I had a small giftcard for a book shop, I bought “Killer Poker Online 2″ by John Vorhaus. I’ve skimmed some of his other books, and thought I might like this one. I’m trying to make it a point not to read any more Sklansky for a while – I want to get some other people’s opinions and maybe focus more on playing the players and not just focusing on implied odds and the EV of a semibluff with 14 outs.
I still think Sklansky and Miller’s “No Limit Holdem: Theory and Practice” is the best poker book I’ve read for NLHE, but at this point, I don’t even know if I care whether or not I agree with the authors of the books I read, I’m just looking for different opinions to broaden my horizons and review my approach to the game.
My approach lately has been very weak-tight. Most of it is just due to the fact that microstakes players can’t fold. An all-in semi-bluff at a cash game with 14 outs on the flop is a +EV move with fold equity. However, you have no fold equity with most of these players, so really, it’s just barely +EV, no different than pushing 66 vs. AK preflop, so you can make the move, but there’s no real value in it – you’re just looking to get lucky on coinflips. With my smaller bankroll, I’m not really looking to play coinflips all night.
Most of the books advocate moves like this, but they just don’t seem to work for me at these stakes. I’m sticking to this wacky weak-tight longball style of pot-sized value bets with very good hands and folding most of my other hands when I get played back at, and bluffing or semi-bluffing very infrequently. My earn rate isn’t what I’d like it to be, but I’m failing to see a lot of benefit from book recommended moves like using position to take hands away. You just get called on the river when you make that potsized bet when you missed your draw and the guy turns over bottom pair.
I can’t say it makes me happy about my winrate though, I’m around 4 PTBB/100 at .05/.10, which is awful. I would think I’d be able to make about 10 PTBB/100, but I think I’m letting people take too many pots away. At the same time, I’m not getting respect for any big bets. The only nice thing about it is that I’m getting paid off for set mining, although they don’t come around enough.
I think I do a decent job of reading my opponents, especially with the HUD up. The problem is that I lean toward believing they can’t let a hand go, which is true, so when I miss with my preflop raises of AK, AQ and small pairs, I end up having to give up on the hand. Doesn’t do much for the winrate waiting to hit your hands.
I guess I’m trying to decide whether to tighten up even more (to around 15% of hands played) and pressing more, or loosening up more, and trying to play back at the LAGtards. Every time I try to loosen up in position, I just give away more money, so I don’t think it’s the right approach. I do feel like I have to play about 20% of hands in order to get called on my big hands, but that contradicts everything I’ve just said about not having fold equity and no one folding.
Maybe these players are better than I give them credit for, and they’re just doing a better job of hand reading than I am, but I don’t think so.
Sorry for blabbering.
