Why I am awful at poker

I have won money at poker. The money I have won has not been life changing money, it has barely been weekend changing money.  Occasionally a decent cash in a tournament will resonate throughout the week if I buy a bus pass with a win.  This fact has kept me afloat in the game and blinded me to the reality of my flawed play, which if I do not improve means I can only ever break even at best. I am awful at poker, because I am not making enough money off my good hands, and not losing the minimum on my dominated hands. I say ‘dominated hands’ rather than ‘bad hands’ because I do not play bad hands. If I am in a hand past the flop you can guarantee I am well in the running with, at the very least top pair. When I discovered how to select good  starting hands for my position at a table I felt like I had arrived as a poker player, but when it comes to fundamentals my game stopped improving right there and then.  Every now and again I am felted by a superior hand that I could have got away from, but this is not my biggest leak in terms of profit. The fundamental mistake I am making is one of ‘missed value,’ or not making the maximum profit from my good hands. I shamefully present to you one of the worst two hands I have played in recent cash games:

      Exhibit A: weak 3c/6c, 6 max play from the blinds and missed value on the river:

Preflop: UTG (fish) limps, SB (tight-passive) completes, BB (abc/bad tag) checks KQs

Pot: 18c

Flop: TcKc8s

SB checks, BB bets 15:18, UTG calls, SB folds.

Pot: 48c

Turn: 9d

BB bets 25:48, UTG calls.

Pot: 98c

River: 4s.

BB checks, UTG checks.

BB shows KQs for top pair

UTG shows Q6 for queen high

Mistake 1. Not raising preflop.

This would have built a bigger pot and made more from the hand. In case you are wondering would UTG call Q6 to a raise? The answer is of course he would, he wants to see a flop so bad it aches a little bit and if he folds then that is a good result for my hand because I do not have to play a hand out of position.

Mistake 2.  Flop bet could have been pot size.

Facing a fish on such a coordinated board a pot or overbet is getting called all day long. I could have made more here. I have seen shoves called with weak draws on board like this at 1c/2c.

Opponent could have Axc, JQ , J9, Kx, small pocket pair, 79,and many more suited combinations  besides.

Mistake 3.  Turn bet could have been bigger, much bigger.

This is basic stuff to gain value from weak made hands and the myriad draws out there. Anyone with half a brain could have raised my turn bet and folded a tonne of my range here, luckily UTG is not so blessed and merely called my super weak bet. The nine only slightly strengthens my opponent’s range, giving some draws a pair and does nothing for mine unless I stumble across two pair at this point. If he did spike two pair I would have known about it on the turn.

Mistake 4.

By this point in the hand I was baffled. This was a mistake. I have played enough fish to know that they will chase all kinds of draws all day long and pay off with weak pairs just in case you are bluffing this time. I meekly decide to check the 4s (effectively blank) river for no reason at all.

This is such a big mistake and I miss value from draws that hit the 9. I miss value from pocket pairs. I miss value from A4c that spiked the 4. I miss value from so much of this player’s range that I should have chucked in a small-moderately sized value bet. Yes a tonne of draws miss on the river and he will not call if he missed those but so what?

It is for these reasons I am awful at poker and now you know. I may post another of these travesties, but for now I need to go and beat myself about the head with a blunt object and repeat the nano stakes mantra: value bet/value bet/value shove.