19 replies to this topic

[masterock]

Great forum. I stopped playing online. I played for 4 months and played extremely tight. Had a good run and decided to play live poker only. The reason was for all the time spent playing online which was alot, i felt i was making roughly a buck an hour. Figured my social life was getting affected , for a buck an hour. NowI play usually twice a week at home games. Sometimes tournament sometmes cash NL. I find playing extremely tight online is the online way to go but whenyuo play 5 to 6 guys cash you see less flops. I usually make money. Only lost money twice but i am never the big winner. The guys respect my playing but now i have become way to predicatetable. my goal was to win two pots a night. But now these two pots are not big cause when i am in these pots they fold. I made a guy fold his aces when j77 came on the flop and i was holding a jack. I prefer playing 6-7 people but on occasion only 4 people show up and these are the times i have lost. we play everyone brings 25 bucks nl. i play all pairs , Aj, Aq and Aq sometimes KQ. But i realize now when playing cash games live, i got to play more hands. HOw do you guys play your suited connectors. Do you just call, do you raise preflop. call a raise. How often you play them. These home games are confusing at times cause , most the people play any face card with any kicker. I know this question is very general just like to have your opinionpeace happy new year

[copernicus]

when you loosen up, and the hands you add, depends on position and number of players (assuming they all have the super-tight image of you).An occasional raise with a middle pair from any position should help, unless there are aggressive players that will re-raise often. Limping with suited connectors early, or raising them late, will also help your image a bit.The first thing that should happen is your hourly rate will go up just from stealing pots. Once youve showed down a few of these looser calls then you are going to get calls on your better hands. You need to vary your play once you ve been seen as a little looser. Speed up, slow down, react to how they react to you

[wrto4556]

copernicus said:

You need to vary your play once you've been seen as a little looser. Speed up, slow down, react to how they react to you

...react to how they react to you. The most valuable lesson in poker. Don't underestimate that.

[Wilderness]

Basically I agree with the two posts above me ... if you have a really tight table image, then by all means exploit it until they catch on. Start raising with nothing, with crap hands when you have position or sense weakness in them. Until they realize that you aren't that tight rock anymore, you will pick up a number of pots/blinds.

[JFarrell20]

you need to learn position.the closer you are to the button, the worse hands you can play. example with 8 players in it if you are first to act with K 9 suited, thats a fold. on the other hand if you're on the button with Q 8 offsuit and nobody's raised it, you can definitely call. (if you feel that the SB and BB won't raise you significantly.).Play POSITION. You will start to feel when you can play loose. And pay attention to the energy of the table.. pay attention to pre-flop play. If nobody's raised the pot in 4 hands, its probably safe to limp in with some crap. Poker is like a wave... the group dynamics are in constant flux. it's not rare to play 8 hands in a row with pre-flop raises... then the next 5 hands have no raises. This is b/c if you bet against the grain, it is that much more obvious. Get it? If you don't call one raise during those 8 hands of raises, everyone will realize you are a rock. And if somebody raises the pot after it hasn't been pre-flop raised in 5 hands, everyone will know you got AA or KK. lol. You've got to flow with everyone. Ride the wave! This probably didnt' answer your question at all. lol.

[JaysonWeber]

You could always read Nutbar....

[53o]

Easiest, and safest, way to project a looser image, I think, to start limping in in late position with crap hands (or Gus Hansen hands.). Especially if you are in the SB or on the button. If there is no action before you, just call the blind and see the flop. With whatever you have. I'm not saying to do this all of the time, mind you. Just enough to keep your opponents guessing. Every so often you will hit an amazing flop with a crap hand. But mostly it's to keep people from thinking your to conservative with minimum loss to you. And it's fun to put someone on tilt by cracking their pocket aces with 37off every once in a while.

[pkarcher]

since you have such a rock image, you are really missing out on some money if you are not bluffing some of your crap hands before the flop or on the flop. so try doing that. and the first time you get caught, if you can check or call down to the river for cheap to let your opponents see your cards, you'll lose some of that rock image. Also don't be afraid to play drawing hands like suited connectors and small pairs from late position.

[masterock]

Thanks guys for your great advice. I think tonight i will invest 25 bucks in losing. Not only am i going to play loose i will play ultra loose and agressive. I guess the term is advertising. So next week i can go back and play tighter but not as tight as before. Who knows i may get lucky with 27 suited catch a flush and win a monster pot. Wish me luck, i will need it!

[masterock]

I did it. i managed to bust out twice, it hurt but i had fun doing it lol. BUt i cant do that again. I rather play tight make some bucks than go all ape sh** hahha. Peace

[Smasharoo]

I can't belive you lost money on purpose.Wouldn't semi-bluffing draws more and adding some weaker suited connectors to your pre-flop mix have accomplished the same thing without costing you cash??

[JeffG43]

My advice is to read Doyle's Super System book. He explains how and why to play pairs and other suited connectors. If you are playing 6 handed, you need to loosen up and play more than KQ or better. The general rule i've heard is to play any two cards that would total 20 in blackjack. I wouldn't lose pots or bet/call when you know you don't have a chance to win too much, but play with the idea of learning when a call or bet is profitable. A few loose bets here and there is good to keep your opponents guessing and calling, but too much "advertising" is not profitable.

[The Insider]

Every post here makes alot of sense... sounds like you may have overdone it a bit. Like ending a sobriety by getting tanked. Loose up a BIT... mainly in position (great post on that above)... but walk before you run. And for gods sake, develop some reading skills! You are smart enough to realize that you are being predictable, READ when someone is playing you accordingly, and react to it. Shift a gear. I agree with Smash... semi-bluffs are a good starting ground for you. Get involved in some hands cheaply if you can. Then raise or re-raise on the flop if you miss but have a draw if you know your opponent thinks you are a rock. Get used to playing players, not your cards. If you don't become proficient in that, you can never expect to fill that wallet with profits, but you might have fun patting yourself on the back for being the tightest mofo around. Sorry if that came off rudely... Have some fun out there damn it :-)

[masterock]

Thanks guys for the words. I went on a little mission, a one time deal. Not like i lost hundreds of bucks, was a measly 30. I went out to have fun, sometimes people take thegame ,myself included too seriously. I played pretty much every pot. where as before i played maybe 6 or 7. You are right about reading people, a skill that needs developping. I tend to just play the cards and have done that successfully online and home games. The way i look at it was 30 bucks to make 100. Most of all i had fun. Where as before it was getting boring.

[The Insider]

Good for you, rock. Glad to hear it... when you master the skill of losing a very small pot that enables you to win a HUGE pot, you'll feel like a rockstar. Keep working at it, and don't hesitate to tighten up or loosen up MID-HAND. Check with the nuts or top pair and see what happens. The next time you check the turn on a draw, you might just get to see that card. Just keep trying different things without forcing yourself to play 9,2 off-suits in early position.

[MasterLJ]

Aggression needs to be used sparingly. You don't act aggressive all night regardless of the situation... you want to act aggression and bluff at pots until you get caught, then go back to being super tight. It works wonders since you get way more callers. They think you are the guy who bluffs at everything and will call you down to the river even if you hold really nice cards.I cycle like this quite a bit. I take about 6-10 pots at a tight Fixed table in a 2-3 hour play session pre-flop just from raising crap hands. You can't do this all the time, but that's why I like to play at really tight tables, so I can get away with this sort of thing. Imagine this, 35os, you raise... everyone folds... next hand is AA, you raise. Let's say either 1. you get callers that don't believe you, or 2. everyone folds. Let's say everyone folds, then you catch 66 and raise... now SOMEONE will have to call you since everyone at the table thinks you are full of it. If you flop a set, great, bet on! If you know you're beat, show them if you can and/or put them down in a way that makes you look like you're bluffing.

[wrto4556]

MasterLJ said:

Aggression needs to be used sparingly.  You don't act aggressive all night regardless of the situation... you want to act aggression and bluff at pots until you get caught, then go back to being super tight.   It works wonders since you get way more callers.  They think you are the guy who bluffs at everything and will call you down to the river even if you hold really nice cards.

This is what is ment by "reacting how the players react to you."If you start raising alot of pots and show down middle pair or K high, people will notice!! So you tighten up, bothe pre-flop and post-flop. It's hard to switch gears, so You have to practice.Now that you have tightened up, you will probably get more calls with your good hands, then people will notice. So you start raising middle pair, or re-raising flush draws again.Someone was talking about riding the wave...If you don't know what "riding the wave means" your lost. Basically, there is an unseen aura at the table...and you must react to this aura. That aura consists of alot of things, and one important one is Table Image. If people think you play loose, play tight...and vise versa.Now the aura has alot to do with luck, too, but you will probably catch onto that after alot of experience. You start to notice who is on a rush, and you stay out of pots with those people...you notice who is in a rut, and you bully the shit out of them.Anyway, I'm getting off-topic. Make sure to practice switching gears, and most importantly when to switch gears. Because switching gears at the wrong time is -EV. gl.

[Smasharoo]

That aura consists of alot of things, and one important one is Table Image. If people think you play loose, play tight...and vise versa.Of the very few table skills I've mastered, one is appearing loose and nutty while remaining tight and agressive.That and tilting pretty much any table under 10/20 in an hour or less 99% of the time.

[JaysonWeber]

Everyone has put a lot of input here, so I'll save mine. You wanted to loosen up?http://www.cardplaye...ves/?a_id=12235READ THAT! It's some great stuff

[Hardrocker]

Occasionally I have a "Nutbar" session online, but I do it in strategic spurts.I try to develop a tight/aggressive table image, only raising with premium hands. After a while I will throw out a raise with almost anything when it looks favorable (maybe cut-off/only 1 limper), and try to push it home.If it works the first time I do it, I will go from seeing about 20% of flops to about 40-50% of flops, raising all the while, for about 30 or so hands. Then I tighten back up.It seems like I can totally run the table during this time, and actually come out ahead.And even if I didn't, when I go back to raising with premium hands, someone usually pays me off when I flop a monster.Another point that was brought up cannot be stressed enough: Position, Position, Position