Quick Decisions+Psychology

[LuckyNumberD]

Hi Everyone,

I've been having this problem for quite a while now.. actually It's two.

Sometimes when facing a tough decision. For example I have a decent hand, but the way my opponent acts on the Turn/River indicates that I'm beat.

So let's say I've been betting all the way, and suddenly he raises a large amount.
When that happens I start to think back about what hands he could've been playing in that fashion.. etc.

The strange Thing is I put him on a range of hands, but I'm unable to act upon it, I'm unconsciously afterwards putting him on hands that I CAN beat, rather than sticking to my previous hand range, It's very weird when you think about it. Especially since I've seen so many times the read was good.

But In live play I make these mistakes a lot less, I'm always getting so nervous because after 5 sec. I get that annoying BEEP saying I've got only 10 seconds left, that's when I always start to think about the hands I can beat.


It's a very weird problem, It's a Psychological error on my part.
So maybe anyone else having similar problems ?

Or someone has tips on how to come up with hand ranges quicker or something? I don't know anymore

Greetings

[The Professor]

Hey Lucky,

Its a common problem that you talk about due to the speed that online poker is played and the restricted "tank" time to think about decisions. It's also the reason why a number of live players struggle to convert into the online poker world.

Theres no easy answer to this, but over time your skills at monitoring betting patterns and "following" a hand as it plays through will improve and you will learn to do it quicker and be able to eliminate hands and options quicker as you get more experienced.

It's not a problem that will completely go away, as there will always be tough decisions that you really need more thinking time over.

I wish more sites would look at adding a "think tank" like poker stars tournaments where you can go into the tank and you get 60 seconds extra thinking time per tournament.

I think this would be a great thing to implement on sites for cash games as well, maybe give each player 60 seconds think tank time per hour.

Only tips I can offer are to use your 10 seconds or whatever you get wisely - ie: if after the flop you know you are going to call, before you actually click call then continue to think about the hand and what has happened so far for a few more seconds before you click call. You'll find if you think as much as possible after each street then you will build a picture up and won't have to suddenly recap the whole hand within 10 seconds when faced with the tough decision and instead you will already have an idea of what range of hands you have your opponent on and be able to reach a quicker decision.

[mundybags1]

I have had the same problems in the past and the only thing that i did to help it is to play less hands. so that i don't have to be faced with so many dicisions. It has seemed to help and hopefully it may help you.