Low-stakes rebuys: Playing the middle period well.

[Soulman]

[ QUOTE ]
No, I don't use PT stats while playing tournaments. I think it hampers my development in reading players so I try to make mental notes instead. When playing many tournaments simultaneously, I can really only get accurate reads on the most extreme players. In ring games, I use PT though...

[/ QUOTE ]
For training purposes, sure...but why? Will there ever be a time you don't have access to PT stats? Not using advantages given to you seems foolish to me.

[JammyDodga]

What PT stats do you find most useful during a tourney?

[Soulman]

[ QUOTE ]
What PT stats do you find most useful during a tourney?

[/ QUOTE ]
PFR and VPIP are the only ones I really care about, other stats, like fold BB to steal % e.g., are often based on too small sample sizes (which obv applies to PFR and VPIP as well, but not to the same degree).

[JammyDodga]

How do you adjust so it's only based on recent hands. Sometime I'll get moved to a new table, see that I've got hands on someone and not know whether its from the start of the tournament or even a different tourney and I therefore cant tell whether I can rely on them.

[Rocco]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
No, I don't use PT stats while playing tournaments. I think it hampers my development in reading players so I try to make mental notes instead. When playing many tournaments simultaneously, I can really only get accurate reads on the most extreme players. In ring games, I use PT though...

[/ QUOTE ]
For training purposes, sure...but why? Will there ever be a time you don't have access to PT stats? Not using advantages given to you seems foolish to me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well... TBH, I haven't really bothered to learn how to make use of PT in tournament contexts. As we all know, you shift gears during the course of a tournament. Let's say I play loose in levels 1-3 with 38/12, tightening up in levels 4-7 with 13/9 and then start playing 20/16 from level 8 onwards. What if an opponent has stats on me from early levels and now encounters my open-raise in level 5? He'd think I'm still playing my loose game from levels 1-3 and base his action upon misleading information, no? How do you use your information? Just taking the easy route and decide your opponent plays in the same manner all the way to the final table?

[Soulman]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For training purposes, sure...but why? Will there ever be a time you don't have access to PT stats? Not using advantages given to you seems foolish to me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well... TBH, I haven't really bothered to learn how to make use of PT in tournament contexts. As we all know, you shift gears during the course of a tournament. Let's say I play loose in levels 1-3 with 38/12, tightening up in levels 4-7 with 13/9 and then start playing 20/16 from level 8 onwards. What if an opponent has stats on me from early levels and now encounters my open-raise in level 5? He'd think I'm still playing my loose game from levels 1-3 and base his action upon misleading information, no? How do you use your information? Just taking the easy route and decide your opponent plays in the same manner all the way to the final table?

[/ QUOTE ]
Well, I've found that play generally remains the same in most players. However, you should always learn to take PT stats with a grain of salt. Very few players follow the pattern you indicate e.g.

I obviously don't care how opponents use (or misuse) PT, as long as I use it correctly myself. What I've found most useful about it is e.g. identifying the weak-tight nits; someone with 6/3 stats who raise UTG+1 should be considered to have a tighter range than someone with 15/12 stats. Similarly, aggressive players are fine for resteals. Obviously, these stats can't be read as gospel. However, I think identifying passive players is much harder without PT.

It's also possible to ignore stats besides the current level, but I don't think this is too useful. Previous behavior tends to predict future behavior, with the obvious caveat of good players shifting gears more often.

[Sherman]

FWIW,

My method for not sucking with deepstacks is really straightfoward and borrowed from PNLHE:

"Out of position, out of the action."

Meaning play hands as the aggressor PF when you have position. Cards don't matter much when you are deep (they actually don't matter much when you are shallow either; mostly in the middle). That means come in for a raise in the CO or the Button if it is un-raised to you. And don't Cold-call too much PF. That is a big mistake I see deep-stack players make. They think they can outplay everyone and CC with everything on the button.

When you don't have position, play real tight. That means don't defend your BB without a very strong hand. Don't open-limp unless you have a good implied odds hand that doesn't mind getting raised.

Anyhow, it sounds like a pretty weak/tight strategy, but if you open up your game in position, you will actually look like a complete lagtard rather than weak/tight. Mostly however, by playing all your big pots in position, you will stay out of trouble and if you get lucky you will stack many donks.

Sherman

[MJBuddy]

I was going to make a detailed post in the sense of Sherman's here, but there it goes.

Fact is, when you're playing deepstack, you can extract so much more value in position than you can any other way. If I'm raising/calling anywhere on the table other than LP, I'm probably strong/getting great implied odds.

That said, I tend to rip apart with a bigger stack, especially when the rest of my table is deep stacked as well; so results seem really good for it.

[umistboy]

I like what Sherman says here. When you are so deep stacked you can pick your spots more selectively. Why play pots where you are at a disadvantage/OOP.

Nice hand, sir.