Opening Up Your Eyes and Your Game (very long)

[mason55]

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weak night semi nits turn into bad chip spewing air pushing lags.

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I agree partially. But remember, if a nit had any hand reading skills then he wouldn't be as nitty. This post might give him the idea that he will become a better plyaer JUST by playing crazier. Either way, as someone said earlier, the bad players are still going to play bad. Unless you can read hands well, it doesn't matter how much advice and strategy you read and talk about, youll never progress beyond being a mediocre player.

[Melchiades]

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cut mcshove a break, drunk people like arguing

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Except anyone who has read the STT forum for a while knows this is how he feel. Not just drunken arguing. He is probably one of the best regulars of STTF to more or less never post any usefull help to anyone playing above the 11's.

[AJFenix]

Sam,

There are times when it would could be appropriate to do so with any of those hands.
With KQ and AJ, being dominated isn't nearly as bad as you may think it is when you are have that momentum. You can't only consider absolute hand value in this situation. Lets say you have KQ on the button facing a CO raise and you reraise. Lets say he calls you with AQ or AK. Both of you will be whiffing the flop completely the majority of the time, but you are going to be the one putting pressure on him, forcing him to make a hand, and pushing him off of the best hand. Some players may even opt to pitch these hands against you preflop, given they will be OOP for one. Same thing goes for when he has a small pocket pair trying to crack your perceived "big pair". He whiffs and folds his hand, which was actually good unimproved. You cut his implied odds drastically, and make calling a mistake for him in many of those spots. You are forcing your opponent to make decisions, and when he is forced to make decisions he is given the opportunity to make mistakes.

Talking about the other hands, something like 55 on the small blind facing a button raise is going to have pretty bad implied odds as his raising range is so wide and its going to be pretty rare that he is actually going to have something big when you have something bigger, and on top of that you are going to be playing OOP where its much harder to get paid off when you do hit. You are also going to end up folding the best hand a ton, even if you aren't necessarily check/folding every flop you don't spike a set on. Reraising = you are forcing him to make his hand, you are putting him at a decision and therefor letting him make mistakes, and you create more profitable situations for yourself while bettering your overall situation.

Also, I wanted to comment that "opening up" doesn't mean you have to drastically increase your VPIP and try to play maniac/LAG. Players that have "opened up" are willing to reraise more preflop, spot and make use of a larger amount of profitable situations (which ties into preflop), are capable of taking unconventional lines with hands that other players wouldn't consider, remain deceptive and creative, and do a better job of factoring in all the details when it comes into their decisions, among other things. Players that are going to start reraising light without taking into consideration the important factors, and/or making mistakes in the situations they get themselves into are going to be costing themselves a lot of money.

[wiggs73]

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Ugh...why post this? AJ if you have such a firm grasp on the game, as it seems you do from this post...why post it for free for anyone to read? I know i sound selfish, but really!

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McShove,

Have you ever read anything on 2+2 that helped you? If not, please stop posting, as it is a waste of time for you to spend time on these forums. If so, please pay everyone who has posted something that helped you.

AJ, great post. Definitely some good food for thought. Thank you.

[psyduck]

I wish we could move this whole McShove mess to a different thread because I don't want to take away from the PURE QUALITY of AJ's post. At the same time, I want to express my displeasure at having to share 2+2 with <font color="blue">leeches </font> like McShove. There's no other word for it.

I hope that poll gets a 100 votes and that some mod comes and at least changes his title. Spite call this ass.

[Ansky]

Good stuff AJ, very good stuff.

McShove, just stop.

[goodguy_1]

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Good post. Something I just wanna add is if you've been at the table for a bit and people are noticing you often give up after cbetting and getting called, a good line to take it either 2 barrel bluff (which im not crazy about cause I often play for pot control when OOP and check the turn with many good hands) or go for the CR. The opponent jumps on your weakness, bets pot which should be 20bb and this point, and allows you to CR him allin. If you have an overpair on a 262 board or a good hand that your willing to go broke with (and often you should against someone whos calling to float), this play works amazing becuase it makes them afraid to float you if you not only fire second barrels, but have the balls to CR their asses allin. Do this play with the goods most often, and sometimes just whiffed AK hands, and thell lay off.

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ahnuld this is good stuff!

AJ thanks for sharing-your strategy posts are always worthwile reading but you put alot of effort into this one-very helpful to see in print because I know my game suffers from many of the defiencies you refer to in your post.

You can make good money up to $200's and $400's without these adjustments but to go beyond that you need to open up-if you dont you are just too easy to read and you will be punished like a little bitch.

I'm already forcing myself to open up..its very difficult because I've done well at every nlhe 6max level i've played. I'm raising hands in early position I formerly limped with,I'm re-raising more out of the blinds and floating more..its quite difficult because all of a sudden I'm in unfamiliar territory often out-of position which I'm not used to one bit. Playing in unfamiliar territory over and over forces you to think about the game(at least if you want to survive)and thus becoming a better hand reader and that's what this is all about-better post-flop play.

It seems to me that the better players may have adapted more easily to this natural necesary progression almost seamlessly but most of us will have to work at it..and even then many just will not get it to work. This is where the really excellent hand-readers are separated from just the very good hand-readers...if you cant make this leap ie the peter principal you may not be able to play much higher.

I think many players who only make money off fish are only endowed with average or slightly above average hand-reading skills vis-a-vis their opponents and they will fail miserably at attempting to open up all at once...it most be a gradual process except for the natural allstars.

In other words I think most players would do better if they slowly moved more towards this style ie maybe this progression 20/10,20/15,25/15,25/20,30/20 or some such and tweaking it to their own prefernces.

With great game selection maybe a 20/10 can work.. but all these games are getting tougher and in most of the games bigger than $3-6 I see that I datamine most of the biggest earners play with 30/20ish-type stats.
I'm referring to 6/5 max NLHE play.

[DJ Sensei]

Recently I was thinking about reraising preflop. While I've been very successful with my TAG style lately, I think I still am generally a tight reraiser, and soon enough my opponents will realize it (Especially as I move up to 3/6 tables where I run into more regulars and 2+2ers).

So, I figured I needed to expand my reraising range, and was considering posting to request ideas on the best way to go about it. Well, I think I just about have it figured out now thanks to this post/thread. Opening up your range isnt just about "ok, now i'll reraise with TT and AQ now too". Its about seeing profitable situations where your cards, your opponents, and the table situation as a whole are set up just right for a profitable reraise. And when that profitable reraise can get you more action later too... bonus!

Now, this is a concept that I essentially was aware of, but it hadn't sunk in quite as clearly until i read aj's post. Opening up a little more preflop is the next step in my game, and I'm glad to have had it so clearly expounded upon.

[mason55]

For those that are playing 400NL+ (only because this stuff won't work if you get too low) and want to practice, move down a level to try it. The concepts should be the same but you can learn for half price. Then go back to your regular game and try it. You should immediately find your regular game a lot easier.

[yvesaint]

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