Style confusion help plz!

SmokeyJ · #1 11-12-2007, 06:35 AM

Hey all i know this will have been asked like 10000000 times but all i could see in this forum was some dude levelling everyone by saying he was playing hag and winning heaps. Anyway atm im caught up between styles and was hoping for some advice here's my situation: (p.s i didnt know whether to put this in this forum or beginner questions so tell me if i should move it)

Basically i've been playing poker for about 4 years, and online for about 1. For the last year and a bit i've read all the books and worked on a TAG style which would usually have me winning in casino cash games and tourneys, and about 3 weeks ago i put $300 bucks online and its up to 800 (not bragging) which is mostly done through cash games with a few tourney scores. I'm playing 0.10-0.25 on stars till i get my br up to 1500.

Now, I know that if i ever make it to higher stakes ill have to open up my game, and it seems the more i study poker the more beneficial it seems to be a LAG player (especially higher stakes) and was wondering in everyone's opinion if it's better for me to experiment in changing my game now in maybe 0.5-0.10 to minimise losses and whether an accomplished lag style is more profitable in micro stakes.

Basically what I'm saying is I've been playing tag a while (I played TAG before I read poker books and focused on my game, just not as well) and think it would help my game to transform my style, and my two main questions are:

1: How should I go about improving my post flop play and all other required components to turn into a decent LAG?

2: Is it more profitable to just stay TAG in micro stakes and take advantage of loose fish and let my game open up naturally as I move up, or would turning lag help me ship it even more and help my rise up the stakes?

Any input would be appreciated greatly, and try not to flame me too hard for posting a probably already posted topic. ty all [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

SmokeyJ · #2 11-12-2007, 06:42 AM

p.s the rest of my 1 year playing online has just been for micro loans from friends for like $5 bucks or freerolls, this 300 is my first actual deposit.

kroeliewoelie · #3 11-12-2007, 07:54 AM

I have tried a different style than my usual TAG/nit style by raising any two cards on the button if the pot wasn't raised. If it was raised I just used my normal standards. This resulted in 31/29 style and 72% VPIP from the button. From all other positions I also played normal. If you are willing to trade a few stacks with marginal hands, second barrel a lot, bluff raise on the river etc then this can be quite interesting. Doing this made me 14 buy ins in 1400 hands (see results in Micro Stakes forum - microbrew thread). But anyway I don't think this is really necessary at small stakes.

Pokerfarian · #4 11-12-2007, 09:35 AM

LAG>>>TAG at microstakes. Those "marginal" hands which LAGs play & TAGs don't ARE VERY MUCH PROFITABLE against microstakes idiots.

SmokeyJ · #5 11-13-2007, 02:32 AM

pokerfarian could you please elaborate? Also could you guys point me to a thread that explains the xx/xx style ie 31/29 and vpip are they just pokertracker stats?

mattak · #6 11-13-2007, 03:31 AM

Its all crap. TAG, LAG and what ever the [censored] HAG is. The style you should be striving to play is the most profitable one at your table. Dont worry so much about trying to conform to some stats or style that you read about. If you have some new concepts or approaches you want to experiment with then move down a level or two and have at it. Getting better at poker means learning and applying stuff at the table. Not trying to get your poker tracker stats to 20/18 so you can be the perfect tag.

SmokeyJ · #7 11-13-2007, 07:07 AM

Lol cheers mattak even though i dont even know what 20/18 even means and stuff I just realised that I shouldn't really be focusing on changing my style, but more being comfortable with being able to play alot of styles and counterracting other peoples styles, etc etc and so much more lol.

Thanks to everyone for the input anyway though looks like I have a looooooong way to go before becoming a good online player. If there any any particular articles or anything you'd recommend reading what would they be?

mattak · #8 11-13-2007, 09:48 AM

[ QUOTE ]

If there any any particular articles or anything you'd recommend reading what would they be?

[/ QUOTE ]

read all these and watch every video

LarryLaughs · #9 11-13-2007, 12:45 PM

BTW, 20/18 means that you play 20% of the hands you are dealt (voluntarily put money into pot) and raise 18% of hands preflop (basically almost all hands you play).

My limited understanding is that LAG is not so good in microstakes because bluffing is not going to work. Some kind of semi-loose agressive style seems to work best for me.