Help a beginner

maikl10
Hi im new so please dont be to rough on me.

In a nut shell I want to improve my game, but unlike the majority of people im not an online player but play mostly in friendly cash games. Mostly micro limit 10/20 cent. (I live in Germany)

Typically on a good day I can beat this game for 60 to 80 euro with bad day losses totalling the same amount.

When i first began playing i was winning say 70% of the games but now im down to 50/50.

I dont have any stats..(jackpot online big progressive jackpot of 5 millions) but im generally considered loose aggressive, and at the start this paid off.

Now however im getting called alot more , so i have tried to adjust my play and tighten up a bit. While this has lowered the amount i could loose in a session, it has also for some reason meant i havent been winning as big.

IN fairness it could be the other players have got used to my game or im failing to exploit situations..

Any advice would be appreciated..

Please no haters, just a bloke trying to improve seeking suggestions from his esteemed peer group

I'm not a huge ring player at all... so this is just my take on it and what I have drawn from some pretty good ring players. You can't expect to get huge winnings from ring games. It can happen yes, but you will also have big losing days as well. On average you should be winning 10 to 15 BBs a day. That doesn't sound like much.. and it really isn't, but it's not a bad average.. u can get this up to 30 or more on average if your an above average ring player who doesn't hit the really bad days.. or at least not often. One thing that serious ring players need to have is rakeback. Many ring players are happy just to break even and use their rakeback as their profit margin. This may not sound like a whole lot, but if your at the higher stakes.. if can add up quickly... much slower at lower stakes.

I know you here stories of players that have hit it big online playing ring games.. but take their winnings after some years of playing and see what they come up with. Most will not continue their huge profit margins over time. Most ring players winning margins are more in line with the average over time. If your playing a lot of ring games and are not getting rackback, your cheating yourself out of a good amount of money over time. Get a rackback deal somewhere if your going to play rings. You will be much the better for it.

Playing tight/aggressive is, overall, the best way to go playing rings. If your loose/aggressive, it will likely catch up to you sooner or later. You may reap rewards playing very loose at times, but your big losing hands will most likely surpass your big winning hands. You soon will become a fish to many good TAG players who have seasoned themselves with patience and who are grinders. Patience is key in ring games... IMO.. if you don't have it... get it.. or prepare to pay in the long run.

The thing is with a lot of players that seem to struggle.. they think they are playing a good solid game, when in reality they just don't seem to get that bad beats WILL happen and players that avoid them or prepare their game so that they can avoid them are the ones who are more successful. Use good solid pot odds vs the odds of winning in any one situation. You get your chips in good at a really high percentage of the time and you will see your winning days out do your losing days. Always make your opponents decide. When you think you have the best hand.. make em pay to draw and make em pay so that the odds of winning are worse than the pot odds are. If you have like top set and the best hand possible and the flop had revealed a flush draw as well.. make em pay to draw... especially on the turn.. if they have a flush draw... and you have the best hand at the moment... it's likely they have to hit their flush to beat you. Make them pay more than the pot odds vs the odds of winning in order to call and see the river. Their odds of hitting the flush are, at best, 4 to 1. Make your raise on the turn so that their pot odds are no or not much better than 2 to 1. This makes it so that they can not call unless they are going to go against the odds of making a profit in the long run in those situations. 4 to 1 against you to hit.. you must have at least 4 to 1 pot odds to break even in the long run.. so if your going to call a flush draw on the turn(4 to 1 against you to hit it) you shouldn't be calling any more than 1/4th of the pot or less in order to make the call.. or else the odds are against you in the long run of making a profit on that situation.. or similar ones.

Always remember when playing. There are ways of winning any given hand. One way is to have the best hand. They other way is to force your opponent into a decision... call or fold. If you raise.. you automatically give your self 2 chances to win. One being of course you in fact do have the best hand, and the other is that your opponent may fold. Calling poker only gives you 1 chance to win.. you must have the best hand. In short .. calling poker is losing poker, raising poker is winning poker. Of course there are times you will need to call, but the more times your the raiser, the more times you will have 2 chances of winning any given hand. Of course you won't ALWAYS be raising, but... generally speaking, raising poker, and learning when to do it to your advantage, is the difference. Poker is a game of skill, not of gambling on bingo hands. Out maneuvering your opponent will win you the most pots. Most pots won't see the flop hit.. especially when only 2 or 3 players go to the flop... so use position to make your moves and know your opponents habits and use that against them.