As everyone knows, it's important to change gears, balance range, etc., against competent v's and at higher stakes. Recently, I've been doing this at llsnl, which has shown some success (although low sample size). Just wondering everyone's opinion on doing this at llsnl. My thoughts are against the droolers and 70 year old rocks at my card room, they make enough mistakes on their own. If I vary my style I can hopefully cause them to make more mistakes for more money. I'm not sure if they are able to think about what others might have, but I they understand and fear aggression and unpredictability.

Did I just get lucky and run good when I changed gears? Am I inviting some crazy swings and variance by doing this?

dont balance. take the highest +ev line no matter how face up your hand is. for example against massive calling stations dont bluff them. overbet ten times pot if theyll call you often with worse. against nits bluff them alot. if they fold even if you rep nothing bluff them even more.

dont focus on playing one style. adjust to each villain.

It's always (or very nearly always) going to be good to take an overall TAG approach to the game.

There are a lot of situations though that call for some adjustments to just how tight/loose or aggresive/passive you should be playing. Table dynamics change all the time no one style of play can be optimal all the time.

As long as you aren't thinking about WHY you are changing gears, it's probably not a good idea.

I have found that you can only change gears after 2+ hours of live poker against the same V or against regs who you have huge history with. On the rare case that you have an obvious 'thinking' player then you can 'maybe' do some things. The biggest issue with changing gears is that you may be at a table where no one notices it but you!!

LL poker ...

1) I have a hand ... see 3 or 4
2) I have a draw ... see 3 or 4
3) That's a small bet ... I call, then consider 5
4) That bets too big .. I fold
5) I have a good hand but don't want to get sucked out on ... I raise
6) I know I'm beat but I'm calling as a 20% dawg anyway, sorry I sucked out on you.

GL

I think if you read Caro on this subject you will change your mind. A few break even advertising plays / very loose, wild and aggressive plays at the start of a long session will reinforce your opponents tendencies to make loose calls long after you switch back to rock mode. Your more casual / less professional opponents at a low stakes no limit game will also be more bewildered by advertising and make bigger mistakes and also not adapt back when you change it up.

Only balance and mix it up an all that jazz if your playing at a table with a lot of thinking and attentive players. This will almost never happen though at LLSNL.

The other reason would be if you play against the same regs for like 40 hours and these regs are attentive. Then yeah maybe you delay c-bet to throw them off.

By and large the concensus is going to be don't do fancy plays and don't worry about balance or being sneaky or playing your hand straightforward and face up.

Make hands and value bet with good sizing. Cbet bluff good boards like A72. Don't Cbet KQ8 two hearts when there is 4 people in the pot. Don't play 78suited from the SB for 12 when you only have 80 in you stack.

Imagine you're watching a flock of birds. An expert next to you points out the behaviors they're engaging in, how you can tell which ones are male and female, breeding pairs, etc. To the expert, every bird is telling a story.

To you, it all looks like a bunch of birds flying around.

Then one of them lands in front of you, whips out an RPG*, and turns your car into twisted metal. That bird, you notice.

I think it's the same with most LLSNL players. If you're calling down a bit more lightly or 3-betting a bit wider, most people aren't going to notice. Very few people are tracking actions over multiple hands or comparing your frequencies to some standard.

But if you show them K3s that you 3b pre, bet flop, bet turn, shoved river with... well, that they'll notice. And likely form a distorted impression of you.

Moral of the story: if you want to do something to advertise, it has to be immediately evident and highly unusual. Mostly, that's not going to be worth it. But doing something that doesn't involve something immediately and dramatically unusual isn't likely to get noticed by most LLSNL rec player.

IMO.


* Highly miniaturized. Obviously.

Yes sorry let me clarify, like case and Omaha said I meant making some advertising place, and some extreme plays that stick out, followed up by playing tag again and vice versa.

Play to your strengths, if in doubt revert to standard TAG and adjust from there.

Personally I've had the best long-term success as a LAG. I do change gears, but I identify more with the LAG style.

Imo, start as TAG. Figure out your own balance through experience.

I have a couple of notes. While I like Mike Caro's advice on live games in general, he played limit poker, not no limit. Being crazy cost a few BB, not a stack. Even Mike years later admitted he didn't need to burn 100's to create an image. 20's would have been fine.

I do agree that unless you have a reason for changing gears other than "I want to" or "it is time" you probably shouldn't

This.

Advertising plays work only against certain players, and are usually more expensive than they are worth. Most LLSNL Vs don't adjust, even after they form an opinion of you, and most don't remember an unusual play two orbits after it happened.

On the other hand, when you find that 70 year old rock who wont adjust, you can steal from him shamelessly, and not only will it be profitable, but for the other Vs who are paying attention but don't really understand that you're only crazy against the player who almost always folds, you will have created an image that gets you paid against them.

Nice good point.

When you talk about balancing range, a lot of these players don't even know what range means. Their idea of reading hands is "I put him on AK."

I find enough spots to make plays in late position that I don't even need to worry about varying my style. If my opponents label me as a typical nit, they are going to be wrong, and if they play tighter against me that will just allow me to win more when I'm in late position with marginal to decent hands.

If they are really loose then I don't see any need to "advertise."

If you are too worried about image then you might be playing too straighforward IMO, and in that case you should be more concerned about improving your overall game. Forget about advertising. When I raise in LP with marginal hands, I don't do it to advertise. I never show those hands when I get folds. I make those plays because I think they are profitable on their own.

Playing straightforward/ABC poker is a good starting point, but if you start making bad plays occasionally (for your image) then you will just be playing worse than ABC. In other words, you will be an ABC player who makes more mistakes than he used to make.

Let's look at it this way. You want your opponents to make more mistakes, and to do that you're going to make more mistakes yourself? Huh? I don't see how that is a good idea when you're talking about making extreme plays.

Also, when players show a bluff I tend to immediately know what they are doing. I know not to make too much out of it because people try to advertise. I can't count the number of times someone has asked this question. It's not a new idea. It's certainly not as tricky as many people think. And there is also the issue of players constantly getting up and leaving in live poker. What will you do an hour or two later when at least half the table has different players? Make more extreme advertising plays?

just justify your plays and don't worry about playing a certain style.