Limping will cripple you

This week has been awesome. I finished on a rush and have my bankroll in the positive. While I needed good variance like anyone else, I think I did play well this week. My starting hand selection was solid and I am learning to let hands that miss the flop go without betting on the more expensive turn and river rounds.

One leak that I have to work on is too much limping. If a hand is good enough to bet its good enough to raise. The problem with limping is that I let people with marginal hands hang around at low cost. When they hit their crazy draw and suck out its my own fault. A raise might have knocked them out. Most of the time I'm good about this but last night I kept limping with AJ suited. It cost me a couple of times. The only time to limp is in late position with many callers and a hand that plays well in a multi-way pot.

Small mistakes are still keeping my win rate below where it should be. Just yesterday, I clicked call instead of fold on 7/3 off suit and folded a hand where I had pot odds to continue but I got lazy and screwed up the math. According to all of the experts the difference between an average winner/break even player and someone who beats the game for a real profit is 1 big bet per 1000 hands. I need to maintain my focus. Each decision has to be made deliberately. One forum poster emphasized using more of your allotted time. Even on automatic decisions I should take an extra couple of seconds and go through why it is an "automatic" decision and consider alternatives. According to those in the know, poker, at a certain point, is not so much about playing better as it is about sucking less. I have to eliminate my C game and only play my A game. I don't need brilliant insights so much as I need lack of mistakes.

Next post I'll start posting some links. That way google can discover me and if someone reads this they can visit some of the great sites that I have found.