My 2 biggest leaks found!

Well i realize that this is the same day that I posted the intro post on, however during my sessions today I discovered what I believe my 2 biggest leaks to be.

Yesterday I posted on 2+2 about how I just couldnt understand why I would win small hands but lose big ones. I very rarely won the monster pots, but when I lost, I would almost always lose at least a full buy-in. The guys on the board posted up some observations as well as I started to review my HM sessions and watch my game play more at the tables.

Well it turns out my biggest leak is that I over-value my one pair. It is even worse when I have a monster poker pair QQ+ and the board comes out with nothing but small cards. I just believe my hand must be best and end up getting it all in, to often times get the crap kicked out of me. I just dont have the experience yet to say "hey, this guy may have 2 pair, or even trips!" I dont have a problem folding when a person may have a straight or even a flush (to be truthful, im a little scared of flushes tho) I normally lose with my big poket pairs to either trips or 2 pairs. I normally dont even have a problem with kickers as I realize more often than not when I am out-kicked.

Another part of that first leak is the fact that I am over using my all-in button. I tend to push all-in in positions where the only people who will call me are people who already have me beat. I need to learn that all in is not the only option.

The above tidbit also ties into my other leak, bet sizing. I fixed my problem with bet sizing pre-flop and on the flop. The problem I have is on the turn and river, or when someone 3 bets me or donk bets me on the flop. The problem I have is that the bets I end up making are bets that leave me unable to extract any value from anyone. Either the losing hands fold, and I dont get their money, or the hand that has me crushed calls and I lose all mine.

I am still at a loss as to how to fix this problem to be truthful. I played a bit today (actually a lot) and tried to adjust myself to not always 3 betting a person. It helped me on one hand and crushed me on another. The first hand I flopped trip 7s while the other person flopped trip Qs. The old me would have definetly gone broke on this hand as im getting it all in with trips. Turns out I just flat called him all the way down (he was aggressive enough) and I lost, but no where near as much as I would have. The second hand didint work out so well. I had KK to a MAJOR underdog and by flat calling him and not 3 betting or putting him all-in allowed him to suck out to me with a flush. (he was also agressive as crap, I thought I was getting value for my hand but the river favored him more than I)

Either way, I am done playing poker for the day today. I played 3 sessions all which I lost money in. As of now I am down about $100 in today alone. That is 4 buy-ins. NOT what I had planned when I started playing this morning.

The one good thing out of today is I tried 4 tabeling today and I really like it. Its just enough tabels where I get enough action, and just few enough where I still know what the heck is going on. Also it forces me to play a lot more logical poker game and rely on my HUD more than my "feelings" which often times saves me money. I will have to invest in Full Tilt Shortcuts as it makes betting a LOT easier. However I have decided to drop back down to two tables until I am able to fix the 2 GAPING leaks in my gameplay. I even considered droping down to 1, however at 2 tables you still get so few playable hands that it is a moot point wither you play 1 table or 2.

Im really at a loss as to how to fix this... I mean how do you know if your TP TK is beat unless the guy just makes some crazy bet? I mean lets say he just bets 50-75% of the pot every street, how the hell do I fold that? Obviously there is some way to know as winning players do it. I just have to figure it out.

Hopefully when I watch a little more of Verneers Crushing the Micros series, I will learn some techniques to help me with that. I wachted Brymstars series and it helped me quite a bit with position play and pre-flop hand ranges.

I cant really afford to continue as a losing player, especially not losing 4 buy-ins in a day. I have money to re-deposit, however this is already my 2nd $200 deposit. Its time to start winning. The good thing is I played about 1500 hands today, so I am getting some experience in this crap. I just cant tell if me getting my hands crushed is variance or me just playing them wrong. Only more hands will tell.