Don't agree with this. LAG has various ways to pull down the chips/money, and the most common is simply outplaying your opponents.

I don't like the idea of playing LAG against strong opponents, because it's too easy to make a mistake, and lose a significant number of chips.

but LAG isn't simply about bluffing people out of small pots, or trapping people into big pots when you have a big hand...

... in my opinion, good LAG revolves around outplaying your opponents for the most part.

Winning lots of small pots is how you make majority of profit. When someone is raising you they generally have a hand and you don't because you have wide range. Yeah you need to outplay your opponents but that goes with any style of play.

It also depends to what extent you're playing LAG. If you're playing very loose maniacal LAG, forcing your opponents to play back at you, then you will usually have to bluff to win pots.

But... The very best LAG players in the world have excellent post flop skills. And I emphasize that, because the best LAG players are not those who simply profit by getting players to fold, and win small pots.

Take Phil Ivey, he is the best LAG player because he has the best post flop skills of any poker player out there. His post flop skill allows him to play LAG.


So profiting from a LAG style of play comes more from outplaying your opponents then simply picking up small pots. Playing LAG allows you to get paid off when you do have a better hand, because (as was mentioned), players play back at you more, so your implied odds have increased on your strong hands.

You do have to pick up lots of small pots on well timed and systematic bluffs...

But, more importantly, you can't allow yourself to frequently be bluffed out, and you can't lose big pots with mediocre hands. This all comes from skillful post flop play, and is the essence of effective LAG play.

It really comes down to being able to outplay your opponents.

thanks everyone who responded, thats exactly what i was looking for.

bump

Creativity.

Understanding postflop lines and an opponent's postflop tendencies that can be exploited. (i.e. firing one barrel and giving up on turn.)

Another important one that I think is understated, knowing when to pull back the aggression when an opponent has adjusted to you.

+1

It is a mistake to play LAG against a table full of TAGS that are better than you.

LAG is just a way of describing a player that is loose/aggressive preflop. There is no other theory that would apply to playing a good LAG game that would not apply to playing a good TAG game postflop. LAG ranges are just going to be wider. That is all.

Knowing when to back off and who to back off against is very important. Some players always have the goods and if they get a run of cards it might look like they are playing back but they never are. The TAGs that start bluffing more are a bit more interesting because sometimes they take it too far and start paying off your big hands.

Make sure your up against people that are deep stacked and that you can outplay post flop.

The details depends on the opponents, you need to be flexible which requires lots of experience and judgement. And you really do need to be significantly better than the other players or you will not be able to recover from your preflop mistakes, most people get confused here.

And if you do end up winning ask yourself if you are winning because or despite your LAG style.

Pretty much this, LAG doesnt work as well when the stacks are 100bbs and lower, because the implied odds are cut down so much. It works really well against people who will put in a few hundred big blinds with just one pair on the flop/turn/river because they dont like being pushed around.

If you can figure out when to bet the turn and when to check behind you are well on your way to becoming a tough lag.

Here's the way I look at it, the theoretical approach to LAG play,

In poker there is a "meta game" that is very similar to Rock Paper Scissors.

Tight beats Station beats Maniac beats Tight beats Station beats...

The LAG approach boils down to a few "brass tax" dynamics;
1) Fold equity (stealing pots preflop by opening more)
2) Getting paid off more often when you have the goods
3) Winning much bigger pots than you ought to win you have a great hand and opponent has a good second best hand.

The best way to use a LAG strategy is to identify the tight players at the table and steal from them and be careful about bluffing into stations.

Your question was really, "what is it about LAG play that makes up for the mistakes I make preflop by playing too many hands?" The best answer, I think, is that LAG's will tend to make more money when they actually do have a hand.

Alot of players fall into the trap(mistake) of getting into raising wars with LAGs when they think their hand is best. That means that, as a LAG, you can aggress aggress aggress then when you run into resistance you either let off the gas or (if you have a huge hand) you can win a much bigger pot than you should. It's the huge pots the LAG drags in when he has a great hand and his opponent has a good second best hand that makes up for the "mistakes" before the flop.

To beat a LAG you have to starve him. You call (not raise) with your two pair on the flop, call again on the turn, call again on the river, that way the pots he wins are small and you don't "let him off the hook" when he's bluffing. In other words, you become a calling station. That causes the LAG to lose more money bluffing and win less when he's got a monster. It's the latter that really hurts the LAG.

The best players in the world right now are mostly LAGs, not because they have discovered some hidden truth about poker. It is due to the new meta game. Years ago most poker players where calling stations, that's why TAG was the best approach. Today there are many tight aggressive players, especially in higher stakes. LAGs are the bane of tight players. If you are in a field of calling stations you need to play TAG, if your against maniacs you have to call more and raise less, if you're against TAGs you must aggress.

The most important skill to develop when trying out a TAG style is, IMHO, learning when to change gears.

The best style is no style. Playing a reactive game that exploits your opponents styles. Right now the "meta game" just hapens to favor LAG play at higher stakes, that could change at any time. Just learn to play "Rock Paper Scissors poker".

Donovan, when you talk about Tight > Station > Maniac > Tight etc... This is not really true. Assuming by 'tight' you mean TAG, then it would look more like TAG > (Station > Maniac).

Maniacs will only run over a TAG and profit from them long term if a) the tag is just really bad and does not adjust or b) Maniac is actually a good poker player (good LAG).

The notion that a maniac will lose to a station is only true if the maniac is just a bad player who just blindly bluffs into all players without rhyme or reason. There are players like this and they tend to lose at huge rates.

A good LAG however, will absolute crush the stations because a good LAG knows how to value bet, and should actually be better than your average TAG at doing that since they find themselves in a position to do so much more often.

The idea that the meta game favors lag play at higher stakes does not make sense to me either.

The reason that the LAGs win more than the TAGs is because the LAGs are better players. Its not like a bad player can start 3betting and 3barrelling more and make more money than a good TAG.

I keep saying it in these threads about TAG vs LAG play that both styles are the same thing in terms of post flop play. It is merely a way of categorizing a player based on how tight or loose they are preflop.

How loose you can profitably play depends solely on your skill level vs the skill level of the other players. The more skilled you are compared to your competition, the looser you can play. Phil Ivey could probably get away with playing 60% of his hands at a FR micro table and still absolutely crush it. If Phil Ivey were at a HS table with 5 clones of himself though, the meta game would not favor LAG play. If the 5 clones continued to play the regular LAG style that PI usually plays while the original tightened up and played TAG he'd clean up because when skill level is equal, having a stronger range will be the deciding factor.

So when you see that the LAG players in a HS game really cleaning up, you are not seeing that style of play being rewarded due to the dynamics of the game. You are seeing the best players in that game playing more hands because their skill edge allows them to do so and thus profit more by picking up more pots by sensing weakness, and getting more value out of made hands.

I think the stronger lags have a much better concept of commitment thresholds then the weaker ones. As well as a better opponent threshold. If you get some players beat up enough even a good ones they will call you down. Knowing when to take the foot off of the gas can be a skill of its own in a lags arsenal.