Small Stakes Shorthanded NL Poker Forums

I know thats not what we try to do but I hear pro's say if your not folding the best hand on occasion your calling too much. So how do we practice this, I struggle with this and am basically asking for suggestions. I know the baluga theory and have done ok folding to river raises but turn play is probably a spot I call too much. Other than posting hands up anyone think of a good video series about this or have any ideas to practice

Thanks for the help

get out an excel spreadsheet, get out your HEM and put the following filters in: Saw Showdown = True, and then add in a size of pot minimum. Replay all so that you don't see the results before you start, and then go through on your excel spreadsheet and take it street by street giving the villain a range for his actions. To get crafty, you can add filters such as check raise turn = true, or bet call turn = true or whatever.
When I first started this, I decided to crank out 100 of them in 2 weeks time. My game shot way the hell up.

What you describe is not a problem of folding the best hand, it's a problem of hand reading, and you need the practice and effort to improve it.

Sounds like a plan, hand reading is something you can never work on enough

thanks

get out an excel spreadsheet, get out your HEM and put the following filters in: Saw Showdown = True, and then add in a size of pot minimum. Replay all so that you don't see the results before you start, and then go through on your excel spreadsheet and take it street by street giving the villain a range for his actions. To get crafty, you can add filters such as check raise turn = true, or bet call turn = true or whatever.
When I first started this, I decided to crank out 100 of them in 2 weeks time. My game shot way the hell up.

This sounds like it would help alot. Not to get off topic, but can you provide a little more detail on how you do this? What exactly did you put into the excel?

Thanks

exactly how are you supposed to know if you fold the best hand?

i would say if your calls are losing you money you are calling too much (exploitability concerns aside)

This sounds like it would help alot. Not to get off topic, but can you provide a little more detail on how you do this? What exactly did you put into the excel?

Thanks

You don't have to use excel, it's just that I did and found it helpful. In one column I'd have my starting hand, and I took it from there... it actually became quite complex where I had their vpip/pfr in a column and their position in a column, their range pre, their range on the flop... and actually took it a step further and gave different actions for segments of their range BEFORE clicking to see what their action was.... doing all that, it took time. I even started calculating their elasticity.... OMG, a single hand took me like an hour. Not saying you have to do this in-depth... just giving a range and narrowing it based on action would be awesome.
The important thing is that like Terp mentioned, how do you know you folded the best hand? You don't. To this sort of exercise REQUIRES that you see showdown... hence the first filter.

I'm pretty sure you are misunderstanding this fold the best hand thing. Your should never practice folding more, since folding makes you lose. Your goal should be to practice hand reading and play relative hand strength instead of absolute hand strength. Or play your range, not hand, vs villain's range.

Blah and Terp, thanks for the responses and I just need help on hand ranges. I stick to 2 tables and sometimes I feel like I soul read guys but then other times I feel completely lost and find I just call without any good reason or just to try and make my hands. So yeah, its basically me hitting a wall with hand reading and needing to know where to go. Hard to be so humble sometimes

np - that's why these forums exist

soul reading, no offense, is a bit like the adage about how often a broken clock is right. focus on ranges. people will have individual hands that you name, but most times they will have others. your goal is to calculate ranges so you can figure out if they have the crappy stuff enough so that you can call...

"if your not folding the best hand on occasion your calling too much" - what you are picking up on describes that even though an opponent can be bluffing, their bluffs have to work sometimes when you have the bottom of your range to be closer to unexploitable.

It's in fact suggesting against soul reading people. The point it's making is that you can't always soul read the situation and win when you have the best hand - you have to be bluffed sometimes, don't be afraid of folding "the best hand" in this specific hand.

Blah and Terp, thanks for the responses and I just need help on hand ranges. I stick to 2 tables and sometimes I feel like I soul read guys but then other times I feel completely lost and find I just call without any good reason or just to try and make my hands. So yeah, its basically me hitting a wall with hand reading and needing to know where to go. Hard to be so humble sometimes

Seems like your problem is a lack of fundamentals. You seem to not have a good understanding of EV and range construction which is why you get lost. You have a hard time estimating the EV of different lines -> hard to come up with the most +EV line so hard to know if call will be higher EV than fold for example. It's not because you have problems putting people on ranges because even if you can't accurately put someone on a range (never pay attention to how they play) you should still be able to estimate EV with just default assumptions and villain's stats(how we play against unknown).

Where to go from here? practice your fundamentals understand EV. Understand how ranges, equity and different lines relate back to EV. You will need to do a lot of studying off the table to be able to more accurately estimate EV during a hand. No one can calculate EV exactly at the table but being able to estimate more accurately than your opponents will be enough to give you an edge. Get coaching if you've really felt like you hit a wall.

np - that's why these forums exist

soul reading, no offense, is a bit like the adage about how often a broken clock is right. focus on ranges. people will have individual hands that you name, but most times they will have others. your goal is to calculate ranges so you can figure out if they have the crappy stuff enough so that you can call...

yeah i get that, i don't put them on exact hands and no matter how i say it someone can pick apart anything i say here lol. it just feels good when you put them on a range and play correctly against it(not saying I can do that every time). I think I have a small leak here that has turned into a lack of fundamentals or calling station. Guess thats what i get for starting such a topic lol.

You guys are always here to make good points and I appreciate it. I've been winning at 100nl for a while now so spending some cash for coaching is probably a good idea, I'm sure with a few tweaks I will be better in the spots I need to be.

thanks