Quote:
Originally Posted by Schneids
What sort of game-flow differences, if any, have you noticed from other regs in the way how they play pre and/or postflop compared to 2-4 years ago?
Good question, the game has really evolved over that time span, particularly from BF to about a year ago. I don't think too much has changed in the last year or so though.
The two biggest differences in preflop play I've seen are 3-betting ranges and defending ranges. Nearly all the regulars have much wider 3-betting and defending ranges in comparison to 2-3 years ago. Back then you'd still see regulars that were folding their BB to steal 40% and 3-bet %'s around 10-12%. Now it's rare to see FBB to steal %'s less than 35 and 3-bet %'s less than 13 or 14.
The biggest thing that jumps out to me postflop is how people handle their draws. 2-3 years ago and really anytime before that, the conventional wisdom was to always play your draws aggressively and try to force players out of the pot or pick up pots uncontested. Nowadays there's a lot more passive play with draws.
I think this relates to the overall level of hand reading improving. People are better recognizing those situations where their hand is going to look exactly like what it is to their opponents and therefore it's unlikely they'll win the pot without a showdown.
An example of this could be defending JT vs an UTG raise. Let's say the flop is 896. In the past I don't think there was any thought from any regular aside from "I have an open-ended straight draw so I have to raise". Now the thoughts can be more along the lines of, "If I raise the flop, my hand's going to look a draw and given the strength of my opponent's range on this flop, there may be better ways to play this hand".
There are a lot of these types of situations in multiway pots as well where it's so unlikely you're going to get multiple folds given the board texture and your opponent's ranges, that raising at all costs on the flop isn't necessarily the best line.
Something I find interesting about this, is that the more passive people become with draws, the more that favors becoming more aggressive with them again. Going back to that JT example, if it gets to the point where people are never raising JT in that situation, then the UTG raiser will start laying hands down and then semi-bluffing becomes profitable again. It's a matter of push and pull like everything else but just generally people are playing draws more passively or looking for more creative ways to win pots with their draws (like turn/cr's, river c/r's, or river donks).
Something else that you see a lot more of (and I expect this trend to continue) is checking back the flop. It was pretty rare to see that 2-3 years ago and nowadays almost everyone is doing it to some degree. This is one area that I think someone could gain a pretty big edge in today's game with. I don't think anyone, myself included, has a really well developed and thought out checkback strategy.
One other overall tendency that I think has changed is that people are attacking more in wide range situations. Specifically the SB v BB, But vs BB, and CO vs. BB dynamics. It's rare to see anyone playing fit and fold in these spots anymore whereas 2-3 years ago it wasn't totally uncommon. Any by attacking, not only raising a lot of flops but floating more as well