Limpers Suck at Poker.
A very common beginner leak is limping and cold calling too much. Remember, there are two ways to win at poker [1) show down the best hand; and 2) get everyone else to fold]. By just calling, limpers are essentially abandoning the second, more powerful method. Generally speaking, limpers, especially at the low stakes tables, are fit-or-fold poker players. They see two shiny-bright cards in their hand, and they conjure up images of making straights, flushes, and two-pair hands on the flop. They're particularly guilty of this from the blinds, where they feel they're getting a good price to limp in. The sad truth about hold'em is you only hit a flop roughly one third of the time, and a majority of those flops that technically "hit" are garbage (e.g,. bottom pair) and/or the board is scary wet. You should think of hitting the flop as just a back-up plan to your blind stealing, light 3- and 4-betting, isolating, squeezing, multi-barreling, and so on. As the pro's like to joke: No one ever hits a flop in Texas Hold'em.
All-in for now...
-Bug
looks very much like a COTW post I read once.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I wouldn't be surprised if I read a COTW or other 2+2 post and then reworded/re-wrote into my own take on things. I read a ton of stuff every day, let it all stew in my head for days or weeks, and then post. Occasionally, other peoples words end up in some of my sentences. Like the old writer's adage says: steal from one source-- it's plagiarism; steal from many-- it's research. :-) Seriously, I unashamedly read and steal thoughts from everyone. The point of this blog isn't to necessarily create the next great original poker text from scratch; instead, the point is for me to collect lots of different info, process and distill it, and then regurgitate the salient points so that I get better at this crazy game.
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