My Limit Holdem "Strategy" (What should be changed)

[inferno]

just read sshe and go from there

[McNeese72]

I've only been playing for a year now and, lurking here, there is one thing I've learned from these guys and that is "It depends". You can have guidelines (starting hands, etc.) for your game but they should be just guidlelines and not rigid rules. Because you need to adapt your game to your table, your opponents, and your situation at the time to get optimal results. I still tend to play too tight sometimes and still make stupid mistakes but I have improved some in the year I've been playing and reading these boards.

Doc

[Gregatron]

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Grp1: AA KK QQ JJ AKs (Raise All Pos)
Grp2: 1010 AQs AJs KQs AK (Raise MP,LP and apparently not in EP)

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Aw hell naw

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It's certainly suboptimal, but not quite as bad as it seems.

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Greg,

I'll disagree and say not raising these hands EP is a severe mistake.

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Not quite. It is not as terrible as you have a potentially bigger edge on later streets. It has to do with pot size maniputation. It's easier to get the poor players to make big mistakes in smaller pots. And it can also mean less reverse implied odds for hero. (This is, however, provided you play well postflop.)

Example 1:
Hero has AJs UTG
He raises (as he should)
3 cold callers and the blinds come along
Flop (12 sbs): 4 7 J rainbow
SB bets, BB calls, hero raises,
Villians are right to call with hands like 87, A4, or T9

Example 2:
Hero has AJs UTG and calls, get four limpers and the blinds
Flop (7 sbs): 4 7 J rainbow
SB bets, UTG calls, Hero raises,
Villians by calling hands like 87, A4, or T9 villians are now making a mthematical error larger than the one they make on the flop.

Yes, this is contrived, and raising AJs (or AJo for that matter) is clearly better, it's not the "extreme" error you claim.

[FloppedNutz]

The best advice you've gotten are to not skip $0.50/$1 and to get Pokertracker. The transition from $0.25/$0.50 to $1/2 will see a tightening up of the game. It's likely the average percentage of players seeing the flop will drop from say over 40% to 30% or lower. Tighter tables means you're going to be missing some fraction of BBs you've grown accustomed to winning in each pot up until now. That is going to effect your winrate.

As people are pointing out poker arrives at a point where things "just depend". Pokertracker can tell you just how tight a table is playing and then you can adjust your play accordingly. Pokertracker can also tell you who tends to play how. What their VP$IP is. What their PFR% is. When someone I've played 500 hands with so I know they have 16% VP$IP and a PFR% of 8% raises from EP the question that goes through my mind is do I want to get involved with this tight raising player or not? Yes, there is the hand I have but I'm starting to ask myself more do I want to get involved with this particular player. The answer I'm arriving at is I want to play more with the fishy players, less with the good players and so I increase or decrease the relative value of my hand depending on who I'm likely playing against.

Pokertracker allows you to see who the generally strong players are so you can get out of their way when they are trying to do to the fish exactly what you're trying to do. I think that you'll find those generally strong players get out of your way as well when you're the one raising up. The only people that don't seem to notice this are the fish cold calling whatever. They are cold calling the strong player this hand and they'll cold call you also on the next hand so why not wait until you can have them all to yourself?

[Banana Joe]

Thanks Doc,

The game is really a lot more than the eye can see hopefully all the player more bad than me does not read 2+2 hehe

[ESKiMO-SiCKNE5S]

ok seriously

wtf is up with that tiger avatar?

why do like 50% of new players have it? it sux

[Eeegah]

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The best advice you've gotten are to not skip $0.50/$1

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Hell don't even skip the lower limits. When I started out I forced myself to grind out almost 13,000 hands at .05/.10 and more than that at .25/.50 to get my experience and bankroll up to speed (started with $50, never put a penny in since); if I were to start over again I'd <font color="white">slit my goddamned wri</font> do it gladly. Puts hair on your chest.

Edit: well okay I'm illiterate and see the guy's done just that so ignore this post and discuss cupcakes.

[kerowo]

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The best advice you've gotten are to not skip $0.50/$1

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Hell don't even skip the lower limits. When I started out I forced myself to grind out almost 13,000 hands at .05/.10 and more than that at .25/.50 to get my experience and bankroll up to speed (started with $50, never put a penny in since); if I were to start over again I'd <font color="white">slit my goddamned wri</font> do it gladly. Puts hair on your chest.

Edit: well okay I'm illiterate and see the guy's done just that so ignore this post and discuss cupcakes.

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MMmmmmm cupcakes

[davelin]

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Not quite. It is not as terrible as you have a potentially bigger edge on later streets. It has to do with pot size maniputation. It's easier to get the poor players to make big mistakes in smaller pots. And it can also mean less reverse implied odds for hero. (This is, however, provided you play well postflop.)

Example 1:
Hero has AJs UTG
He raises (as he should)
3 cold callers and the blinds come along
Flop (12 sbs): 4 7 J rainbow
SB bets, BB calls, hero raises,
Villians are right to call with hands like 87, A4, or T9

Example 2:
Hero has AJs UTG and calls, get four limpers and the blinds
Flop (7 sbs): 4 7 J rainbow
SB bets, UTG calls, Hero raises,
Villians by calling hands like 87, A4, or T9 villians are now making a mthematical error larger than the one they make on the flop.

Yes, this is contrived, and raising AJs (or AJo for that matter) is clearly better, it's not the "extreme" error you claim.

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Greg,

I'm actually writing an article for the magazine that goes into this issue. It's a take-off from a post I made here called something like "A Common Misconception" which talks about the idea of not raising pre-flop in order to keep the pot size small. In my article I have some examples that show that with a hand that has something like 30-35% equity in a 5-handed game, you actually lose EV by keeping the pot size small. I would definitely categorize AJs as a hand that enjoys this kind of pre-flop advantage.

[Gregatron]

Not raising AJs preflop is a mistake. We don't disagree on that point. Not raising preflop to keep the pot small is in generally not a good idea (it's good to mix it up sometimes against good opponents), but what I am arguing is there are some advantages to be had from it sometimes, and when considering this potential advantage the mistake of NOT raising these hands preflop goes from large to moderate.