I think we’re having a semantic disagreement rather than a disagreement about ideas 
here, if I replace “feel good/proud about my play” with “believe, in retrospect, that my play was correct,” would you feel better about that statement? 
sure buddy, proud of you for making a standard play 
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I don’t think you understand me. I used the word “proud” to describe this play not because it’s special or nonstandard, but because it represents a spot where I have identified a leak in my game that I am working on. I’m glad I called here because it IS standard, but too often in the past, I would get scared and fold. So I feel a sense of accomplishment that I evaluated the situation correctly and made the right decision where in the past, I often made a big mistake.
good job on making progress, my original comment was for you to ascend to the next level where being emotionally detached from your game is going to make you even stronger player.
thanks, and I do agree with you about that. I could definitely still be more dispassionate about my decision making!
but tbh I think i’m pretty OK at not making emotionally-driven decisions in-game. right now I think my 3 biggest MTT leaks are actually:
-
betting too optimistically in way ahead/way behind situations, where I should often just check-evaluate OOP
-
not being able to laydown a hand that was the nuts on a previous street but no longer is, when facing action that basically says “I don’t have any bluffs here and the only hand I can have is the nuts”
-
being too enticed by draws and “implied odds” in situations where if I hit, it will be hard to extract value and therefore I am just throwing chips down a hole by calling. I should play those spots aggressively (check-raise, 3bet, etc.) or just mostly give up.
oh, and
- not including enough strong hands in my “just call instead of reraising pre” range. I know it’s fine to mostly raise hands like QQ but there can be soooo much value in flatting an open with these hands at a low frequency.
oh man i’m going to be really “subtle” for lack of words.
but all your bullet points can be summarize by prioritizing exploitative play rather than GTO.
believe me, I was a GTO donkey myself.
no bruh I play MASSIVE exploit poker in MTTs on Replay. like, so so so far from GTO lol. I’m with you on that.
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that’s actually why I end up in so many spots having to make hard decisions. I just wanna see as many flops as possible against these guys because they’re so bad post flop. sometimes in early stages my VPIP is like 50-60%
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From your replies, I honestly think you have this game figured out.
You might need to polish on your OOP game, Range/Nut advantage, detaching from your hands which I get that it can be annoying. and managing your stack depending on the state of the tournament. but I have a feeling you already know how to handle these spots (your bullepoints) lol
just play with notes for reminder.
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Thank you for saying so
Yeah honestly I think my poker strategy/knowledge is pretty good. It’s execution that I need to work on! That said, we can always learn more and I’m still so so far from being an “expert.”
My favorite part of this game is that there is always something new to absorb and implement into a balanced, flexible baseline strategy. Sometimes I get bored of playing poker, but I never get tired of thinking about it.
The Sam Trickett bluff against Kenney et al had my head spinning for months! MONTHS, I tell you!
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definitely man, there is always something new to learn about this game.
and what hand was that? The one hand that stuck to me that gave me epiphany of the absurd meta of this game was Andy 22 vs Garrets AJ. made me realize that we can’t truly judge someones play.
This is the hand that I’m talking about.
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yup I remember that one! modern classic. I also really liked Art Papazayan’s bluff with the nut flush blocker against Garrett, where Garrett goes “it just feels like you have like, a million queens here” and eventually folds. That was one of the early (for me, anyway) hands that really got me thinking about GTO-type bluffs.
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Here’s the Trickett bluff:
Kenney is in the hand but I got that part wrong; it’s really a bluff “against” Stevie, who has made a flush.
This is undoubtedly one of the sickest tournament plays of the modern era, especially given the stakes and the level of opponents involved!
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I remember that hand lmao that was an insane play too.
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dude, I immediately recognized the hand you provided lol
2 legends outplaying each other. Chidwick is a beast, I don’t blame him too much, Sam is just a sicko. goes to show the power of blockers. sounds familiar lol
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Sam Trickett is who everyone wanted Chance Kornuth to be
Yeah, in my mind this is the platonic use case for “I am repping such a narrow range that a thinking player will have no choice but to give me a lot of credit”
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