Everyone plays poker now so do you loosen up?

[FineVol]

Everyone is playing and it seems more people call pre flop. Should a better player see more hands than normal because of skill level? The skill will keep a better player from getting in trouble, correct? Hands like the J8 Q9 in middle pos. seem more playable sinse the skill level seems to be droping. Thoughts

[emerson]

[ QUOTE ]
Everyone is playing and it seems more people call pre flop. Should a better player see more hands than normal because of skill level? The skill will keep a better player from getting in trouble, correct? Hands like the J8 Q9 in middle pos. seem more playable sinse the skill level seems to be droping. Thoughts

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Yes. But don't just do it based upon intuition. Read the Miller/Sklansky book on small stakes holdem and adjust your starting hand requirements to fit the game description that you find yourself in.

[holyfield5]

i dont suggest playing trash from middle position, OOP will negate a lot of your advantage first of all, and i dont think most of the mistakes new people make will be easy to capitilze on in those spots.

[Skleice]

With so many people calling preflop, you get more value for your premium hands. I've been making much bigger raises and still getting called which means more +EV. Just value bet the hell out of them and don't bluff off chips to people that will call you down with bottom pair of K high.

[Frond]

Position is still way underrated IMO in most poker games. Most don't pay attention to it and just play their cards. It is the very first thing I think about before I look at my cards.

[LouisCyphre]

FineVol, that depends on if you play Limit or NL,full ring or short-hand. In Limit you will regularly have to showdown a hand and weak offsuit holdings like J8 or Q9 will seldom do the job. Especially not in middle position where you will be out of position and might get raised pre-flop.
In NL you might get away with it if the game is very passive pre-flop and you have a huge edge against the competition. I guess that even the vast majority of 2+2ers couldn't pull it off profitably though.
You can play more hands but J8 and Q9 are not the ones you add to the mix.

[johnnyrocket]

yea well it is all dependent on the game, if your skill level is very high postflop then yes it makes lots of sense to get in cheap with more hands.

Example : Daniel Negreanu played over 90% of the hands in last years WSOP

it is advantageous if you know how to play them and how to do so profitably, however newer players should not try this as much.