Consistently losing....

OddzManOut

It's getting annoying. Although I have really been seriously playing for a couple of months, I pretty much lose on a daily basis in (one particular) penny poker card room. In the 30 days I have been there, I have maybe won minimally 3 of those days, no matter how much I stick to range charts,and traditional betting ( I have been going through the core program here for about a week, and have studied numerous free youtube videos). I sit around and wait for a hand my range, all the while bleeding off blinds when. they come around to me, only to lost those hands at least half the time, I am assuming to better hands, since I don't believe there is a lot of bluffing happening, or when it does it is something ridiculous like someone shows me a high card of 7 . FWIW I play way more then most on there and have over 4000 rounds played, and I try to commit to an hour of poker study daily and 100 hands. So not really seeing what I am doing wrong other then the occasional ( may 10 of those) hands where I go on tilt and/or overplaying aces. Comments welcome, but if I don't see this starting to turn around and definitely moving in a positive direction in the next couple months I don't know if I see myself continuing to do this. End of rant.

TheGameKat

By 4,000 rounds, do you mean 4,000 hands or 24,000 hands?

Either way, I'd suggest you have an unrealistic expectation of how long it takes to beat the game. You've only spent a week (~7 hours) studying CORE? If you were consistently winning with your minimal experience, it would be a pure luck.

Both study and experience will allow you to improve rapidly, but expecting to have a robust win-rate before ~100k hands are in the book simply isn't how the game works.

OddzManOut

Just making sure. I am losing on a daily basis . Is that normal? I am trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong here.

TheGameKat

OddzManOut wrote: »

Just making sure. I am losing on a daily basis . Is that normal? I am trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong here.

You're almost certainly doing plenty of things wrong. That's part of the process at getting better at poker. We can look for leaks if you post HHs here or on Discord.

OddzManOut

I also posted this on discord, played my trip 5s right to the end, kept raising and reraising

No Limit Hold'em $0.01/$0.02
Winning Poker Network
6 players
Formatted by pokercopilot.com: Poker HUD for Mac and Windows

Stacks:
BTN - BTN ($2.03)
SB - SB ($2.91)
BB - BB ($2.06)
MP - MP ($2.00)
CO - CO ($3.42)
BB - Hero ($2.00)

Preflop: ($0.04, 6 players) Hero is BB with Qs 5s
1 fold, CO calls $0.02, Hero checks, BTN calls $0.02, 1 fold, BB checks

Flop: 3d 5h 5d ($0.08, 4 players - BTN: $2.01, BB: $2.04, CO: $3.40, Hero: $1.99)
BB checks, CO checks, Hero bets $0.04, 1 fold, BB raises to $0.12, 1 fold, Hero raises to $0.20, BB calls $0.08

Turn: 6c ($0.48, 2 players - BB: $1.84, Hero: $1.79)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.12, BB raises to $0.54, Hero calls $0.42

River: Ac ($1.56, 2 players - BB: $1.30, Hero: $1.25)
BB bets $1.20, Hero calls $1.20

Total Pot: $3.96
BB shows 2h 4h (a straight, Six high [6c 5h 4h 3d 2h])
Hero shows Qs 5s (three of a kind, Set of Fives [5s 5h 5d Ac Qs])

BB wins $3.78 from main pot

elvida

I think the main problem with the way you played the hand is you overvalued your trip 5s. The question you probably have to start asking yourself is why is the villain continuing to raise and call your reraises. (Since you weren't going to fold you probably should have just gotten it all-in on the flop). The line that the villain is taking is pretty polarized to either the nuts or a bluff, but this would be a very unusual bluff. One of the important next steps for you (as it was for all of us) is to start thinking about what your opponent has and with what hands he would take the line he did on each street. Once you do that, you will be better able to navigate hands. Don't give up. This game is easy to learn the basics and the journey is fun. But the game is never easy and it will drive you batty some (most) days.

OddzManOut

I was just sure I had the better hand. I need to take those blinders off, this is a mistake I make consistently. Advice I've heard and need to learn to take is if someone makes making a significant bet on the turn or the river, they generally have the better hand. I take this advice and modify to say at least take a good look at your hands and their possible hands. If I would have slowed down and seen that he had three to a straight on the board, I may not have made that mistake. am going to try and go back and find that instance where , in the same vein, I had a full house and got beat by a higher full house.

elvida

That just happened to me last night (I posted the hand in discord). Sometimes the best play is just to lose your stack b/c you want to make the play in those instances when they bet their set when you have the full house.

I would say that if they make a significant bet on the turn or river it polarizes them to strong hands or bluffs, with a much greater propensity for strong hands. You should listen to w34z3l's podcast on Baluga Theorem (i.e., when facing a raise on the turn you should re-evaluate the strength of one pair hands). While not exactly specific to your question, the modification is, when facing a large raise on T or R, tread carefully with non-nut hands. Doesn't mean fold, but you need to consider with what they would do that. You will be wrong sometimes. You can't always fold or always call, because that would lead to unprofitability. But at low stakes, folding can often be the better option given the propensity for betting for value. Again, poker is really complicated because you will rarely have the information necessary to make decisions with a high level of confidence.

OddzManOut

Thats good advice. In the case today, again ( i looked at this guys stats in my HUD and was sure he was bluffing, had something like a 100% VPIP after 40 plus hand , other crazy stats. I would have sworn he was bluffing, and got me trip by trip 5s to my two pair).

OddzManOut

Gotta say, I'm in core 2.o and about 2/3rds through with copious notes, and other then when I do stuff like the above, am seeing win rates most days, something that has not happened at all before.

OddzManOut

The problem I am having now is at times I have a pretty good hand preflop , say a pair of jacks, and there is a guy before me raising with large bets, say 6 or more big blinds. I am not going to fold with this sort of hand, so now what? I have been continuing with fairly good hands but still getting beat down.

TheGameKat

OddzManOut wrote: »

The problem I am having now is at times I have a pretty good hand preflop , say a pair of jacks, and there is a guy before me raising with large bets, say 6 or more big blinds. I am not going to fold with this sort of hand, so now what? I have been continuing with fairly good hands but still getting beat down.

First thing I'd suggest is trying to establish if this character always raises 6x or varies their sizing. 6x is basically unheard of as a default online, so I'm surprised you're running into this frequently.

Second is to try and get a handle on their range through their RFI%. If they're raising huge because they're only raising premiums, you adjust by tightening up your 3-bet and BB defense ranges.

elvida

Remember that just because you open/call/3bet a hand does not mean that you HAVE to continue. Losing 6bb sucks, but losing 75 sucks more. If he follows up that 6bb open with a 94bb shove on an A high board, fold. You won that hand by losing the least amount. Poker often is a game of losing less rather than winning more. It is much easier to avoid punting off your stack than it is to win other people's money.