NLHTP#15 Swapping Mistakes & Adjusting to Loose Games and Players

[wallenborn]

Swapping Mistakes

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The key to no limit hold'em success isn't to play perfectly. It's to swap mistakes with your opponents. You trade small mistakes to your opponents if they will trade back big ones.

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There may be such a thing as a mathematically perfect poker strategy, and if you played it, you wouldn't lose. But it would be a defensive strategy. The best players don't play the perfect defense. They go on the attack, even if that means exposing a few vulnerabilities.

This works in multiway situations, too. Say, one player likes to play big pots preflop out of position tooo often. You might adjust to that by playing marginal hands in position more often and more often fast. Other players might spot that and try to exploit you by reraising light from the blinds. As long as the edge you get against the loose player is bigger than the edge you give up against the others, you'll have the best of it. But be vigilant: always be aware what mistakes your are trading. When your mistakes become the big ones, stop making them.

Adjusting to Loose Games and Players

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Don't play your loose opponents for live ones until you see them make at least one major error for a large bet.

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After establishing that your opponent is not just loose, but bad, too, make the following adjustments:

[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Loosen up. Play looser preflop when the loose opponent has entered the hand, especially when you are in position.
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Big preflop pots with big pairs. Avoid big pots preflop with big unpaired cards, such as AK, though.
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Value bet top pair and oberpair hands aggressively.
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Bluff less often.