It's not OK. Do you see why?
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When I woke up this morning, I had a ton of problems with my car, my apartment door, my computer monitor, my digital tape recorder and my pedal-less bicycle.
By the time I finished work this evening, all those problems had been solved at a cost of only $60 to smooth out the dent in my car. That's a good beat.
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I wish I could loosen up preflop, but I'm having a really hard time. Even when I feel like I've been playing looser in these NL 6-max games, when I go back to look at my PokerTracker stats, I find that I'm still only seeing about 20 percent of flops.
I don't think tightish play is terribly wrong, even in shorthanded games, because that kind of strategy helps increase the chances that you will have the better hand when you do play one. In addition, I find that playing tight helps me get through cold runs of cards with minimal losses.
But then again, I recently went through my PT stats to try to figure out how I possibly could have lost money after I had gone to bed the previous night thinking I had booked a winning session.
The reason, of course, was that the blinds really eat up your stack after a while. I don't know how I can play any looser without playing some junk hands.
I just don't see the point of playing bad cards. Maybe I'm missing something obvious here. Any thoughts?
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4 comments:
First issue is, what do you consider a junk hand? Without this info, it'd be hard to tell if you are playing too tight.
Second, what is wrong with playing tight? Maybe you should stick to full table ring games, where blinds won't eat away at your stack as quickly, and tight is even more right.
Third, I know most people probably shutted when I say this, but try playing some other games, like O8 (limit or NL). It'll loosen you up.
Finally, pay attention to your opponents, choose a couple of randomizers, and then commence the bluffing. At the 6-max tables, you will see some loose crappy players. When you are in position, just start bluffing away. Pretend in your head that you have a premium hand and act accordingly. So even though you have 79d in the CO, if a loose player limped, go ahead and raise as though you had KK. In fact, this is why I love the hammer. It's my randomizer. If I get a 2 and a 7, suited or unsuited, I bluff. It's entirely random when I get those cards, so there isn't anything readily identifiable about the timing of my bluffs (in position, out of position), and I play it as though I have a premium hand, so hopefully there is nothing suspicious about how I play it.
The key is to find your randomizer and to open your starting hand requirements.
I think people can get caught up in trying to play that oh so favorable lag style when they inherently are just forcing themselves to play a style that is not comfortable to them.
That said, if you are looking to increase your VP$IP, I would recommend stealing more from the CO and button. I would be interested in seeing what your steal % is (mine's about 35% and I play 25/19 although I am a nit out of the blinds)
last sentence should say "nit IN the blinds".
I'm in the same boat as Wes. I'm 24/19 and my stealing % is 42. I'm raising every single time its folded to me on the button and most of the time in the cutoff until the blinds start playing back at me (which often does not happen). When they call, they usually check fold to your c-bet. I'm very comfortable being 24/19. I'm at about 7ptbb/100 over my last 100k hands at 2/4 playing that way...playing 1/2 right now though.
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