Tips for increasing my VP$IP?

[ChickenGeorge]

Over the last 10k hands this stat is just below 15% (14.9) for me (with PFR at 8.7%), which is too tight. I think I should increase this to something like 17-18% I guess (if not, tell me), because at the moment I'm probably missing some potentially profitable situations. My question is - which?

I attempt to steal blinds 30.4% and I fold BB to steal 56%. This seems OK so I guess I should loosen up a bit elsewhere...

I'm sure I am not the first one with this "problem" so I'm looking for some tips where to start and what to check first. Some starting hands chart* would also help for orientation, maybe I find some things there I could change in my preflop play.

Thanks! [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[kerowo]

Play more hands, LDO.

Seriously, find a pre-flop chart and use it until you don't need to anymore. And don't say you don't need one because you obviously do, sub 15% is giving up way too much value at the micros to be good. SSHE has a fairly standard pre-flop chart, I would be surprised if any poker book didn't have a pre-flop chart. While you're copying it down to a more manageable form, read the section on pre-flop and understand why some hands are good, some bad, and some depend on the situation. If your pfr is sub 9% you are doing too much open limping or more likely open folding pre-flop when you should be open raising.

[bennyhana]

[ QUOTE ]
more likely open folding pre-flop when you should be open raising.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is the first thing I thought of. Try stealing from MP sometime. It's fun. Really. And if you don't outright steal, try betting the flop, and the turn. Seriously, it's fun. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Bona]

OP, I think I am about as rocky, nitty, variance averse as anybody who posts here. I agree with the reponses so far that you can probably open up a little from MP on but I would caution you that the marginal hands you elect to play should be situational (3% more hands only means 3 in a 100 hand session) and you need to get away from them postflop when they don't improve.

15/9/1.5 is a comfort zone and a moderate winning style in low micro stakes. Many here seem to play at 20+ with good success. I don't recommend going directly to that (adjust your game slowly and incrementally) until you are very confident in your post flop decisions and your ability to read your opponents.

You can loosen up preflop but don't loosen up post flop especially on the big streets. Don't "tilt" away your potential profit increases when those added hands aren't paying off either. In other words adjust your game if you wish but perform the surgery with a scalpel not an ax.

[Guitierez]

Try iso-raising.

[ChickenGeorge]

After quite a long time I looked again at SSHE starting hand recommendations (the tight version, 3-5 players to the flop). I see some spots where I might loosen up and add a few more hands, but I have some questions/doubts too.

I play at 0,5/1 where most opponents are not braindead anymore. If there are 3-5 of them to the flop on average that is already a loose game (at least where I play). There are also a lot of TAGS with stats like 15-18%/7-10%/2+ so I really shouldn't add too many hands (like Bona said). There's no point in adding extra hands just to make the stats "look good" so an aim for something like 17/10 would be a good start I think.

So about SSHE recommendations:

In EP I play mostly the same, except that I fold 77, especially UTG, because many times I will just find myself headsup or 3.handed on the flop with a mediocore hand OOP. It would be different in looser games though. In MP SSHE recommends playing any pocket pair (in unraised pot) and raise only with 99 or higher. But that also means open limping from MP2 or MP3, which is a bad idea (it's the same as open limping in 6max). The same is with hands like KJ, AT, A9s. And as for the LP it's often all about battles for the blinds, but SSHE doesn't say anything about open-raisng (=stealing) with hands like A5, K8, Q9s etc. That's because it's not meant for the tougher games of course.

Fine, someone will say, read HPFAP then. I did (not just once) and AFAIK following those recommendations results in VP$IP at around 16% (read somewhere, it could be wrong).

Based on all this I guess I need to steal blinds from MP more (as bennyhana suggested) and probably do some more iso-raising too.

Thanks anyway for your answers so far, any additional comments are welcome of course - especially if you don't agree with something I wrote.

[Smurph64]

The thing is, I think the days of playing stat hockey are over for a bit because it isn't really relevant anymore.

Sure stats are important but playing to match stats is like saying, hrmmm I have no brain what should I do?

What you should do is simple:

Understand as many concepts of odds, variance, value betting and all the other principles of ABC poker as you can. Know them solidly and understand they are great guidelines from which to operate.

But also know that poker is more than just math. Its personality dynamics as well. Studying personality dynamics is not a trivial pursuit.

Basically it takes lots of study and play to be able to figure out why people do what they do and how to counter their actions.

It's about the ability to understand the motivation of play in each and every player you sit with at the table. We wrongly assume people all play for the same reason but that clearly is not true. Just ask them. 8 people likely give 8 different answers if they are honest about it.

So to answer your question in what tips do I have for you in increasing your VP$IP:

Don't concern yourself about it all. Just play the table, learn and adjust.

Some tables my VP$IP is 60% sometimes its 14%. It's all about who I am playing.

Start thinking about your opponents. Start thinking about what hands they are playing and how they play them. Start watching and playing along with all the hands you fold.

Predict their action. Slowly you will begin to understand how to read a player, and just as slowly you will learn how to try tactics to improve your edge against them.

Edge against your opponents is infinitely more important than VP$IP status.

Some players you have an edge by being a maniac others by being a rock.

Don't worry about stats. They come.

[ChickenGeorge]

[ QUOTE ]
Try iso-raising.

[/ QUOTE ]
Of course. While I was writing and editing my post you mentioned the same thing I came up with. I know I don't do this often enough since I don't yet trust my hand-reading skills that much.