Playing non-optimally to prepare for higher stakes

[vlerk]

I'm currently playing .10/.25 and I'm doing pretty well. I'm going to do nothing but play poker over the summer and in preparation of that I've signed up for a six month cardrunners membership. I like watching the higher stakes videos but realise they are not that relevant to the play at micro limits. All the micro limit videos (especially the brystmar series) emphasise that playing a TAG style is best/most profitable while learning at these limits.

It is often mentioned in these videos however, that at higher limits you will get run over when playing such a tight style. Therefore I'm wondering whether it's a good idea to play somewhat looser (stealing with a very wide range, 3betting small pp's and sc's in position) as a sort of practice for the different play at higher stakes. I feel that it gives me a larger variety of postflop decisions to make and that this postflop experience will really pay off when I move up later. I'm currently playing a semi LAG 22/19 style and feeling pretty comfortable with it.

So my question is this: would it be better to play the style that is optimal for whatever level you're currently playing or is it wise to get used to a style that will be better suited to stakes you expect (hope) to play in the near future?

[CobraGoat]

if they people at the uNL are going to react like uNLers not higher stakes players, what value, on any level, would you get from playing like its high stakes?

also, pokey made a good post somewhere (stickies?) about moving up to the next level being about essentially bringing your old winning game and slowly adding alterations/improvements to your game.

[samwallistea]

Personally my style of play is only based on the players at my table, not the stakes that Im playing. I also play 25NL and play semi-tight aggressive style and it seems to work most of the time. However if Im at a table with laggy opponents I play much tighter and just wait for big hands. Against tight players I play much looser preflop and overall am more aggressive. I try to adapt as much as possible to my changing table, a skill which will be using at higher stakes too hopefully.

[cubase]

My two cents...

I found very quickly after watching CR videos that my roll began to take a beating when I tried my new super-advanced high-tech moves against players who only look at their two cards and can't fold.

If you identify a 2+2er on your table, you can probably try some of these things against them, but against the bulk of players, I think you will find a lot of the stuff that Taylor and Co. do in their videos will be -EV for you.

The main key you *can* take away from the vids is playing positionally sound. Tight early, loose late.

One of the main things I'm working on in my game right now is trying to tone down the stuff I do that isn't ABC. As I look through my PT base, I find most of my leaks are related to recognizing weakness and trying to exploit, only to find that my opponent cannot/will not fold 2nd pair on the flush board I'm representing.

My advice (which by writing this I'm hopefully telling myself the same) is really to buckle down with some ABC poker. Nothing fancy. Build roll, and get experience. I am still watching the CR vids, but trying to extract info that is of use to uNL.

[Worm75]

Get used to playing the style that is optimal for your level. The reason that people loosen up and 3-bet so much at the higher levels, is to widen hand ranges and make it much more difficult to put them on a hand. This won't generally work at uNL, because generally most villains at this level really don't think beyond their own 2 cards.

That being said, your image should be fairly flexible even at NL25, and you should adjust your table image to the villains that you are playing against....This goes back to the whole axiom, tight when loose, loose when tight...

If you really want to try this out, be prepared to drop a couple of buyins and play on a table that is heavy with regulars...They will be the people that you are most likely to profit with this style.

[skoal2k4]

Play LAG if you have a fairly decent ability to read ranges on people and pick up tendencies of players. Playing TAG is great if you're a beginner because the decisions are easier to make post flop.

[wslee00]

i agree - watching those high stakes vids are just gonna mess you up. just stick to these forums and continue to play your winning tag style and you should be good.

[sww]

Being a nit like the teach you is the easiest way to learn. However, you can play more marginal situations and have a big variance. You should always have an idea why you are doing certain things. It can be even more profitable than the standard if you are very good and it is most certainly more educative. I would recommend it unless you want to be a microstakes nit for the rest of your life. Good luck.

[boycalledroy]

Here is the most basic difference between MEGA-BUCKS poker and NO-BUCKS poker. People don't understand position, thus the raising from the blinds without AA/KK/QQ is about as useless as a 1-legged man in a kicking competition.

As soon as you get to people that understand position and play sc's from the button then you can start 3-betting TJ, KQ etc. Whatever your heart desires because you can fold them out.

Nothing worse than playing a calling station oop!

[poker_n00b]

I often get comments live and online about how tight I am and that I am a TAG player. True, it takes no skill to recognize a tight player at the table. It is just that at 50 NL and below people do not know how to adjust to your tight style. Shortstacks still limp call your raises OOP with 76s.

[Bantam222]

This is an interesting concept, but I feel one of the goals of a small stakes grinder is to move up as fast as possible to where you can make more money.
Now there are three reasons your BR is under $1000, or whatever you want to call higher stakes.
A) you cash out a lot...I can't really help you here, its hard to build a BR if you are cashing out often, you need money to make money
B)You are a small winner, or even a losing player. You have a lot of leaks. You should be focusing on playing a solid game that can beat 10NL or whatever you are at, not 100NL. You have to walk before you can run.
C) You seem to be winning a lot, but you havn't played a lot of hands so your BR isn't huge yet: watch out, you still have some leaks and may be on a heater. If your style is working I would just keep playing and fly up in the stakes. Deal with the differnt plays at the higher stakes when you reach that point.

I started with nothing and have been grinding it up into around $2,500 over the last few months or so. Every time I moved up a level, I tried to change my play, thought all my opponents were making a move and played just plain bad. Eventually I become comfortable and adapted to the new players. When moving up in stakes, the only thing that could be good to change is your style is to play a little tighter at first, and then open up once you get a feel for it. I'm not sure if this is good for everyone though because I play a rather loose and adgressive style, and I don't always feel comfortable steping right into a new limit like that, so I'll tighten up and keep myself out of marginal spots.

[Raisor]

I think it is more about playing solid ABC TAG poker like 90% of the time and being able to recognize different situations that can come up where varying your play creates more value for you as you move up. but at the lower stakes fancy plays get called way too much for them to be +ev so there is no point in practicing them now.

[Ikaika]

The whole point of playing micros is to get a good understanding of solid ABC poker, which most of us clearly don't quite have yet since we're still here in uNL.

Once you start getting up into the 100nl, 200nl, 400nl, etc then I think a lot of the concepts they discuss in the CR vids become a lot more relevant.