Let's talk Texas Holdem poker hands and how to play like a PRO?

[wwzsocki]

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Thank you for your comments and sorry that I am so late with my post, but the notifications bot broke to my surprise and all quotes or mentions from this thread are not showing up.
I just check the bot in my daily forum routine and that is why it took so long to find your posts.

Anyways, just as advised I made already a week break from the tables and hope it is enough to get back on track with my play and bankroll. In the last 3 months, I have played maybe not too long each session, but almost daily and I see that I am again already addicted  , just can't wait to try my luck today in the evening European time on Americas Cardroom tables. I will try to save some hands and hope that we can discuss our play further.

I wonder how long are you playing poker already and on which stakes? What is your ROI? Are you winning, losing or maybe break even in the long run?
I am very lucky to be winning because I was able to use multiple high no deposit bonuses in rooms like Party Poker, Pokerstars. PKR poker and many others, almost 10 years ago and learned to play poker for free.

Just look at my Bankrollmob account:



and this is only one account on my name, second I had for my better half and few others on multiple similar sites like Yourpokercash or others which are nonexisting today.
One day I counted and in total, I got almost 3000$ in no-deposit bonuses, we have to remember that there were only minimal requirements.
These beautiful times are long gone, there were no IP checks and one was able to take as many bonuses as he wishes in 2010 - 2013.

EDIT

...the tough thing about poker is we're forced to make decisions on large pots with wide odds. even if you consistently make the right move, you're gonna lose a lot of big hands. even if we give @BitcoinGirl.Club an extra 5-10% chance based on fold equity since he shoved into villain, that's still losing 30-35% of the time...

When this happens consistently, hand after hand, especially when losing with calling stations because of pure luck, they will hit two times 4 on the river and turn when holding 4,2, to win with AK on AQJ board calling all five streets, then I start to think that maybe the good way of playing poker is wrong, but for sure this also happens more often on low stakes where I am now playing.

Maybe on higher stakes, people are just playing better and all-ins with pair of 5 happen not so often as on micro stakes? They will call you more often on lower stakes because it cost randomly a buck or two to call all five streets almost a pot high every time. A different strategy is needed as on medium stakes, where I was playing a few years ago.

[1714682440]

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[figmentofmyass]

...the tough thing about poker is we're forced to make decisions on large pots with wide odds. even if you consistently make the right move, you're gonna lose a lot of big hands. even if we give @BitcoinGirl.Club an extra 5-10% chance based on fold equity since he shoved into villain, that's still losing 30-35% of the time...

When this happens consistently, hand after hand, especially when losing with calling stations because of pure luck, they will hit two times 4 on the river and turn when holding 4,2, to win with AK on AQJ board calling all five streets, then I start to think that maybe the good way of playing poker is wrong, but for sure this also happens more often on low stakes where I am now playing.

Maybe on higher stakes, people are just playing better and all-ins with pair of 5 happen not so often as on micro stakes? They will call you more often on lower stakes because it cost randomly a buck or two to call all five streets almost a pot high every time. A different strategy is needed as on medium stakes, where I was playing a few years ago.

i dunno man, you sound kinda tilted to me. you should be happy people are calling down with such garbage. soft games! it's just a bad beat, maybe a run of bad beats. but if you can't shake those bad beats off, it's going to affect your game.

mid stakes is definitely more aggressive, less calling stations. tougher games.

[wwzsocki]

...mid stakes is definitely more aggressive, less calling stations. tougher games.

I thought a lot and finally changed strategy when I play draws and semi-bluffing. When I have such a hand, then I try to play very slowly and keep the pot size small because fishes and calling stations or even maniacs will call you the majority of times on micro stakes, so the best way to play with them is to not try to bluff them, only when I have something, then I start to bet. Of course, few times I have lost anyways, but this is not so significant as it was before when I was losing almost every hand.

i dunno man, you sound kinda tilted to me...

I don't think so, as you can see I am playing poker really long and can handle tilts. I am not angry, frustrated or something. Don't change my gameplay immediately after losing a hand or do something stupid like go all-in with low pair pre-flop. Don't short my ranges, change strategies, play much looser instead of staying tight. Indeed in the last session, I changed something, but it was just a small improvement, in addition, it was a thoughtful decision, not some spontaneous one.

After our talks and quotes you provided, I started to dig the luck topic deeper and found many very interesting articles about variations, deviations, probabilities and the impact they have on the game. Indeed, it just could have been a super long streak of bad luck.

Funny to read stories exactly as mine:


https://www.cardschat.com/f57/longest-run-bad-luck-345527/

This next quote explains exactly what happened to me in the last few weeks by the tables:

This deviation from the expected results is called variance, which is what we mean when we talk about luck.

If you’re a poker player, this is the phenomenon that makes you lose with pocket aces 7 times in a row, even though it’s the strongest starting hand in Texas holdem. It’s also the phenomenon that makes you lose half your stack of chips in your first hour at the table because you keep playing blinds and never get a playable hand.

The Law of Large Numbers suggests that as you get closer to the long run, the closer your actual results will resemble the predicted results.

https://www.gamblingsites.org/blog/good-luck-and-bad-luck-at-the-poker-tables/

P.S
I changed the thread rules because they were not relevant anymore and allowed talks about poker as a whole.

[Steamtyme]

I wonder how long are you playing poker already and on which stakes? What is your ROI? Are you winning, losing or maybe break even in the long run?
I am very lucky to be winning because I was able to use multiple high no deposit bonuses in rooms like Party Poker, Pokerstars. PKR poker and many others, almost 10 years ago and learned to play poker for free.

I'm a small/micro stakes MTT tournament player mostly. I have been finding minor success playing cash games. Up until last month I could say I was ahead if I walked away. Then I had a run that just felt like it wouldn't end. Definitely was getting tilted not so much with my cardplay but my buy-ins. I would run into a bad beat or something and either late reg in the last 2 levels or jump into another game. This was rarely going to go well for me.

Couple that with expected variance and my bankroll went from comfortable to looking at a reload. For me I tend to play most of the week when I am off and not at all if working... apart from the odd forum tourney. So I can always come back refreshed. Apart from the bankroll management the plays themselves weren't the worst as I'll go over some of the spots while I'm away from the tables.What was a killer though is my PC that I was using to study and review has had issues so I didn't have that winddown ritual to go through anymore, and I think that contributed to the tilty rebuys.
Really though it wasn't all that bad. I say this because I have learned from the situation. Plan my tournaments and bullets I'm willing to fire before I get going and stick to that. I also buy-in more micro than lowstakes tourneys. I have also dialed back my aggression a bit on what and when I'm willing to get it all in and when. Overall as long as you can take something away from a bad situation then you're headed in the right direction.

I also have to remind myself that I really only started to take poker more seriously a few months ago after binking a decent tournament. I have casually played for a few years in spurts of a week or 2 here. I would load 30 buck or so and see where it would take me. The fact that I've played 1000's of hands and learned to pick spots apart better all from that is a pretty big accomplishment in itself. 

[wwzsocki]

...I have also dialed back my aggression a bit on what and when I'm willing to get it all in and when. Overall as long as you can take something away from a bad situation then you're headed in the right direction...

This is indeed very hard to find the ultimate aggression level when playing poker and until today I make mistakes with being too aggressive with the best starting hands, many times losing significant pots when the hand hasn't improved. This is a really hard spot to be in because when you start to check it is obvious that you have nothing and from the other side to bet aggressively only with the high card is not so wise also.

I agree that we should learn from our mistakes and constantly try to improve the play. I like to treat poker as a hobby and not as a source of income because when I put too much pressure and think about the money it doesn't end up well, majority of times. When I don't think about the money and play just for fun because I have a few hours to spare the play looks totally different. I don't know but maybe the right mindset is the key to success?