LAG in, TAG out

[Rookcifer]

My W$SD is 47%.

[tarheeljks]

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Anyone have any tips on how to properly play LAG? TAG doesn't seem to work very well at the micro stakes -- you need to have at least 40% VPIP to be successful.

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this is not true

[basementproject]

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TAG doesn't seem to work very well at the micro stakes -- you need to have at least 40% VPIP to be successful.

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Above poster is right, this is VERY untrue. A solid TAG game is the ONLY way to go at donk stakes. These players don't know what they're doing. They're playing hands like 39d even when you raise preflop. If you start playing hands like 68x to combat that, it's not going to help your cause. You're just going to lose small pots more frequently, and get frustrated.

Play a lot of tables at once, and nut camp. Only play premium hands. Always raise them. Play in position. C-bet almost religiously on the flop.

Get comfortable showing down hands like TPTK at these stakes, because more often than not, they will win.

I'd love to see your stats, and see how often you're folding hands like top pair to reraisers, or check/folding on boards you don't hit. My wild guess would be the %s are much higher than they should be.

The biggest adjustment players have to make when moving up levels is always redefining their perception of a 'winning hand', because a winning hand at $10NL is simply not a winning hand at $200NL.

[Rookcifer]

I started a new PT database and am starting all over at 2NL. My BR is $100. I'm trying to keep VPIP under 20 and TAF above 2 (which is hard to do). We'll see how it goes, but I don't expect to be able to move up to 5NL any time soon.

[JH1]

I would say that 20-25/10-15 is optimal for 5NL and 10NL in my experience. Totally aggree with raising more to get people to think you're more LAGgy than you actually are because you are still only going to continue in big pots with big hands. A good way I've found to do this is 3bet in position with suited connectors a couple times. A lot of people say that players don't pay any attention to table image at these levels, but the one thing they do notice in my experience is if you seem to be raising and stealing a lot and will try to take a shot at you eventually.

Also agree on the aggression factor: I'm guessing that you are not c-betting nearly enough.

If you have PAHUD, display the WSD and W$SD. The players you want to find are the ones that have high WSD% and low W$SD% meaning they are probably calling stations that call down with any part of the board and you can go to value town when you hit, don't bluff these guys.

Secondly I look for players that limp a lot and fold to c-bets a lot (more than 50% fold). It doesn't make any sense to me why anyone would limp with the intention of calling a raise, they should be raising it up themselves then. Use your position to isolate these guys with a raise and you can make a decent profit by c-betting just about everytime they check to you HU. If they fold 50% of the time, you can bet pot every time and breakeven without even considering the times you'll actually have a made hand. So I usually bet 3/4 or so and if they come back with a check-raise you get away from the hand cheaply (remember to tighten up a bit for awhile against this player if you've been doing this a lot, they might be playing back at you with air if they're sick of you doing this to them). This is also exactly why you don't want to limp first in because I will be trying to do this to you.

At tables that don't raise a whole lot and get a whole bunch of limpers, you can start overlimping a lot of SC, gap connectors, and low pocket pairs and nut peddle for a good profit as well. Don't get fancy with you made hands, bet them to build a pot. If they fold they weren't going to call any of your later bets anyways so you can't feel too disapointed when this happens. This goes back to making yourself look more LAG than you are, you'll get called down lighter when you hit the flop hard.

[chestr]

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I started a new PT database and am starting all over at 2NL. My BR is $100. I'm trying to keep VPIP under 20 and TAF above 2 (which is hard to do). We'll see how it goes, but I don't expect to be able to move up to 5NL any time soon.

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I also play 2nl (started recently with 11k hands now) but 6m. I do play TAG (16/11.8/3.2) and it does seem to work quite well at these micro stakes. How many tables are you playing? I remember when I was only playing 2-3 tables it would be easier for me to get frustrated/bored but with 5 I'm constantly busy playing premium or reasonable LP hands.

[basementproject]

With $100, why don't you just start at $5NL? You're rolled for it...

[Rookcifer]

$5NL is far too difficult, I have much better success at 2NL. I would say 5NL is 20-30 times as tough.

[JH1]

For my post above: I assumed that you were still playing 10NL, missed your post that said you were starting over at 2NL. I would only use that info for 10NL and above.

I don't think I've ever played 2NL, but if 5NL is any indication, just play very straightforward ABC poker and almost never bluff. You can pretty much believe your opponents when they bet, especially the turn - they at least caught part of the board. People at these levels will most likely not be betting their draws either, they'll be check/calling, so make them pay.

I'm guessing that raising preflop to 4BB - standard that other limits use - is getting a lot more callers so if you've got a strong starting hand, you can probably raise 5-8 BB and still get a couple callers.

If you've got a strong hand that you think is best, just go ahead and pot it all the way. Shoving the nuts on the turn or river is also quite profitable if anyone shows a good amount of interest in the hand.

[Rookcifer]

JH1 and others, thanks for the help, but I think I am giving up even trying. I just cannot seem to get the hang of it. I try TAG, I wait for premium hands, but I get beat by either a better premium hand or sucked out on by trash. I just cannot read people online very well.

Again, tonight I noticed that the large ($15+) stacks all had 40-50% VPIP, they play most every hand, and win often. One guy called my pre-flop raise with Q-7, I had AK. Flop came QQ4. Needless to say he busted me. Obviously the LAG style is superior at these levels. The reward for waiting on AA-AK-KK-QQ is just not enough to justify the wait and to justify the 30% of the time you get sucked out on. You simply have to mix it up often, bluff a lot, and know precisely when you are beat. That's what the winning players do and that's how you increase your stack.

I played for 6-8 hours tonight and ended up -$3.00. That is horrible and not even worth the effort. I started with $2 in my account, built it to $130 in a week, but it has dwindled to $100 since yesterday. I am going to withdraw it from PokerStars before it is all gone.

Take care, and thanks for the input.