SLAG = Marginally profitable

[Landlord79]

It was either 1Pokerboy or Mr.D who made a statement the other day about the SLAG playing style being marginally profitable. This struck me right in the chest as I have realized that I have been at 10NL much too long and this is my style. I went on a big spew last night running between 25-30/12/3 and just blew a huge chunk of my BR.

Should I be Nitting it up at 10NL and avoiding all marginal situations? Is SLAG at all +EV? Does anyone make some real $$$ playing SLAG?

(I feel that I play my best around 20/11/2.5, but since taking a break, I'm playing way too many hands.)

[Mr_Donktastic]

I would never say that...sounds like pokerboy [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I think it can be very profitable in the right situations.

I've been running about 18/13 lately and think that is about as loose as I can get at higher limits knowing my limitations.

Some people may be able to play looser and do just as good or better.

During my run through the micros (<200nl) I was consistently running 20/10 and was more that marginally proftable.

[coordi]

If you play well postflop your going to be most profitable playing 20+% hands. The lower stakes/better you are, the more hands you can play and be extremely profitable. If you play SLAG and can't muster huge winnings at NL10 your not going to be a big winner higher up for sure using that style.

[TheProdigy]

At your level, I think SLAG is very profitable IF you can outplay your opponents postflop big time. I would never suggest for a beginning player to play this way(or myself for that matter) because all it does is put you in marginal situations. If you could handle all the marginal situations great then you would:
1) Already have a great winning percentage at NL10
2) Be at 50NL or so

I would suggest you, and everyone else that fits this category, to nit it up somewhat until you get very good at postflop play. I am not there yet, and I cannot win much with this type of play either. Don't play this style and put yourself in tough situations. Instead, play 12-15/10+. This makes you a very aggressive player, but only with good hands. Also, although this statement contradicts an earlier point, at your level your image isn't a big deal. At 200NL someone that plays this way gets paid off with big hands. At 10nl no one knows that your are a SLAG and they play you just like they do every TAG.

Conclusion: Play aggressive TAG style while learning the game. Push your big edges. Give up on some marginally ev situations where you could be making wrong plays(making them not +ev but -ev.)

[Thrahl]

At micro stakes you should be playing ABC poker and crushing it. Lag doesn't really become a viable style until $100NL IMO. You make money in the micros by getting hands and taking the donks to value town not by trying to outplay them.

[demon102]

just nit it up when I played $10 nl I tried a more laggy approach and it was a bit spewing, then Id play tight and it became very profitable

[threads13]

It doesn't make sense to me that a range of 20-30/122-18 should suddenly be unprofitable.

[Mr_Donktastic]

Just to add that I've noticed there are a number of players at 1knl that play like 23/18 or even higher that seem to be doing quite well.

[RyanCMU]

Listen... Playing a loose more agressive approach works great when there are tight bad players to exploit and when you can play marginal hands well enough postflop vs the donks..

For the micro stakes, there are not as many tight nitty bad TAGs to exploit, and a large part of playing a looser more agressive game is to taking down lots of small pots with your cbets, at the micros I assume cbets aren't getting tons of respect, so it makes this style more difficurlt to play.

ANother thing is that many micro stakes players are not good enough postflop especially with assigning hand ranges and extracting value from thier hands, which you need to be good at to make a loose more agressive stlye work.

I really don't think its worth it to try and open up your game until you move up, you can make the $$$ a lot easier with a tighter more unimaginative style at the micro stakes.

[Mr_Donktastic]

[ QUOTE ]
I really don't think its worth it to try and open up your game until you move up, you can make the $$$ a lot easier with a tighter more unimaginative style at the micro stakes.

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree.

First I made lots of money playing 20+ vpip at the micro stakes. I think you are passing up +ev if you play like a nit preflop at these levels. You will make money, but I think most people could make more playing looser.

Second playing loose at the micros will be good practice for when you eventually move up and need to play a little more creatively. You are going to get crushed if you play 12/6 through the micros to build a roll and then try to open up your game for the first time ever at 200nl+.