Button, I Suck. #1

Similar to the process I'm using for improving my blind play I will also post about my efforts to improve my button play. A trend that I've noticed is that my button steal c-bets don't seem to get much respect. This is probably due to two reasons:
1/ Villains in the blinds tend to flat with a reasonably strong range on average
2/ Villains in the blinds know that I have a huge range when c-betting (if they have any sort of brain function)

So where does button stealing gain it's profitability? Just recently I've really been trying to win those pots before showdown and playing very aggressively in this particular spot, but I just feel like I'm spewing now and it's shown in my recent results where I'm making good money in all positions but the button.

Perhaps I've got it wrong, and the most significant portion of profit comes from preflop fold equity and we should only play aggressively on the flop when we have equity - perhaps better than 35% or so versus a typical villain's blind calling range.

I think it's really time that I put in a lot of hours trying to memorise the equity different hands have on different board textures. If I can learn tons and tons of them, flop play should become much easier because I can target hands that fall in certain equity 'bands' for different plays.

Anyway, the learning curve continues and it's awesome having some things to focus on improving instead of the endless 'woe is me' cycle I was stuck in during the first few months of the year. GL

EDIT:
Quick update, I filtered my previous HEM database for hands that I opened first in from the button, didn't face a 3-bet and saw a flop. I'm basically making a small amount of money given the preflop actions being true - and I'm totally happy with this. I'm going to the flop with a much weaker range than my opponents typically but coming out on top. I need to look elsewhere for my leaks I feel.

I also found that my button c-bets actually have a higher success rate than anywhere else on the table (despite what I said earlier in the post)! Again, I think my leaks must lie elsewhere, and I wonder if it might be folding to 3-bets too much...

In this situation I've only called 4% of the time, and four bet 12.5% of the time. Either this means that I'm facing a value 3-bet the vast majority of the time - which could be true - or I'm folding too much in this situation, and this could also be true. I'll need to delve deeper into this I think.

Unfortunately this leak finding will have to wait until tomorrow (or maybe later). I'll post any further conclusions at a future time.