NLTRN Regular vs. Turbo

[ChicagoRy]

I maintain a lot of times there is little to no indication of what exactly they are going to do when the game dramatically shifts and the blinds are taking up a large proportion of both player's stacks.

Some guys freeze up, some guys get nuts, and their prior play isn't exactly in line with this often times.

In the lower levels it was a lot more transparent with their earlier game, but I just played a guy who was the most tight-weak guy in the first two levels. Called a 3-bet shove with Q8o. No indication up until that hand that he would call that light.

Anyways, you said "5 hands." What does that mean?

[waxhax0rs]

He meant that you could tell usually within 5 hands if the guy is a maniac/weak-tight/etc. but your point still stands. A lot of bad players in the low limits (where I play) are not entirely consistent.

[ChicagoRy]

Ok ignore my last comment.

The point I'm trying to make is it seems to me to be totally overrated to play tight early with the main purpose being that you can play off that image later in the match.

It may be different on FTP with the blind structure, but I would think that the main reason to play tight early would be based entirely on how your opponent plays early in the match or if you think you enjoy a huge advantage at the later stages of the game.

Opponents don't seem to adjust well in most matches, especially turbos where there can often times be so little good hands dealt in the 15-20bb areas. They often times seem to be playing their hands or based on their emotions from prior major hands.

I don't think people should be focusing on a certain type of play early on for the sole or majority reason of it being paid off later in the match.

However, it is important to keep a note of your image during the match, but I think that is more to do with the types of hands and situations you've gotten yourself into with your opponent rather than a set strategy you maintain to control your image.

If you're picking up premium hands OOP against somebody who calls light on 3-bets (a majority of people I play) you're going to look a lot more aggressive early on. If you don't pick up [censored] OOP early in the match you're probably going to look tight and nitty (I don't call all that much OOP) regardless of the image you're trying to project.

[cwar]

[ QUOTE ]
He meant that you could tell usually within 5 hands if the guy is a maniac/weak-tight/etc. but your point still stands. A lot of bad players in the low limits (where I play) are not entirely consistent.

[/ QUOTE ]
This is true but it is usually very apparent if someone is playing irrationally, especially so deep into a match. Furthermore irrational players are not that hard to read, you just have to figure out what is causing their irrationality (ignorance, tilt, superstition) and then its very easy to figure out which direction a lot of their decisions will go.

[Jiganti]

Exactly. Deciphering the cause for their irrationality is what determines your read and the sooner you can do that, the sooner you cn really get a stranglehold on someone.