[joker122]

say you have a default BB defense range against an unknown button opener. you play a few orbits and then your HUD kicks in, revealing that the previously unknown button has an extremely high steal percentage and aggression factor. obviously, you would now open up your defense and 3betting range against this button as well as get to showdown more frequently. you would also be forced to take more shots at pots so he wouldn't show an immediate profit from raising OTB. this is basically what has happened in the last 6 months or so - our HUDs have kicked in. in other words, there are alot more players like this button in today's games.

therefore, "TAG" is a relative and evolving idea. TAG used to mean 24/17, but it's hard to beat up the mid-stakes games today with that style because it will be handily exploited in the ways you mentioned. so if that's what you mean by TAG then i agree, currently it is at best suboptimal and at worst "fatally flawed."

essentially, the old LAG (~32/22) is the new TAG, and the new LAG (~45/30) is the old maniac. and unfortunately, this new breed of LAG is just that - a LAG - and not a maniac. what i mean by that is that while they are routinely guilty of what seem like -EV decisions both pre and post-flop, their overall strategy is ambitious and opprotunistic in spirit (albeit excessively so) rather than aimless and irrational. that said, these guys are where the majority of your profit can derive from next to the almost extinct 50/10 guys. they are still exploitable, just less so.

the point is that the theory behind a TAG style (which is, in the broadest sense, the idea of selective aggression guided by presumed equity edges) will always be optimal. all that changes is what the TAG style technically entails.