Many of you poker theorists may strongly disagree, but I ask you to keep an open mind with how this style has the potential to be powerful against any poker player. There are several conditions that must be met however and they include the following skills from such a player:

1. Ability to put players on a range of hands
2. Understanding betting patterns
3. Ability to empathize and analyze psychological engagement
4. Possessing excellent understanding of odds with flops; one-card and two-cards to come
5. Ability to read boards

PREFLOP

With those traits in mind, this player limps and flat calls 99% time from early to mid-late position - both opened and unopened pots with positive pot + implied odds - with Hand Set A:

- off/suited two-gappers
- off/suited one-gappers
- off/suited connectors
- suited Kings or higher
- all pocket pairs.

When sensing big hands and overbets, this player only flat calls with Hand Set B:

- 22 to QQ
- off/suited one-gappers 46 to AQ (in multiway pots only, otherwise folding)
- off/suited connectors 34 to KQ (in multiway pots only, otherwise folding)

On cutoff/button and in an unopened pot, this player typically raises to 3bb with Hand Set A and only calls a re-raise with Hand Set C:

- JJ to AA
- 22 to TT (if given good pot + implied odds, otherwise folding)
- AK

This player only re-raises pot or more with the following hands and situations:

- KK and AA (anybody with two or more players)
- JJ and QQ (when able to squeeze two or more loose-aggressive players)
- off/suited AQ and AK (when able to squeeze two or more loose-aggressive players)
- suited AJ (when able to squeeze two loose or more loose-aggressive players)

As you can see, this style of preflop play is just small-ball poker that involves quite a bit of calculations and tricky plays. The consistent limping is a trap for everyone else at the table because they see this player as a donk. Unbeknownst to them, this player is very methodical with his actions and may be waiting to put on a squeeze-play with a premium hand, yet many players will not pick up on it. Also when given good odds to call, this player can set-mine or flop all sorts of 2 pairs, straights, flushes, etc. and can get a big payoff.

POSTFLOP

This player's rare breed of play allows him to be a chameleon who can adapt to anybody's style of play. Since this player knows the hand ranges of your typical ABC tight-aggressive players, he can also outplay them postflop with timely raises and strong semi-bluff draws (at least 12 outs). Furthermore when this player loses a strong flip such as this, opponents do not give him credit for big hands since mostly see the result and not the value of the hand itself. When this player does make a monster hand however, which he often does, he will get rewarded time and time again. This player's strategy also works just as well against loose-aggressive players, if not better. These LAG players, who at times like to run the table, may be more susceptible to play back into your monster hands. As a result, this player usually continues his passive play to let'em hang, even if it means checking the nuts on all streets. This player is also not afraid to fold premium starting hands or made hands after the flop. While aces and kings are quality hands, he will ditch them when facing traffic. To this player's credit however, he only loses 1bb. Given the large range of suited connectors this player plays, he may even check a turned 3-card flush in position against a nitty player to either trap him or limit losses against a bigger made flush.

SUMMARY

This player's loose-passive style preflop actually allows him to experience very little variance, since less is being committed upfront, when hand ranges are pretty much wide open. Opponents perceive this player as a fish because he is very atypical from the TAG players. Therefore, they fail to see him as a shark who is lurking beneath the surface. Against tight players, this player attacks with his loose-aggressive postflop style with monster hands and premium draws postflop. With more cards out on the board, this player is able to close down the hand ranges and exploit his edge after the flop. When battling LAG players, this player will show them the rope and noose to collect payments upon execution. However, this player is always cognizant of the odds and texture of the board and, like a chameleon, will adapt to different environments. When this player stacks his opponents, they become tilted and will fear this player, giving him a psychological edge. Altogether, this player can crush this game and you better hope he does not arrive at your table.

So basically this player will be playing many many pots OOP?

Sorry I'm not sold, I would hunt this player although this player isn't a complete bleeder

So, basicly this player would play really bad preflop and crush everyone postflop? Well, I can see it would make money. Anyways, since this player have static ranges, like some bot, he is too predictable and he'd be crushed pretty easily.

Anyways, this is my favourite part:
It's obvious THIS PLAYER IS A MURDERMACHINE! CHAMELEON! MAGICIAN! FIRE AND THUNDER! ICE! JUDAS! SNOOOWBALLS!

(1) If I had position on this player I don't think I would ever leave the table.

(2) If I didn't have position I would request a seat change.
(2a). Once I got the seat change: See (1).

Isn't this how everyone besides the regs and nits play at the micros?

regs and nits are one and the same at micros

Replace powerful against any player with powerful against the 8 biggest idiots in the world, then yeah, you're right.

Then again, almost any preflop strategy would work out against them.

Hm, this sounds like the hellmuth plan

So the preflop plan OOP is to add a huge range of hands and play them super-passively, but when in position, you'll play an horribly unbalanced and easily narrowed range. I read some of the rest... it sounds like you're just saying you're going to play badly for the heck of it, but since you're so mindblowingly awesome you'll still crush the game - the old "I'll just outplay them postflop" thing.

My suggestion is to go put some real-world hands in. You can't play poker off of a script, and it sounds like you assume that no one is going to make adjustments to your plan.

If you want to see a player that plays a high VPIP game go check out Fabian Sjoblom.

This is probably the worst idea I've ever read, and I'm not trying to troll at all...it just seems like a horrific plan.

"Outplay them postflop" works way better in theory world than in the practical world

I love this strategy and think it should be applied to everyones game. I think it would be great for this to be mass taught as the latest and greatest new poker stategy to hit the market and can make you millions for the small price of $19.99 per month. Please move this thread over to the beginners forum. Thanks.

my friend is crushing 100NL FR under Cereus umbrella with these stats. You need to slowplay monsters to death until river and then get the money in which is easy. Ie sacrifice any value until river, then stack the donkeys.

chameleon

Too weak a range in early position to be profitable. Doyle mentioned limping up front with SC's in Super System mixed in with some premium pairs to stop people from always raising his limps. He was usually playing quite deep though so he was happy to call one raise with them because implied odds were huge.

Not enough attention to position. You wouldn't hit enough monsters to make up for all the limp call folds you'd have to make.

But if you want to try it out anyway I'm usually playing 10NL or 25NL 6 max on stars, S/N same as here. Come sit at my table and try to outplay me using your loose passive theory.

This is old news. It has been rigorously proven in the glorious book "Play Poker like a Pigeon" by famed author Anonymous.

I'm not surprised that many of you strongly disagree with this style of play and that's perfectly okay. Most of you are content to playing textbook poker which becomes very easy for tricky players to exploit. Deception is a huge part of the game and predictable players, who have a standard range of hands and bets, will get their money in bad based on false pretenses.

Personally, I love position raisers who think they can outplay me. They bump it up 3-5x bb from late position and C-bet 80% of the time. By checking here 99% of the time, I'm essentially using their perceived positional edge against them and letting them spew money. What they fail to realize is that they are committing 6-10 bb every time they preflop raise and C-bet so my pot + implied odds are huge preflop. While position is good against weak players, it's simply overrated against tricky ones.

For the majority of you, it's tough to actually see how this is profitable in the long run unless you try it. Naysayers are quick to judge and cannot relate out of experience. Yes, you sacrifice some value up front, but the benefit is that your hand is very well disguised which gives you additional postflop edge. Of course, one needs to have the discipline to fold limped overpairs in a multiway pot. Many players overplay these hands and put their money in high risk situations. Any of you see Paul Wasicka limp-fold AA in HSP Ssn3 Ep 8?

By playing this style, I look like a donk to everyone else at the table, but really I'm just a loose nit who prefers to exploit my postflop edge. Unless you have some kind of poker tracker, and my site does not support this, it becomes difficult to battle preflop. Whenever I sense players picking up on my nitty postflop style, I'll show some bluffs to mess with them.

I realize you describe flop play (somewhat), but you're missing a stat in your opening question.

You say PFR% < 7 and VP$IP > 40, but all that is, is someone who doesn't raise much pre (unless it's a good hand) and sees a lot of flops.

What's missing is the showdown winning % and went to showdown%. I'm not sure, for this particular player, what would be good, but I think that with those percentages you could show someone that saw a lot of flops, but read hand really well.

Beeing a whore is profitabel too.

OP, have you been a profitable poker player for a large sample? Do you have examples of this strategy working for someone at a high level?

PF aggression is perhaps the lowest common denominator of success among the top players of the last 5 years. Your strategy involves the exact opposite, passive PF play.

Play 100k hands at 100nl+ with tracking software, come back to this thread with the results.

At 25nl and lower i believe you could do this, although still not as profitably as "abc". At 100nl, no way in hell.

Sounds more likely to be profitable in a live game than online

Definately a profitable player over tens of thousands of hands, but my recorded sample size is small since I'm a bonus whore and bounce around many sites (most of which are non-compatible with PT). I play 100nl 95% of the time. Not sure if this style will yield as much success at 400nl and higher.

Yes, top players have been successful with preflop aggression, but if everyone does it, then in theory we'd all break even (omitting rake). My strategy strikes a balance through nitty, mixed, and loose games.

Wish I could, but the site I'm now on with rakeback does not support PT yet.

If you want to optimize your game, do not think in absolutes.

You don't say how you play in SB or BB. Your CO and Button play seems standard. At the 200NL+ levels at site where people can use PT or HEM playing postlop OOP with weaker hands will guarantee you a long waiting line at your table and a dwindling bankroll. You can't outplay players at that level postflop enough to make up for weak hands.

anyone that plays this style of poker is quite welcome at my any of my tables

I don't get one thing; you say pokertracker doesn't work on the sites you're using, but still you have stats of 40%+ vpip and 7%- pfr. That's weird.