Dear uNL: You are not good enough

[Hail Eris]

I am confused. If uNL is not where you try to open your game and try to get some experience playing in marginal spots, then how are people supposed to learn?

Are you saying we should all play like nits in uNL and then try to open our game and start looking for trouble when we're playing for higher stakes and against better opponents? Because, really, it seems like that is what you're saying.

[vulturesrow]

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I am confused. If uNL is not where you try to open your game and try to get some experience playing in marginal spots, then how are people supposed to learn?

Are you saying we should all play like nits in uNL and then try to open our game and start looking for trouble when we're playing for higher stakes and against better opponents? Because, really, it seems like that is what you're saying.

[/ QUOTE ]

Think of it as a continuum with super LAG at one end and super nit at the other, with TAG somewhere in the middle. Depending on your opponents, the current situation at the table, you are going to be constantly sliding one way or another on that continuum, but hopefully "averaging" TAG. Dont raise QJ UTG just because you want to be a LAG, do it because you know it will fold most of the players and leave you heads up with
Mr. Icalldownwithanypieceoftheboarddonkeyman. Do it because your cards are colder than a witch's [censored] and so you are projecting a tight image at the table, allowing you to steal some pots. What I see is people going super aggro on uNL tables because they see higher stakes players doing it or they just think aggression is good but dont know how to focus it. So yes at uNL, you should open your game, but for the right reasons, not just because.

And let me reiterate: Solid ABC / TAG poker != playing like a nit.

[sqwisssssss]

sorry but abc/tag poker is the foundation of any decent players game. you make it sound like its a crime to be a "nit".

paul wasicka is considered a nit and look what he's done. tag with some variation at the right times is a very good style.

[johnnybeef]

Damn, I thouroughly disagree with this. Yes, 30/20 is too aggro, sure, fine. However, given how bad the players at 50 nl are, if you are not playing a few more hands in position against fish, then you are simply leaving money on the table. Also, fwiw, I am raising JTs utg if there is a 60+ vpip in the blinds 100% of the time. Failing to do so is leaving money on the table. But then again, it is your win rate, not mine.

[LT22]

[censored], I was hoping nobody ever figured this out

[ama0330]

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fwiw, I am raising JTs utg if there is a 60+ vpip in the blinds 100% of the time.

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sn pls, I'm the guy in MP

[Hail Eris]

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I am confused. If uNL is not where you try to open your game and try to get some experience playing in marginal spots, then how are people supposed to learn?

Are you saying we should all play like nits in uNL and then try to open our game and start looking for trouble when we're playing for higher stakes and against better opponents? Because, really, it seems like that is what you're saying.

[/ QUOTE ]

Think of it as a continuum with super LAG at one end and super nit at the other, with TAG somewhere in the middle. Depending on your opponents, the current situation at the table, you are going to be constantly sliding one way or another on that continuum, but hopefully "averaging" TAG. Dont raise QJ UTG just because you want to be a LAG, do it because you know it will fold most of the players and leave you heads up with
Mr. Icalldownwithanypieceoftheboarddonkeyman. Do it because your cards are colder than a witch's [censored] and so you are projecting a tight image at the table, allowing you to steal some pots. What I see is people going super aggro on uNL tables because they see higher stakes players doing it or they just think aggression is good but dont know how to focus it. So yes at uNL, you should open your game, but for the right reasons, not just because.

And let me reiterate: Solid ABC / TAG poker != playing like a nit.

[/ QUOTE ]

Obviously I agree with all this, and who in their right mind wouldn't. But the tone of the OP is completely different from yours. He's saying uNLers suck too bad to get into marginal spots, and the obvious counterpoint is that if you never do it, you'll never learn. Better to learn with $50 stacks than $200 stacks, one would think.

[rothko]

can god please comment on this. i had a 45 degree angle upward graph abc'n it, but felt like i wasn't improving much and couldn't move up in stakes. i've opened up my game and, so far, it's costing me money. dammit, which am i supposed to do?

[Waingro]

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fwiw, I am raising JTs utg if there is a 60+ vpip in the blinds 100% of the time.

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sn pls, I'm the guy in MP

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How about you give Johnnybeef some credit so that he notices that he won´t see a flop 50% of the time. It isn´t rocket science. At a table full of aggro monkeys, he won´t raise JTs UTG. There are plenty of players that doesn´t rr at all except AA and KK and then only miniraises.

[johnnybeef]

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fwiw, I am raising JTs utg if there is a 60+ vpip in the blinds 100% of the time.

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sn pls, I'm the guy in MP

[/ QUOTE ]
How about you give Johnnybeef some credit so that he notices that he won´t see a flop 50% of the time. It isn´t rocket science. At a table full of aggro monkeys, he won´t raise JTs UTG. There are plenty of players that doesn´t rr at all except AA and KK and then only miniraises.

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Yea, I kinda grunched when I made the post. What AJ says above is pretty much right. A lot of you guys are relatively new to the game and are thus learning (which is primarily what the op's post was about now that I have given it some thought.)