What is the strongest and weakest part of your game?

[HPG ADMIN]

What is the strongest and weakest part of your game? (Bad game selection, going on tilt, playing bad starting hands, chasing draws too much, not calculating pot odds, can't read other players hands, not being aggressive enough)

[woodspider]

well i would have to say i have 2 very weak parts to my game, i will chase a straight draw and i hardly ever calculate pot odds. i also have a tendency to play bad starting hands but never for more than double the big blind. i think my strongest part of my game is being able to get a good read on 85% of most people.

[Sports Chat]

I thinkn the weakest part of my game is my game

(I'm working on it though )

It seems to me that I nearly always go out on hands I would have never played, but got to see the flop for free (unraised big blind) and something catches my eye. Casing point: I was in a tourney the other day, BB with 56 off. No one raised so I got to see the cards for free. Flop 7-7-8. I've got an open ended str8. There was also a flush draw possibility on the table as well. Checks around, to one player who made a sizable bet, all fold, and it gets to me. I call, figure I'd see the turn. The turn comes a 9. At this point, I figure the potentials: He could have JT, but I doubt hed have made such a bet on the flop with a gut shot. He could have 9-T which is more likely, which now would only give him top pair with another open ended str8 draw. He could be holding a seven, giving him trips. All cases, Id have won. I figure my hands strong and throw my chips in the middle. Sure enough, he had the boat, 7s over 8s. At the end of the hand, I reflected, and of course I instantly wrote it off as a bad beat. However, its playing those hands that should have been mucked in the first place that will lead you down a road of hurt. Watch out for the big blind specials.

my first mistake is when i decide to sit down. it usually ambles on drifting up and down around the point i bought in at .then after a couple of hours i might get lucky and win a small pot. this really gets me goin and then im off bluffin like a right bell end untill i have lost what i have won then i opt to play tight again for a while always folding the eventual winner until i get short stacked to fuck and end up rivered like a good un with some chancin bastard goin allin an catchin a 2 on the river to go with his pocket pair. and i may as well have my cock in my hand as i reveal ace king suited. BO SELECTA!

Getting drunk when I play. My game gets a little too loose, if you know what I mean?

My biggest mistake is sometimes I will choose to make a move, with someone that calls everything. just like the other night. I was on the button, with KJ suited. Final table of a multi table tourney, was in solid chip position to make some decent money. Well everyone at the table folded in front of me, so it was down to me and the BB. I decide to try and bluff a little at this pot, steal the blinds, keep everyone guessing. I raise all-in with my KJ suited and the big blind, after taking 5 minutes to think about this (really, 5 minutes), calls my all-in. In the read that i got from this player earlier in the game, he likes to play most hand in the BB's, and the only card that i was worried about was the Ace. sure enough he called my all in with ACE, eight unsuited. I asked him why he called my allin with that and he replied, "dead man's hand, thats the only reason." So he callled my all in with something he heard off the history channel. He went on to win the hand, ace high, neither one of us hit a pair, straight draw, or flush draw, just a really crappy beat.

[HPG ADMIN]

i'm not sure if i would call it a "crappy beat". You only need to raise triple the blind to steal, if he goes all-in then you can fold.

With his A 8 off, he was the favorite from the start.

i am weakest when i limp in with a medium pair and play it strong and unfortunately always seem to hold a hand like 88 and the flop come 25 9
i figure there is no way someone has the nine and overplay the hand....
ive been working on that..

i am also weakest when i know i am the best player at the table but try to bully and use my skills by being overly creative and unique- but that only works against good players - bad players usually call me and outdraw me or make huge errors but somehow beat me...

another weakness is ego-- i try to beat up a lot of players bc i know im better than them-- sometimes it costs me

sometimes i become mike matusow and blow up for no reason with a weak hand-- usually just before i cash in a tourney

my strength is reading people- in a tourney last week against 321 players which I took down- i made correct reads 12 out of 12 times and laid down top pair with top kicker four times and was correct....
i also folded kk and qq when i read kk or aa and was correct

my final strength is my insane ability to be fearless no matter the stakes or competition

[Troggy]

Getting sucked into playing bad hands with bad players who win with bad hands! that's been my weakest part ,Strongest?......hmmmmm...well...I do play realy realy well with 4 Aces!!!

[JMT23]

My Strongest part of my game is i dont play hands that the only way I will probably win it to draw to it (8 10 suited) unless im on the button and nobody raises. Now, i'm really patient and only play the top hands in the first five positions. While everyone else is putting there chips with crap hands, I patiently save my chips to be super aggressive with big hands. Now you might say "Well Gus Plays Everyting". Yeah in no limit. (You put gus in a limit game. Gus won't play everything. Read Read Read Read. Study Study Study. Jordan studied players to be the best. Kobe studied Jordan. Tiger studied swing techniques. Why wouldn't you Study to be the best at your craft. Good Luck!!!

[flippinidiot2003@yahoo.co]

the weakest part of my game is boredom!!!!!! sometimes you have to sit along time b4 you get a hand worth playing, if it's to long, then you look at bad hands as starters and crap out, so it causes leaks in all parts of the game.. getting a handle on it now tho, i hope. i'm pretty good about reading ppl in a live game tho. and they tend to underestimate me cause i'm just a pretty little girl...ha ha

this was not a misread. you said you knew from earlier that he liked to play a lot of hands from the bb. you had a read on him, you just ignored it. also, unless the blinds are enormous (as is common in online tourneys) or you are shortstacked, stealing the blinds is not worth risking all of your chips.

now, my game. sometimes i start to get superstitious, if i get the same thing two hands in a row, or if i get a pocket pair three hands in a row. it doesnt much affect my play, but it sits in my mind. last tourney i played it was to just me and another, i was dealing and an ace flipped up that would have been mine. rule states that i take the burn card instead of that card. Well i would have had pocket aces, i had a2 instead. the other guy went all in(he did this a lot... every 4 hands average, when called it was ussually two face cards) the blinds were huge. i called, maybe because of the superstitions, but i hit an ace and won the thing. he had kq. another problem i have is sometimes i think that i can win just through play, i start to bluff a lot and get too creative for the players i'm against and sometimes i raise the flop then slowplay the turn or some dumb combo that doesnt really work out.


i am pretty good at reading people, more through their betting patterns than their expressions. and i am pretty good at laying down hands, draws, low straights and lots preflop. i can play a mid (and even low) pair pretty aggressive if i think i can take it down

Strongest: being selective about anything- games,starters,pots to enter,moves to make. More importantly, while waiting for the right time to do anything during a game, I listen to the silence that occurs around a player's actions, that tells me much more than i could ever figure out on my own. It's where that ol' telegraph wire exists that tells me what he's got. Keeping the mental chatter down to a low roar, it's like someone puts an image in there and it shows up when there's a blank canvas. Basically, being opened-minded enough to let what is always occurring to show up. Instinct is a poor word. Too reactionary. More like "knowing". Instinct says "i've the best hand, go with it". Knowing says "this hand will not win anyway. Luck is getting ready to strike, be careful"

Weakest: not listening to that inner voice. (my gameplay is pretty good)

My poor play comes when I take the lead in a tourn. I have taken the lead in the last three (multi-player NL tourns on Poker Stars) tourns I have playd in and for some reason I feel it is my responsibilty to take out the smaller stacks. SO I will play a little looser and end up putting my self in trouble.

It has happened too often.

And I get bored and play loose when there is a table with virtually no action. It works sometimes, but not always.

One of the bad parts of my game is not having the self-control to tighten right up when sitting on a decent stack. I get a nice chip lead and should just tighten up and sit and let the peasents fight for the scraps. This works for a little bit but then after seeing some of the crap they ar eplaying I dablle in hands etc and slowly bleed my lead away.

[Locohombre]

same here

When you have a substantial chip lead...I am of the belief that it is time to take over the game. This doesn't mean loosen up to the point where you're playing like a maniac.

Raise in the same situations you normally would, only increase the size of your standard raise. If you normally raise 3X the BB....up it to 4X. Second....raise with the hands you would normally limp with (but please be aware of your position).

Just my two cents.

Solid advice. I like that.

[BlackHawk]

Weakest: Shorthanded games when blinds are high

Strongest: Controlling pot odds and sensing traps

[Iceman37]

Weakest - Controlling my emotions when some nimrod sucks out on me. I tilt a lot easier than I used to think I did.

Strongest - Establishing dominance at the table right away. My opponents fear me pretty much from the start, and this helps me take pots that I don't rightly deserve.

Weakest - Going all-in at the wrong time, at least for Sit-N-Gos. A lot of times my timing is off for some reason and it dosn't work out well.

Strongest - Controlling myself when a bad beat happens to me. Also playing solid, tight aggressive poker is something I do well.

Wow...what a great question! This is something that every serious player should ask themselves. By the way, Iceman is right on as usual. Establishing control of the table should always be objective #2 when you sit down at a table.

Strengths: 1)Trapping: If I may say so myself, I'm excellent at representing weakness when I flop the nuts. I get paid off probably 80% of the time. 2) Being honest with myself...It's very difficult yet very important for players to be honest with themselves about how good they are and how well they are playing on any particular day. Having this trait has kept me from getting into games where I'm over my head and also from having any really bad losing sessions.


Weakness: I tend to play a little too tight...and I'm still a little too slow doing my math in my head.

[Locohombre]

Holding onto marginal hands too long...they can sometimes be too hard to let go of.

[5thStreetPokerParties.com]

Strongest Part:
I have a very good sense about when I'm beat. My inner voice is very good about telling me when to fold.

Weakest Part:
I don't always listen to my inner voice.

[FergyFan315]

my strongest point is my ability to read ppl and my aggression. my weakest point is that i dont switch up my style enough.

none of your buisness

Like i am going to tell you and the whole world what my weakness is in playing the game of poker. YEA RIGHT!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! LOL!!!!!