressively defending their blinds with re-raises, or calling my preflop raise and then re-raising or calling my cbet (even though I have developed a tight table image), after which I'm then left on a turn with no hand considering whether or not to fire a second barrell.
Moreover, by the time I'm on the bubble I often have an average sized stack (25xBB or so), but nothing I'm going to be pushing people around with. Thus, I can't be as aggressive as I would prehaps like to be for fear of risking too much of my stack or becoming pot committed against the bigger stacks with marginal hands. Soon the blinds and antes start to push my M to 20 or below and I start running out of options.
Have any of you faced similar challenges, and how did you overcome them? Perhaps I'm not being as aggressive as I should be in the mid-level blinds, or should simply play more fearlessly on the bubble despite being challenged by the other larger stacks, although I risk busting out earlier. Any suggestions would be extremely helpful.
Thanks in advance for your time!
I have improved my game using NLHE freerolls as my training ground, and have now several times made it to the last 120 or so out of both fields of 2700(FT) and 9000(PS), as well as winning several of the round one face the ace and main event freerolls, doing more or less ok in the second rounds, (no final tables yet). I play a tight but aggressive game early on during the All In Donk Parties, loosening up from position once the mid level blinds/antes arrive, stealing a few of the now decent sized blinds. However, it is the late-mid stages approaching the bubble that start giving me trouble.
I've read about how its good approaching the bubble to start playing extra aggressive from position to steal blinds, but find that I am often not the only one at the table trying to do it, and the hand is rarely folded or limped around to me in position. I tend to see a lot of raises from EP and MP, and simply can't bring myself to re-raise or call a raise with less than at least a playable hand. Or I see a lot of people aggressively defending their blinds with re-raises, or calling my preflop raise and then re-raising or calling my cbet (even though I have developed a tight table image), after which I'm then left on a turn with no hand considering whether or not to fire a second barrell.
Moreover, by the time I'm on the bubble I often have an average sized stack (25xBB or so), but nothing I'm going to be pushing people around with. Thus, I can't be as aggressive as I would prehaps like to be for fear of risking too much of my stack or becoming pot committed against the bigger stacks with marginal hands. Soon the blinds and antes start to push my M to 20 or below and I start running out of options.
Have any of you faced similar challenges, and how did you overcome them? Perhaps I'm not being as aggressive as I should be in the mid-level blinds, or should simply play more fearlessly on the bubble despite being challenged by the other larger stacks, although I risk busting out earlier. Any suggestions would be extremely helpful.
Thanks in advance for your time!