The problem hands

Last night I digged into my holdem manager stats to find out if my lack of results at the 4NL tables is a matter of running bad or playing bad.

Two things were noticable: results per position and my top loosing hands.

Results per position:

• early: a little down
• middle: a little down
• cutoff: a little up
• button: big winner
• small blind: huge looser
• big blind: big winner

So, the first thing to work on is my play from the small blind: I'm playing way too many hands (VPIP of over 40%). So, the next sessions I'll tighten up there and see how that works.

Top loosing hands:

My biggest loosing hands are the so called problem hands: KQo, KJo, QJo, KQs. I'm also loosing big with hands like ATo, KTo etc. It seems I tend to play these hands very often and from almost any position. So, I plan on laying them down a lot more often in EP and MP, especially when facing a raise and just try limping with these hands. I guess I should also play these hands a lot more careful when flopping just a pair.

Overall, my top hands are high pocket pairs, most middle and bottom pairs, suited connectors and a few other hands like ofsuit connectors and suited one-gappers that got lucky.

So two things to focus on the next sessions: tighten up from the small blind and play the 'problem hands' less and more conservative. Hopefully this will help to turn things around.

Position, position, position

Because I was definately playing a bit better the last couple of weeks, making fewer moronic mistakes, I decided to try and focus on another thing all these poker experts keep talking about: position.

So when I sat down at my table last Wednessday evening, I decided to fold anything less than top pair in early position but to play every hand (except total garbage like 8-2 offsuit) in late position and play it aggressively.

Might aswell just have been a very lucky day for me but I was able to pick up $15 in just two hours. In the end I was playing and winning nearly every hand in late position.
Naturally, it did help a lot to win a few big pots with a showdown, but I really felt how aggression with a good timing can win you pots, good hands or not.

Can't wait to see if it'll work more than once...