January 15, 2014
Hello everyone
I am a new member and I need help with a major leak I know I have in my game, but can't seem to get over. I have a tendancy to call big river bets with hands that I like early on in the hand (pre-flop or after flop) but can't seem to let go of at the end. Most of the time I have that voice in my head telling me that I am beat and that I should fold, but I find a way to convince myself otherwise.I find a way to convince myself that they are bluffing or making a move on me, and in the end most of the time they aren't. This usually results in me blowing my stack in a tournament or SnG and I always kick myself afterwards. It might be related to boredome after folding a lot of hands and I just don't want to fold. Does anyway have any suggestions or techniques to correct this problem? I usually play low stakes MTTs or SnGs on Merge. I used to be a winning player, but I took about a year break and am getting back into poker and find myself losing now. Thanks for any help you might provide.
March 8, 2013
I don't mean to be trite, but it sounds like you know the answer to your problem. Listen to the voice that says you are beat!
Try this.
For the next few times you play, practice folding instantly when that voice tells you that you are beat. Make a note of the times it happened, then after the session, go back and re-analyze the hands. Try to put your opponent on a range based on preflop, flop, turn, and river, and see whether you really think he was bluffing. This should help you figure out when to actually make these hero calls versus when you are just finding an excuse to call. In the mean time, it sounds like that voice is a pretty good poker player, take advantage of him.
July 12, 2013
Another thing you can do… Is go back into your hand histories (assuming you’re using HEM or PT) and filter out all the hands with big river bets… You can filter it more for line … So for instance if villain x/c flop bets turn and bets river, what sort of hands are you running into in these situations? If villain bets flop, checks turn, and bombs river what hands are you seeing here?
An exercise/analysis I like to look at anyways. I think you’ll quickly spot situations that you should be folding.
GL!!!
TPE Pro
August 25, 2012
There's some good advice ITT already. However, I'd suggest that the problem is less of a strategic one (since you already know you're making mistakes) and more of a mental one.
Quite simply, you're on tilt. Each time you call a river bet, you do so because the last time you did it you were wrong, and you think that if you're right when you do it this time, that'll finally give you the sensation of triumph that you're looking for. In essence, what your brain is doing is not actually looking to make the right decision, but looking to make the decision that is most likely to give you the feeling of being a hero. It's the same principle as the one that leads people to shove preflop in marginal spots – they feel bad, so they seek out a spot where they either continue feeling bad because they busted, or they double up and have a reason to feel better.
I would say work on developing the confidence to know that you don't need to be making hero calls in order to know that you're good at poker. Derive pleasure and confidence from your ability to fold the best hand. Become the kind of guy who takes a twisted pleasure in losing a big portion of his stack during a hand, but still having the discipline to fold the river and work on building it up again. Instead, what you're doing right now is allowing all of your past decisions on the river – wrong or right – to influence your next one, because you're just looking to make that one herocall that will make you feel better and erase all your previous mistakes. That's a mindset you can't afford to stick with.
January 15, 2014
Thanks guys for the help. Ginger, you are absolutely right and I think this mental leak shows up in other parts of my game. I have tried to work on this lately and it definitley has improved my results the past week or two. It has improved both my cash game play and tournament play. I appreciate all of the help
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