Exorcising my weak-tighties

So this is my first "I got something to say that might be helpful" post... as opposed to the "WTF am I doing, and WTF did he do... and more importantly, WTF happend to all my chips?" post... Now, by the very nature of this, it's assumed that I know enough to add to someone's knowledge.

Bad assumption...

But I'm gonna preach on it anyhow, and rely on the FTR regs keep my spit on the narrow. Ain't no money-back-guarantee with this sh!t, mostly 'cause you didn't give me any money in the first place and what do I look like an ATM... but that's another issue for another day. Tonight I got a specific point to preach on...

So I used to go to church. Baptist church. One of those ones with the crazy ass brothers who can't stand still, spitting on a good day to the third row and putting the obligatory "-urrah" at the end of every sentence. About mid-way through some dude what looked like Urkel with an A-cap start bangin on the piano, and the choir start singing and they start passing the basket for donations.

Now I used to get allowance on Saturday. $5. So I go into Sunday and they start passing the plate. On some days I had my mind made up on where that $5 was going before I walked through the door. Those days was easy. Arcade Sunday night get 4.50... God get .50. Done. Didn't matter what the preacher had to say.

On other days, a new high score on Burger Time just wasn't fixed so clearly in my head. And on those days, with no clear plan on where my $5 was headed, and the preacher, choir and Funk-a-Urkel working overtime, I got confused. And God got more money. Sometimes all of it.

So WTF does this have to do with poker? Well, in some ways it explains why I've now played 217,439 games of $10NL. My mind just not right.

But that's not my point for today. My point is commitment plan and the difference that's made over the past 10K hands -- a difference of over 3BB/100.

I'm a nit. I also got weak-tight tendencies. I see flushes, straights, trips, sets, quads, houses, boats, nuts, crackers, and that's before there's a flop. If I bet and villain bet bigger, must have bigger cards. If I bet bigger, and villain shoves, he must have even bigger cards. So unless I could beat two pair that look like quads if I squint real hard, my ass was folding.

Now you can still make money this way. I rolled through 50K hands playing nit-weak-tight at 2+bb/100. But you get tired of having to extract your testicles from your duodenum after every session... and what I've discovered was this sh!t was costing me mad money, esp at $10NL.

So here's what I've done to start exorcising the weak-tighties without transforming into the donktastic station...

1. I'm buying in at 60bb. Yeah, short stackers suck. But this is for educational purposes, and everyone likes education 'cause teachers are cool and you can learn medical billing and sh!t (that one's from the TV). I chose this amount 'cause it sets me up best to get all in by the River once I'm committed. Playing deeper leaves me exposed to getting re-raised on big pots in situations that I'm not good at dealing with...
2. I decide whether I'm going to commit my entire stack before 1/3 of the stack goes in. Once 1/3's in, the default is to play to get the money in unless there's a mad compelling reason to fold (i.e. 4 to a flush hit by the turn and I got none of that suit...)
3. I'll play a drawing hand with good implied odds up to that 1/3 decision point. But I won't commit beyond that unless the pot odds are there and I'm willing to follow it in for the rest of my stack if I hit.
4. Thinking through exactly what hands I'm planning to make before I bet pre-flop. Am I most likely to get TPTK or is it just two pair or a draw? TPTK/overpair I'm pushing to set myself up to commit on the flop if I hit and drawing hands I'm looking to play pot control and keep a small pot relative to my stack and those I'm playing against until I've got good odds or hit.

Reads and ranges and equity and all that sh!t is still mad important. But I'm really weighing on that before I pass that commitment threshold. Once I'm past it, it's the board's job to change my mind or I'm looking to get the money in.

The biggest thing this has done for me is mental. Once I'm committed the decision is easy and I cannot be bluffed out. I'm going for that Burger Time high score b!tches and nobody telling me otherwise. And in doing this, I'm discovering the sh!t that people were blowing me off of hands with... PSB on the river with busted draws, playing for stacks with middle pair. Am I still losing hands? Sure. But I'm winning significantly more than losing and I'm winning more bigger pots.

The other side of it is I'm not playing mediocre holdings too far. We all been there. You get nickled and dimed through two streets 'cause you got a mediocre one pair hand and then dude b!tch slaps you with a PSB or shove on the river which you either crying call (and usually lose...) or fold (and potentially muck to a 2nd best hand...) This avoids all this sh!t early and cheap.

So that's my miraculous discovery. Don't seem like much, but that simple adjustment added to the ABC sh!t I was already rolling has made enough of a mental shift (some would say a paradigms... but I had them last night and the latina was smokin!!...) has made the difference. Now I just gots to roll it up to being full-stacked and get used to the different requirements involved.

Well, that's all I got. I would definitely recommend Professional no-Limit Hold 'Em Vol One just for the section on SPRs and commitment thresholds. Read that b!tch 3 times over the past month, and that's pretty much where all this came for me.

Hope this is helpful. If not, that's okay, 'cause I'm narcissistic enough to convince myself it's not a thing. And take with the major @ss grain of salt that comes with a noobie giving advice.

vnh sarbox

Dude, that was pretty damn good. PNL was a great book, and for you to be able to approach your game with those concepts will help you a great deal...

sar, i used to play at 80 bb's for the same reason. only when i did that, i was potting all streets and getting called by much worse.

however, i would recommend taking the river out of it altogether, if you are going short. try 40 bb's...maybe 50 if you will be raising big pf.

the point is, you want FE on the flop, you want to be deep enough to squeeze, or c/r ai. but, if all things go normally, you want to stick it on the turn with close to a psb. thats the street most of these players make the largest mistakes.

and, btw, your variance is going to go up substantially.

Excellent post, and yeah - I can see the PNL influence going through it

Originally Posted by Chopper

sar, i used to play at 80 bb's for the same reason. only when i did that, i was potting all streets and getting called by much worse.

however, i would recommend taking the river out of it altogether, if you are going short. try 40 bb's...maybe 50 if you will be raising big pf.

the point is, you want FE on the flop, you want to be deep enough to squeeze, or c/r ai. but, if all things go normally, you want to stick it on the turn with close to a psb. thats the street most of these players make the largest mistakes.

and, btw, your variance is going to go up substantially.

Thx Chopper. I'm playing 60 'cause that still gives me some flexibility to be aggressive pre + a cbet or 3-bet and still have a little room under the committment threshold to make some decisions. Plus it lets me play drawing hands for pot-odds, sometimes up thru the Turn without crossing over. Any shorter and I lose the ability the play pp's for sets plus the above aggression without getting committed. I think this helps mitigate some variance as well.

thats what i thought, too. but, you may find that 60 bb's is dead in the middle of "no man's land." you may need to go one way or the other depending on whether you want to play drawy or just punish them with TPGK+.

Fucking loved Burger time. Nothing more satisying then throwing some pepper on that damn egg guy and dropping a bun on his fried ass. Hated that pickle asshole too.

Good post Sar and GL.