I noticed that repulsive British tabloid paper the Daily Express, run by crazed pornographer Richard Desmond, has started underlining their headlines in red – which is surely only something that could have been instituted by Desmond himself. I’m sure if he could make the headline blink, he would.
Where was I? Ah yes, red lines.
On Hold Em Manager or Pokertracker, the win graph can be split into three lines – blue, green and red.
The blue line indicates how much you win at showdown, and is usually positive. A negative blue line would indicate someone playing too loose and playing passively with medium strength or weaker hands.
The green line is your overall winnings. Hopefully, this is positive. It may not be, and if not, understanding why not is more of a challenge than working out why the showdown line looks as it does.
The third line – the red line – is winnings without showdown. To get this positive, it’s necessary to ensure that you get more value out of getting other people to fold than you lose out of folding yourself. Unlike the blue showdown line, there is a large amount of mystery at work. If someone folds, it’s because they think they have a weaker hand, but it’s never a certainty that they actually did.
My red line has been solidly negative since I started playing and has rarely moved from that steady decline. This means, indisputably, that I am losing more value by folding than I am gaining by causing other players to fold. As the most prominent part of my game I need to address at present, I’ve been reading a lot about the relevance of non showdown winnings.
My major weak point has been the turn. Recognising the value of the turn as the point at which a hand is often defined led me to be lazy and too keen to check behind in position without a very strong holding. This is bad for two reasons; if I get to showdown, the pot is smaller. If I don’t, then by showing weakness I’m inviting my opponent to try to move me off my hand and losing the advantage of position (assuming I have it).
I feel over the past few weeks that I’ve deconstructed my game and made an effort to achieve tangible improvements. In my last session, I tried to be less passive – not more aggressive, but less passive, checking less and worrying less about pot control in situations where I was likely to have the best hand but wasn’t sure. I lost a couple of hands at showdown that made me cringe slightly, one with 78s that completely missed the flop but against a very tight passive player who I thought would fold. He didn’t and I lost a 30bb pot. But I played a set the same way a few hands later and he shipped it back to me with interest.
The red line, for the first time ever, showed a slight upturn at the end of the session.
It’s still a little bit uncomfortable for me to play in the way I am, but worth persevering with – I know folding too easily is my problem currently and calling more is never an answer, so better selective aggression seems a better choice.
