my leak: thinking i'm better than i really am

people who haven't read ISF's excellent post on this subject, read it.
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ic.php?t=53415

btw, this is long.

now, i never thought i was good or anything. but going on an upswing did screw around with my head a little.

i went back to review my losing hands thoroughly tonight, and it's quite obvious what my problem was. fancy play syndrome.

"i'm so fuggin good, i just won shitloads of monies. i'm gonna put a move on this guy with nothing because i know i'm so much better than him and he's just going to fold."

"ok, so he just raised me. pffff, he's trying to out-level me. screw that, all in, what now?? muahahaha"

"phuck! he did have the nuts!"

joking aside, that's basically what happened. filtering for stars only, i played pretty damn solid. when i got stacked, i was sucked out on, or coolered (AA vs KK etc). in fact, every hand over 80bb was either a cooler or bad beat. albeit i was on a heater here, i never made dumb mistakes.

fast forward a bit and now i'm playing on party. for some reason i thought i should be making moves on weaker players. how the hell does that make ANY sense!? if anything, i should play even MORE standard against bad players.

and here's when my "downswing" occurred. filtered for party only, i see countless hands where i lost when i put way too much money in. outrageous bluffs, outrageous "value" bets (which get called by the nuts), outrageous calls (which get shown the nuts). albeit some of these hands were "standard" according to some people (for instance, stacking off with AK when we hit, which i still don't think is all that +EV).

moral of the story? don't get fancy, ever.

Originally Posted by |~|ypermegachi

moral of the story? don't get fancy, ever.

I strongly disagree. However, don't get tricky and out of line too often.

This was a pretty big adjustment learning to beat the tighter 2/4 draw players. They won't let you run them over, but you can rob the house often enough to bleed them until they bust or quit.

Then when the regs see me pull crap off, they start looking up my good stuff more often and playing back at me.

well, there are probably always exceptions to the rule. but for most low stakes grinders, i think it's a fairly profitable rule in the long run. unlike limit, the difference for making a mistake is up or down 1 buyin, not a couple big bets.

in fact, getting "tricky" should probably be restricted only to opponents who you've played with a couple hundred hands. i think even going off HUDs to get tricky is a bad idea.

Playing tricky and making a read based move are completely different. If you just make some tricky stop and go, two or three barrel bluff or a float for a larger pot, without having an actual read why it'll work against that particular player, then you are bleeding.

Originally Posted by |~|ypermegachi

albeit some of these hands were "standard" according to some people (for instance, stacking off with AK when we hit, which i still don't think is all that +EV).

It's a function of how aggressive and paraonid your opponents are.

Originally Posted by Trainer_jyms

Playing tricky and making a read based move are completely different. If you just make some tricky stop and go, two or three barrel bluff or a float for a larger pot, without having an actual read why it'll work against that particular player, then you are bleeding.

that was my problem. pulling plays on unknowns.

Originally Posted by |~|ypermegachi

Originally Posted by Trainer_jyms

Playing tricky and making a read based move are completely different. If you just make some tricky stop and go, two or three barrel bluff or a float for a larger pot, without having an actual read why it'll work against that particular player, then you are bleeding.

that was my problem. pulling plays on unknowns.

hypermegachi.. if it makes you feel better, I think a loooot of ppl have this problem. Actualy, when I look over my hands at the end of a session, I'd say at least half of my overall losses are usually unecessary spews/bluffs/plays/floats that I shouldn't have done in the first place.

I'm in the process of trying to stop doing that. sometimes its just so hard!

when I look over my hands at the end of a session, I'd say at least half of my overall losses are usually unecessary spews/bluffs/plays/floats that I shouldn't have done in the first place.

Join the club!!!
However i don't think it's the right move to take this out of your game altogether, playing like this helps your big hands getting more action then they should. What I'm working on right now is having a reason why I float or reraise with air. I ask myself can this guy fold a marginal hand (if he's bad that answer is hell no!!) , a decent hand or a good hand if he thinks he's beat, whats his image whats my image have I played with this guy before, does he think i'm a complete maniac. However redundant it may seem it helps keep away the thinking (which I often have) "Oh he must be bluffing lets three bet, oh he called well surely he can fold if I second barrel oh he raised me? Well I must be getting leveled I'm all in. Humm he had the nuts....