Pokerwiner.com → Within poker principles
6.Playing an occasional garbage hand out of frustration or boredom:
This is a bit different from the problem described above. Here we have players playing poker hands they know are not profitable. This is not the occasional play of a subpar hand for purposes of deception, with the hope of influencing opponent’s future perceptions.
They do it because they haven’t played a hand in a long time and so are “bored, ”or because they are frustrated as a result of losing some hands (i.e., they are on tilt).They rationalize it, thinking they can “get away with it ” as long as they only do it on occasion. (*The “boredom” excuse makes little sense ). A typical hand used for this purpose is Ax. But a losing hand is a losing hand.
7.Habitually continuing semi-bluffs past the flop:
In Holdem Poker for Advanced Players: 21st Century Edition, Sklansky and Malmuth make a good case for often refraining from continuing your semi-bluffs past the flop. They make two good points:
A. If you always continue the semi-bluff, players will catch on to what you’re doing and will begin to bluff or semi-bluff raise you on the turn, and
B. If you check-raise frequently on the turn with your legitimate hands, then on those occasions when you are checking only because you have up on a semi-bluff.
When you are not playing hands there is more information from which to learn available to you than you can possibly hope to absorb. If you are not going to attend to it, you might as well fight your boredom by reading a newspaper. That will cost you, but not as much as playing silly hands. Your observant opponents will often check along, giving you a free card. Just about all good player have read Sklansky and Malmuth’s book, yet many habitually continue their semi-bluffs on through fourth poker street and then totally bluff on the river. I’m not talking about simply betting again on the turn more often than not a strategy which I believe may actually be profitable in many games but about betting nearly every time in all games.
So what’s going on? I believe it’s just that most players are tempted by the prospect of short term gratification. They know that by betting again on the turn they have another chance to pick up the pot. So they go for it, ignoring what their play may cost them in the long run, both as a result of opponents learning to play back at them, and because they have not set up the profitable pattern involving checking on the turn that Sklansky and Malmuth describe.
8.Becoming Calling Stations:
This may result from someone’s having played a good deal in tough, aggressive games. In those games pots tend to become heads-up quickly, and it’s common to see players constantly trying to bet one another games you have to learn to pick off bluffs, calling (or raising) fairly often with hands you would muck against other kinds of players. But I sometimes see players who have adapted to these games display a pronounced inability to lay a hand down in more average games.
They seem always to suspect bluffs and stick tenaciously in pots where the action from their current opponents, unlike those they’ve become used to should tell them that their hand is hopeless. Ironically then, these are fairly good players who pay off generously. Just don’t try to bluff them. Since they are good players though, they may adjust and pay off less routinely when they increase their time spent in less aggressive poker games. That’s when you can start to bluff them!Some of the involve plays which are right under some circumstances or against some opponents, but which turn into losers when done habitually.
Be careful about anything you do habitually in poker. The correct play is usually so situation ally dependent, that anything habitual is suspect. Watch for habitual plays in your own repertoire, and make sure you are not using them in the wrong places. Other plays above are simply misguided. They stem from the failure to analyze fully various elements of play. Make sure you think through and can cite logical reasons for everything you do in poker. As a good player you don’t want to be caught making bad plays.
Playing Too Many Hands-I / Playing Too Many Hands-II
Bad Plays Good Players make / Self-Weighting Cold Calls
Do You Pass the Ace-Queen Test /
Conjecture on the Limits of Tell Detectability
Quick Indicators / Afterthought