My Biggest Leak

Despite my prolonged vacation from the tables because of all these travels through South America (aww, poor me), I've still been reading and thinking about my game.

And I think I've realized my biggest leak (in limit poker, at least).

It's something I like to think about because of this old (but very good) 2+2 post by Ed Miller: "I think my biggest leak is..." He emphasizes that many people don't know their biggest leak because it goes deeper than missing a marginal decision. Major leaks more frequently occur when you have a fundamental problem of mindset or playing style that you can't identify or can't change. Of course, it's necessary to be able to identify a problem in order to fix it.

So here's my problem: I play a formulaic game. I play tight preflop and will only try out marginal hands if I have position and several players have entered the pot. I will generally call down with any hand that's 2 pair or better.

But most of all, I haven't been trying to read hands as well as I should. I've fallen into the trap of merely putting my opponents on a range of hands rather than specific hands.

Over the last two or three months, I've called down much more because of another post of Ed Miller's where he says that many people's biggest leak is that they fold too much. And I agree that folding too much is a huge leak, but my problem has been that I've called down mindlessly against my opponents' mysterious holdings.

The problem is that when my opponents hold a tough hand to figure out, I slip into calldown mode rather than put them on a specific hand. That isn't to say I should always fold even when I think I'm beat, but I need to pay closer attention.

And that's what it all comes down to. Reading hands isn't like skimming a book. Reading hands is more like analyzing every word of poetry, looking for the meaning behind the words. Unfortunately, I often don't have the patience for poetry.

I was inspired by this 2+2 magazine article: "Some Notes on Reading Hands: Part II"

Perhaps, when I go back to the promised land of limit poker, this time it will be for good. For now, I'll keep taking the safe money at no limit games.