Learn Texas Holdem

Top 3 Beginner Rooms

• $10 bonus at Colt Poker Free $10
• $10 bonus at Cake Poker Free $10
• $400 bonus at Minted Poker

I played tight - and very aggressive when I hit something. Against one player I lost big 4 times, and he always won on the last river card. He checked me to the end, and I raised as much as possible to the river card - and my hand was the better one, until the end when the rivercard came - aaargh!! 

For example.

I had KK. I hit a K on the flop, and continue to raise. And on the last card he gets a straight. He had 8A from the beginning, and on the last card he gets the 9 that he must have - and a straight that beats my KKK hand. And so on 4 times during about 20 hands played. Always something better then mine - due to the LAST card. He tilted me a lot, because my hand was so much better on the flop and turn, but on the rivercard he always hitted the right card 4 times in a row against me.

I would call him "lucky" because if the river card hadn´t been the "9" - he would have lost - but still he won a lot from me and others - just calling his way through and getting the solution on the river card very often. What should I do? Quit playing, go playing on No limit instead - so I don´t just get called always?? `

What should I do against calling stations on LOW LIMIT?

With regards,

Johny Carlsson

Answer:

If you have lost four sessions in a row, then you are beyond help and need to immediately quit! LOL just kidding

Let me see if I can bring some perspective to this.

First of all, there are bad beats in both limit holdem and no limit holdem. A while back, when I was at a cardroom, there were people standing on the rail watching our limit game. I overheard (if you can call it that since the guy was so loud) one guy talking to another about holdem and how he only plays no limit now. He said, "once you play no limit holdem, you'll never go back to limit." His advice went on to point out that bad beats don't happen as much at no limit -- another point you hear often with the occasional, "if this were a larger limit, there would be no bad beats." And true to form to most people who like to give strangers advice, this guy had it all wrong. Bad beats do happen at all limits and at all games. Number one, there are bad players at all limits, low and high. Granted, you'll have less players seeing the flop in upper limit games, but since they are so aggressive and more semi-bluffing happens, players still bad beat each other frequently -- even heads up like in your case.

Next, it is easy to feel like the world is against you when things like this happen. Last night I was playing in a shorthanded game and literally I could not beat one player there, when every time I had the best hand preflop. In a full table you expect more bad beats since more players are seeing the flop, but in a four person game, your big hands should hold up more often. He must have beat me at least a dozen times, with all kinds of nonsense when I had powerful hands like top pair to two pair to sets. I was genuinely impressed by the ass kicking he was giving me. He would even go three bets with me on the turn with bottom pair and end up hitting two pair on the river. All kinds of ridiculous stuff... What kept me sane through all of this and keep me playing my game is that I have a realistic view of poker and I have confidence that the strategy I implement is a sound one. It is discouraging for me to lose hands like this over and over but I know they can't defeat me doing this. I find solace in the fact that I play my hands well. I don't concern myself if someone else gets lucky on me. Likewise, let's say I call down with bottom pair the whole way, picking off an aggressive payer's bluff, but he ends up catching a wacky card on the river to beat me; I pride myself on that read and making the right play. The fact that he got lucky on the end is out of my control. The way I played is conducive of long term winning, his play isn't. Poker can seem very brutal at times and this is normal. The important thing is only to keep playing well and eventually it will come around.

Another important point in keeping your sanity is to realize how small the edges are in holdem. Let's take your KK hand for example. For this opponent to beat you, he has 4 outs: the four 9's in the deck. If he is bad enough to call in this spot to the river, he will beat you about 8% of the time. Let's round that to 1/10 tries. Would you be that surprised if someone rolled a 10-sided die and got a 1 every now and then? You would expect him to if he keep rolling. See the point is that these things are normal, its just the way we look at them that causes us anguish. If you were able to view this scenario over a broader range of attempts, you would see that in the end you would kill him for all his money, which brings me to my next point: In games like poker where the edges are small, it takes a large number of tries before the numbers are representative of the underlying probabilities. To illustrate this point, take the 10-sided die again. Every time you roll a 1-4, you get a $1. Every time I roll a 6-10, I get a $1. What do you think will happen if we just roll it 10 times? Do you think it will be exactly 6 to 4 in my favor? It won't be. It will take a lot of tries before you'll see that I have a 20% edge. Anything can happen in the short term, but the outcome is written in stone if given enough time. To beat poker, you need to put in time. As a good player who is selective of his spots, you make your money by playing as much as possible with bad players. The more you play, the firmer the outcome. Four sessions is what I consider well within the range of deviation.

Lastly, let's be realistic, you've been playing poker for one month. I knew jack about poker after I had played for only a month. I think it is a fair assumption that you have a lot to learn about the game. Bad beats are bad beats regardless of the skill of the involved players, what you do in the rest of the hands is debatable though. Holdem seems simple, yet it is very complex. There is a reason why over 90% of the players aren't winning in the long term. Don't handicap yourself from the start by assuming you know more about the game than you do. Being good at anything takes time and practice. I can't think of one sport or game where I think I could be competitive after one month of practice, even at the lowest levels. I would study and start small. Don't worry about the money yet. The goal is to get the fundamentals down so some day you can play at larger limits and do well; the beginning ones are just school.

Your rating:

1 2 3 4 5

Click on the clover of your choice

User Rating: (0 Votes)

• Share on Facebook
• Print
• Digg
• Del.icio.us