advice on ways to avoid getting time pressure?

craigcu12

it has happened twice today, i've been under too much pressure from that timer going down that i've not had the chance to work out the odds of my hand still winning compared to the pot.

first occassion came when i made a fold too concerned that i'll be calling over the odds for what's most likely to be a 6 or flush, then when i do a bit of revision, i discover that it was correct odds to call this hand.

c	Small blind		£0.05	£0.05	£24.35
WUBBZY1401	Big blind		£0.10	£0.15	£12.64
	Your hole cards	6 7
b	Call		£0.10	£0.25	£8.74
craigcu12	Call		£0.10	£0.35	£25.29
p0ker1975	Call		£0.10	£0.45	£9.90
pacman777	Raise		£0.50	£0.95	£9.60
c	Call		£0.45	£1.40	£23.90
WUBBZY1401	Fold
b	Call		£0.40	£1.80	£8.34
craigcu12	Call		£0.40	£2.20	£24.89
p0ker1975	Fold
Flop
		3 4 7
c	Bet		£1.50	£3.70	£22.40
b	Raise		£5.40	£9.10	£2.94
craigcu12	Fold

the pressure of getting timed made forced to call this all in against i play i was certain had J10 given how the action played out preflop, the minute the hand finished, i reviewed this one too and again I shouldn't have even called, what i'm thinking about this hand now is maybe i should have just Ch/C a bet on the turn rather than open bet, my over hope of this question but is to sort out the issue with the timer going down which makes me rush decisions before having time to think.

andrew1427	Small blind		£0.05	£0.05	£7.80
craigcu12	Big blind		£0.10	£0.15	£34.90
stefunko	Big blind		£0.10	£0.25	£9.90
	Your hole cards	A A
james84	Raise		£0.30	£0.55	£15.63
VINEY73	Fold
stefunko	Fold
a	Call		£0.30	£0.85	£31.97
andrew1427	Fold
craigcu12	Raise		£1.40	£2.25	£33.50
james84	Call		£1.20	£3.45	£14.43
a	Call		£1.20	£4.65	£30.77
Flop
		7 K Q
craigcu12	Bet		£2.40	£7.05	£31.10
james84	Call		£2.40	£9.45	£12.03
a	Call		£2.40	£11.85	£28.37
Turn
		A
craigcu12	Bet		£8.00	£19.85	£23.10
james84	Fold
a	All-in		£28.37	£48.22	£0.00
craigcu12	Call		£20.37	£68.59	£2.73

F_Ivanovic

If your getting into time pressure then you should reduce the amount of tables you are playing. Another idea is to use PPT or any similar website/program that lets you run your hand equity against possible villains range.

re. The AA hand. Not betting turn or folding after betting would be ridiculous. There is plenty to get value from by betting the turn & once shoved on we can never fold because the odds we are getting are too good. We need 29.4% equity and against JT we have 22.73% - so if we know for 100% certain opponent only ever has JT then we can fold. But we don't know that at all - yes, it will be JT a good amount. Maybe even at least 50%. But even giving villain all JT combos (16) and just 3 combos of 77 then against this range we now have 34.6% equity. If we give villain no sets and just JT and 2 combos of AsXs (so TP + NFD) then we have 29.3% equity and almost the required equity to call. (and these hands actually have some equity vs ours)

So, as you can see - villain only needs 2 out of 18 combinations (about 11%) - ie. He could have JT 89% of the time and calling would still be correct.

craigcu12

playing 6 times itself doesn't have much of an issue, if i get a long thinking one i'll just sit out the other tables most times it's going to be junk, thenightmare comes from seeing that green bar going down itself, my head at times is spinning because 'm trying to put players ona range, think about what they'll be putting myself on and when they do raise asking myself how much is now in the pot and what the odds are if i were to call.

76s- i knew right away i was going to be requiring either 5 or spade to get me ahead, that peson who raised is certain to hold two pair, set or straight most days most days, i tried to work it out weather or not i would be ok to call and give up thinking that i'll have less odds of calling due to it being gut shot straight draw not open ended, what i forgot about at the time was the top pair itself will enable me those possible additional outs that is missing from the normally open ended straight flush draw

The thing about that AA is he's certainly going to put me on a range of hands that is either set or AK most days, i know this player too well and he's certainly not loose enough to be over valuing things like AJ AQ on a board which has virtually always going to end up behind myself when called.

GELDY

i think in both these examples you should know what you are going to do without thinking

i.e. the situation is standard and unless you have any super reads you just go ahead as planned and save the thinking for the more unusual situations

MattBates

Make decision
Review decision after the event
Learn from decision for next time
Use this knowledge for future decisions

Time pressure is when you have a hard decision, opponent takes strange line. Overbet jams, uses weird sizing. The hands you posted seem really standard for someone with your experience.

You cant get every decision perfect, that's why you review after the event to see if your making the right decisions and if you have any leaks you need to plug.

Also, really don't know how you can be folding the 67ss. Stick the hand in odds checker v potential ranges.

Lambert180

+1 to the above, I'm not folding 67s on this flop.

It's a pretty simple question tho Craig, if you reallly feel like you don't have enough time to think through decisions then you're playing too many tables, simple as that imo. I dunno what you play now, I assume it's 6+, maybe drop to 4, see how it goes, if you find yourself getting bored cos you've got loads of time to spare cos you're acting so fast and then are just sat round, THEN add ONE more table, rinse and repeat, adding one at a time. 

Fwiw, it's not a contest to play the most tables, personally I can play 12-15 tables, but do I play my best while playing that many, no way, so I tend to stick around the 8-10 table mark cos that's where I feel I maximise volume versus playing well. Those numbers will be different for everyone though.

The people who play 12 tables, they aint able to do that because they can think through spots insanely fast, they're able to do it cos they've played the spots over and over and instantly know what to do in like 95%+ of spots. As people have said above, both of these spots are pretty standard imo, would be criminal to not bet the turn w/ AA and I aint folding 67s on that flop.

shakinaces

Craig - linking back to your diary, stepping down to 4 tables is probably one of the best things you can do for the short term.

You're way better than the majority at NL4-NL10 and will totally crush the games again.  By limiting to 4 tables you'll get an extra couple of seconds on every decision to think things through instead of playing on autopilot and subsequently improve your game.

I was only at 8 tables when I was running filthy recently and, although it still feels like I'm getting beaten up a lot, dropping to 4 tables, based on the same advice you've received from F_ivanovic, has stopped the rot because I'm able to spot way more of the opportunities to pick up/avoid spewing in the small pots which helps keep my head above water.

Good luck.

rancid

Get better at poker

How?

By learning.....

No magic answer

LARSON7

Hey Craig,

Hand 1 you have massive equity, we should be 3 betting the flop, not calling.

Hand 2 when he jams he has 10J a lot but can have 2 pair hands also. On the flop you bet quite small, on the turn you bet significantly bigger. Maybe try and keep your bet sizings more standardised.

So we have a big hand, we see a flop 3 way, there is a flush draw and a straight draw out there. The pot is £4.65 we are OOP. You could be betting atleast £3 on this flop if not more, and can bet a similar % of pot on the turn.  

When they jam the turn facing the size of bet you have made the vast majority of the time this will be the nuts at 10nl. But you still should be betting the turn for value.

F_Ivanovic

You may not think that you are playing too many tables but trust me in saying that you are. It's not just about the time you have on a current decision but the time you have and thought process that you can use on earlier streets. If you are playing 6 tables it can take a good few seconds to remember what the action has been on previous streets - and then by the time you think about the range that villain had up to that spot you've already lost half your time thinking. 

If you go down to just 3 or 4 tables you will know exactly what has happened on each street and won't have to waste any time thinking about villains range on earlier streets since you will already have a good idea in your head about what his range is.

As others have said too - the more you make these decisions, the more natural they will become and the less time you will have to think about them.

edit: Going back to AA hand - it doesn't matter if villain won't over-value AQ or AJ. What about 77? AK? Or even another set (even tho less likely given pre-flop I wouldn't rule it out completely) Or pair + NFD? As I sad earlier he only has to have 2 of these hands and all the combos of JT - he can have JT up to 89% of the time and it would still be a mistake for us to fold to the shove.

rancid

Your running out of time because you don't know what to do

Happens to everyone

We simply do not know the correct answer for every spot

This is why you spend time away from the tables learning about poker

This will always happen, you will never solve poker

Learn and apply yourself

Number of tables can be factor, if your having this problem all the time then reduce number of tables

You should feel comfortable in like 95% of spots for the level you play