Welcome

Hello all, welcome to my online poker blog.

I've been playing on and off for a decade after being introduced by a friend.

I played regularly for a few years during the poker boom and had a decent record at the micros, particularly Rush and Zoom No Limit Hold'em games (here's one of my graphs).

Around 2012 I began a new career which involved immersing myself completely in study in my spare time, so I had little to no time for poker. However recently this burden has eased and so I have been gradually dipping back in.

I'm an amateur player who still hopes to some day beat the rake.





Tuesday 21 June 2011

Big Blind, I Suck #2

So I was browsing the 2+2 forums (still the best place for poker research) and came upon this old thread about playing in the blinds. In particular I noticed a quote from member 'CTS' - Cole South - who said:

"For the next week, if the (CO or) BTN opens and everyone else folds to you in the BB(/SB), never call. Fold or reraise.

This should help you get a hang of it (and is basically how I play anyways)."


This thread is old by five years but I have heard others say more recently that taking the initiative in button vs blind battles is good and that it's easier to play oop in 3-bet pots. I currently call in the big blind nearly twice as often as I raise, and I think that this is a leak.

Another good thread I just found.

I currently share a lot of similarities with the creator of the thread, and fold very often versus a steal.

TwoPlusTwo coach DayCareInferno has this fine post to offer on playing the blinds.

Right, I think that's enough information for now. Time to look at my database. GL

Edit: I've looked through a couple of thousand hands in my database and definitely found a few spots where I made mistakes. The biggest flaws in my game are:
1/ Not value 3-betting widely enough against players who steal very wide and also hardly ever fold to 3-bets. Playing a fixed 3-bet range (or close to one) is just terrible; great things happen by taking the initiative with hands that are favourite over bad opponents.
2/ Not 3-betting lightly enough against players who do fold a lot of the time versus 3-bets. Specifically I found several examples of situations where I had good bluffing hands like low pocket pairs or suited aces and just folded despite the stealer's fold to 3-bet statistic being very high. A re-steal needs to work 70% of the time to be immediately profitable. There are plenty of players (like me) who fold more than that when facing re-steal 3-bets. In other words I need to specifically tailor my strategy based upon villain in this situation (durrr, u don't say?).

I have also made the decision to purchase and use the application Leak Buster. I used a trial a couple of years ago and didn't feel at the time it really justified the outlay but wow has it moved on! I think if I really make as much use as I can of this software along with the knowledge I have already I can turn the corner and get back to winning ways. Recommended!

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