Another look at my betting mistakes

my 9th grade teach would give this an A+ great 5 paragraph essay.

There's also the distinction to bet to collect dead equity in the pot.

It's a very important concept which I think should be addressed even if it's not TRULY it's own category imo.

How thin you can value-bet and how thin you can bet as a bluff has a lot to do with the concept that if we can't bet for value (i.e. worse hands will call/raise) and we can't bet as a bluff (i.e. can't get better hands to fold), it may still be correct to bet. If our villian folds a worse hand that still has sufficient equity to beat yours it can still be correct to bet.

You gave a very plain reason for why to bet or not bet, very ABC 1st level thinking and very easy conclusions to come to. There are many reasons for taking certain actions and many of them have nothing to do with value betting or bluffing. I'm not going to go into detail. But balancing your range, improving your image, betting/checking based on the board texture, and adjusting to your opponents perceived ranges/play style are a few.

Checking the flop with TT on T42 may induce your opponent to bluff or call down lighter, or you may just be losing value vs a hand that's going to pay you off. It's all relative to how you are perceived and how your opponents perceive you.

Wait why do you have 0 posts? is this some bad article from another website?

just bet bet bet is what i learnt when playing multiple tables at low stakes.

in the long run u just simply will win the pot by the power of betting, whether for value or as bluff.

I am sure NL is very different from LHE but you should bet for one of two reasons; you think a worse hand can call or you think a better hand can fold. If neither of these criteria are met then we do not bet.

I have been having a problem of late with my poker. I have been playing on www.888poker.com because of the softness of its games but it doesn't really work when you don't apply what you know. I went through a phase where I was getting great earn rates at NL25 through NL100 and then snap.....I started spewing. However it was only when I read some of my books on financial trading did I realise that some of these guys have a constant problem with spewing after successful periods.

It is almost as if they get blaise and complacent by it all being so easy and repetitive. Been reading a great book recently called "How Life Imitates Chess" by the ex-world champion Garry Kasparov. He openly said that the reason why he lost his title in 2000 to Vladimir Kramnik was because he was too complacent and over confident. I think what this proves is that our knowledge and actions are not automatically linked in all scenarios. We expect knowledge and hard work to automatically transfer itself into actions but it often doesn't and there is often what can only be called a disconnection between the two.

I lost money in several big pots that went contrary to how I play and my system. I made big bluffs that clearly had no fold equity given the action. That was clearly a problem with my mindset and my decision making process. Something somewhere was shorting within my brain. In that book, Kasparov advises analysing our decision making process and look for flaws even when we are winning. He also said that he learned a lot by writing that book and that teaching something to others also helps us to teach it to ourselves.

I like this method of self coaching because life as a poker player and a gambler is often a constant battle against yourself. Even when things are going well......there is always some c**p waiting for us around the corner. So my goal from here on in is to constantly monitor my decision making process and I am now designing a system to help me do just that in actual play.