Leaks

I was thinking a little bit about my game last night and in conjunction with a thread in General today about your biggest leaks I've come to a couple of conclusions about my NL game. The first is that it is leaky. I don't play very well after the flop, especially in situations where I've raised with a premium-ish holding pre-flop (AK, AQ, etc) and been called. I often lose my stack in tournaments when I flop top pair and someone else flops a set or two pair and I just can't seem to get away from these hands. I also haven't been doing very well in FullTilt SnG's for a couple of months and I think that the number of chips in play is making it a little more difficult for me. Especially when it gets to 3-handed I'm either taking chances where I shouldn't or playing too passively and letting myself get blinded down to where I have to push with a weakish hand and I get called and lose the race.

The bottom line is this: I think that I'm a very solid pre-flop player in NL. I know what hands are good hands to play, I know when to push, when to raise to steal, and I even sometimes re-steal successfully. All in all, I think I'm pretty solid pre-flop, which is a large reason for my success in Party SnG's last year. I also don't think I play the flop all that poorly. I'm fairly good at continuation betting and semi-bluff raising when necessary, and sometimes even sticking it in when I feel I have the advantage or a good draw and fold equity. The problem is that once it gets past the flop, I get lost and don't play nearly as well. If I bet the flop and get called, I often shut down, when firing another shell may have won me the pot, then when I do fire that next shell on the turn I run into a monster. So, I think that my NL game is solid pre-flop and to an extent on the flop, which allows me to do well in tournaments, but I'm very leaky on the later streets and that often causes me problems when the stacks are deep late in a SnG or MTT or in a NL cash game.

I also think that my shorthanded NL game could use a ton of work. Another reason why I'm having so much trouble late in SnG's and why I couldn't close the deal in the MTT that I finished 2nd in. When the stacks are deep enough that it's not push or fold, I'm finding myself having a ton of trouble with these shorthanded situations. So, if anyone has any advice on my NL leaks feel free to comment.

The good news is that I think my limit game is still pretty solid. I'm beating 2/4 for something like 2.8 BB/100 over my last 12k hands or so. I had to make a big withdrawal a few days ago so that I can cover my bills this month, but I've got a job now and even though it's gonna be 9-5 which will suck, it means I won't have to debit my poker account anymore for a while and I can get back to building a bankroll. Soon, I'm going to start playing six-max and trying to learn how to beat that game, then I'm going to move to 3/6 once I have 400 BB and if I can beat that game for a decent profit I'll move to 5/10 when I have 400 BB for that. My hope is to be playing 5/10 as my regular game sometime this summer and 10/20 by the end of the year. I really think this is attainable, but I guess the first step is getting my feet wet in six-max and trying to become comfortable with those marginal situations.

Finally, any FCP bloggers who are reading this, feel free to link me up to your blogs. I'm not sure how to do it or I'd add some FCPers to mine here. Maybe I'll sit down and try to figure it out someday soon.