guccipix
Rock Star
Silver Level
I've been grinding 0.02/0.05 6-max cash games recently and the cycle is just repeating itself over and over. I have a positive session where I run good, and then a terrible terrible session where almost every hand goes wrong. When you make the nuts (or close to it) you seldom get paid off, when you have a very marginal spot and call, you're often barely behind, and the worst thing of all (and my main point): they just don't fcking fold.
I often take aggressive lines against players who are likely to have marginal holdings and people just do not fold, even when I'm right. Check raise the turn on a JTxx board with three spades? Yeah they'll call turn and river with ATo no spades. So the conundrum I face is this: the profit you stand to gain from getting paid off when you have the goods is nowhere near the amount of buy-ins you stand to lose from failed bluffs against players who don't know that they're allowed to fold marginal hands. When you bluff shove a river and get called you lose an entire buy-in, when you value shove the river and don't get paid, you only win about a half a buy-in, or less. When you bluff shove a river and it gets through, you're not exactly winning a massive pot either. So in the long run the only profitable strategy is to avoid bluffing and only bet when you think you're ahead. Sounds stupid, right? That's because it is. Bluffing is a necessary part of poker, but how do you get around its lack of profitability?
It's very frustrating sitting down at online microstakes cash tables sensing your very obvious edge over your opponents and still failing. Over. And over. And over. Now obviously the problem is on me, if I can only break even at these stakes I must be a weak player right? I must be too confident. Do I just stop bluffing unless absolutely necessary? Idk. Good luck out there guys.
I often take aggressive lines against players who are likely to have marginal holdings and people just do not fold, even when I'm right. Check raise the turn on a JTxx board with three spades? Yeah they'll call turn and river with ATo no spades. So the conundrum I face is this: the profit you stand to gain from getting paid off when you have the goods is nowhere near the amount of buy-ins you stand to lose from failed bluffs against players who don't know that they're allowed to fold marginal hands. When you bluff shove a river and get called you lose an entire buy-in, when you value shove the river and don't get paid, you only win about a half a buy-in, or less. When you bluff shove a river and it gets through, you're not exactly winning a massive pot either. So in the long run the only profitable strategy is to avoid bluffing and only bet when you think you're ahead. Sounds stupid, right? That's because it is. Bluffing is a necessary part of poker, but how do you get around its lack of profitability?
It's very frustrating sitting down at online microstakes cash tables sensing your very obvious edge over your opponents and still failing. Over. And over. And over. Now obviously the problem is on me, if I can only break even at these stakes I must be a weak player right? I must be too confident. Do I just stop bluffing unless absolutely necessary? Idk. Good luck out there guys.