Live 1/2. The bane of my existance

Poker is poker no matter the stake or game just make +ev decisions and win money.


Making all these generalizations is just fish thought


Sounds like you aren't as good as you think you are tbh.

That minraise is bad just call

That's what I am saying. The hand i decided to share was riddled with bad mistakes. That's what happens to me after constant nothing. I am not so good but I do my best to analyze the table, the types of villains at it and find ways to extract the most amount of value. Then i will go ahead and just piss away everything in one situation that wasn't thought through entirely. I am still learning and have a long way to go but i do try to stop, think, and make the best decision possible, just not all the time. :-p

Those 5 basic concepts that i showed are what they are, basic concepts. The most basic of fundamentals when playing 1/2. to be adjusted and changed according to situation you are presented with. I just wanted to share a generalized view.

I am struggling at 1/2, I am clearly not a good player yet. :-p

dunno how many hours you've logged but always important to remember that variance is huge in poker, even if it is live 1/2.

in a way i agree w/trax that making generalizations like that in poker is 'fish thought' but i don't think there's a problem with using them as general guidelines for now, esp as a reference point for spots where you feel lost. just keep in mind you want to be working towards evaluating each situation objectively and maxing teh EV.

I haven't logged too many hours at my local casinos. I would I would have conveyed that I don't simply think that if I follow these things the game should be easy. I have a lot of help working on multitude of things. I don't play my live 1/2 game by going by those things, they are just common folklore you will find when looking up 1/2. When I go to the casino I bring my handy dandy notebook and write down every spot I thought was a confusing play for me as well as write down the current status of the table during small breaks I take to help me visually understand what I am dealing with. (i'm weird and that helps me) I work hard trying to understand my opponents hand ranges and understanding different lines he takes in different situations. Although I am probably a fish, I like to think i'm actively taking steps in the right direction to not be one.

that doesn't sound weird at all, it sounds like it's probably a good idea. post some hands you write down and just take your time before making big decisions, i'm sure you'll be a winner there in no time (if you're not already and just eating some variance).

Sounds like you are trying. If you have any way to put in volume online that is basically the fastest way to learn

Not read replies, but I don't think you're as good as you think.

The recipes you write is all good and fine if you're a beginner, newb etc. You'll do a lot better following something like that.

But Poker doesn't quite work that way. I also, like a lot of people think I'm good at 1-1 and 1-2 live, and I'm having a blast playing it.

But I don't follow those thingys. There's always a way to win money, and it's more about picking your spot. Starting out tight then adjusting I feel is right way to go in live games. You could nit it up and valuebet, but ur giving up a ton of spots.

I feel it's a lot more about picking your spots.

Also think it's better to generalize in a different way, putting people on being a donkey (reckless aggro, play to many hands), to Fishes, weak tight, to nits, tags and lags. That really helps your intuition, and the more you know about poker, the better you are. The more you've played (so your recognition of the spots will be better). The more you can extract money from the different types. So you're not just collecting value from Loose Passive Fishes, but you're "looking for spots".

And you don't classify yourself as TAG (Most people who do are Weak tight at those stakes anyway), but you want to know who you nit it up vs, who you lag it up vs, who you play tag vs.

If you just generalize and "ok they all fishes", doesn't really say much. But if you have a guy, you see him donking out all the time, and keep betting.

Pretty shitty if we open a hand OOP, and we lead into him, more value c/c down vs him.

Vs the nits, tags, we can change our range and play good implied odds hands. So forth, u know the drill.

You might like this. Almost a year ago since I last played Live Poker, 1-2 in London. But what I liked to do during breaks, dinner. Was write extensive notes, reads on all the players I had at the table. And I'd scribble down.

I looked through some of my papers and I found some of the notes. This is me analyzing one of the players to my right.


Chinese Girl (leaks and tells)

* Frequently checks her holecards when on a flush draw.

* Starts a low humming when she has a nut-type hand. Four times when she had the nuts she started singing to herself in a really low voice.

* Starts loosening up her preflop range more and more, the more pots she wins.

* Stern/focused look when on draws (no humming or singing).

* Some betsize tells, the size of the bet reflects the strength of her hand.

* Clueless about cominatorics, can't tell how strong a hand is on the flop.

* Calls a bit without odds to call

* Called 36BB pre with 88, hoping to spike.

* After losing a few pots, rr shoved 55BB with 22, and showed

* At times with good hands, when she doesn't like the turn or river, she overbets pot, quickly, like she wasnt the hand to end. Thinking that betting a lot fast will just make them fold.

* Acts fast with strong hands


Not saying any of this is needed lol, just doing it since it's fun xD

It's just volume yo. One month of online play = one year of live play. So a few weeks of runbad is like a daily afternoon cooler online. Just keep rationalizing it like that and it wont feel so bad.

there's simply a lot of variance when it comes to live poker. even playing online you may breakeven over a sample size of 30k (or even 100k+). such an amount of hands may be played in a month for some people online, but playing you will never reach these amounts of hands. even though you probably have a much bigger winrate/edge, the variance is just harder to deal with live since it can potentially take a longer time for it to even out. 1/2 live like you say can be beat knowing some very basic fundamentals, though it's really the variance (ie tilt control) and keeping a high winrate that are the real difficulties. keep a big bankroll and just hope it turns your way soon