What's up guys,

As I read more about poker, the more I come across this idea of having/creating a strategy. When I read mentions of this, it doesn't seem so much like 'employing general poker strategy concepts' that's being talked about; rather, it seems like the idea of a sort of 'set' strategy that people go into any table with which informs them in many spots and they may make adjustments from as they see fit. (Nobody seems to really go in-depth when they bring up 'having a strategy'-- it's always sort of a quick mention that leaves me confused given that I don't use any sort of specific strategy. Doug mentions it a lot in his videos, for example).

Using a predetermined strategy is far from what I do when I play. I do try to apply basic strategical concepts like emphasis on position, playing appropriate hands from these positions, thinking about the hands my opponents may have in some given position, thinking about the hands that my opponent may take some given line with postflop, trying to gain info from HUD stats, etc. But by no means do I have a set strategy. Some days I may open a hand from some given position that I would typically fold on other days. I may fire a cbet on some given board with some given hand that I may check on other days given the same hand and and the same board. Really the only criteria I consider when making these decisions comes from my observations of my opponents.

As a result of this, when I haven't gathered any solid info on my opponents, I often end up in spots where I'm really guessing about what I should be doing. My thinking then ends up along the lines of, "eh, I'll fire here on the turn with my marginal holding since I can maybe get a fold. If he calls he probably has at least pair or a flush draw and I can look to play river accordingly." I would love to be less clueless (and even when I do have a 'clue' about what I should be doing, I'm sure I'm playing it wrong) in these spots, and therefore the idea of having a set strategy to help me out (which I can adjust from so I'm not too robotic and can try to maximize profit) really appeals to me.

So, a slew of related questions: is my thinking correct that I should be trying to create a set strategy or have I misinterpreted what I've read online? If I should try to create one, how can I go about doing this? I assume part of it is constructing ranges. Should I be trying build a strategy for all spots (generalized, of course, I know I can't cover every spot)? Most spots? How can I avoid being exploitable, or should I not worry about this at my poverty micro stakes? Any tips on things I should be thinking about when working on this?

Any help is appreciated, thanks boys <3

Your strategy is the combination of all the available poker knowledge you have and actually use in your game.
It exists out of a ton of individual parts, like having different ranges for each position is one part of your strategy. When to cbet or not to cbet is another part.
All the parts combined form your strategy.

Even if you're not aware of your strategy, you probably still have one.

No one, no matter how good they are, has this completely figured out, there is currently no complete strategy available.
Even solvers are based on what you input and will output different strategies when given a different input.

I see having a strategy as having a general plan to play your hand or better, range.
It starts with pre-flop, your range starts at 100% of hands and you have a plan for what to do with each of them. Some you will fold, others you will open raise, ...
Some of those open raises you plan on raising if someone 3bets, some you plan on calling, some you plan on folding.
...

Knowing what to do with each hand in your range is what I see as having a strategy.
You don't just blindly open raise a hand without knowing what you'll do with it if your opponent takes certain actions.

If you're just opening a hand and then have to start thinking about what to do with it if you get 3bet/4bet, then you didn't have a strategy. But hey, now you can start working on one for that spot!

These are very basic examples, the further in the hand the more complicated this becomes.

But good players usually have a strategy/plan on what they will do with each hand in their range for each possible action their opponent can take.

Obviously poker is so complicated that you can't have a pre-defined strategy for every single spot, that's why we simplify things and why some spots require a lot of thinking, because we didn't have a strategy for them yet.

This is just how I see it.
I guess it really doen't matter all that much.

a hand is either a profitable open or it is unprofitable. there is no in between preflop. with good reads you might exploit by folding more or raising more, or raising smaller or raising bigger(respectively with wider/tighter ranges). memorize standard preflop ranges. exploit on the margins of these standard ranges when u have reads.

correct imo, unless youre playing vs the same 4 guys at a homegame every time.

memorize preflop for every single position. to the effect that you could be up way past your bedtime but u still snap fold K9o two off the button.

no. there is not enough time in the universe for a human to memorize a strategy, however through simplification we may extrapolate from what we do know about good poker and effect solid plans for this street and future streets.
actually i think knowing equilibrium calling/folding river frequencies is valuable at all stakes. the river is essentially a static game(there are no draws). and as such its pretty easy to learn the basics with 8th grade algebra.

$100 in pot. i bet $50. u need 25% equity to call profitably. if im bluffing 25% of the time, then if u have a hand that can only beat a bluff, calling is 0ev, as is folding.

if u have a hand that can beat some of my value hands, then calling will be slightly profitable for u.

thing is that u need to go to the river with a range that can withstand action vs decent players(vs donks my river ranges are typically weaker as i try to stack them on flop or turn more often). busted draws dont matter for this calculation, but the strength of your other hands on average will really impact your bottom line.

ok so i bet 50 into 100. if u wish to make me indifferent to bluffing then u should take the odds that i'm getting on the bluff(pays 2:1 for my investment) and out of the range of your hands that can beat a bluff, you should fold the worst 33.3forever3% of your range to make me indiffferent.

notice the correlation between the odds im getting on the bluff and your call/fold ratio. its the same number.

other example if i bet 100 into 100. bluff pays 1:1. so u fold/call 1:1. fold 50% of your effective river range(the hands that cant beat a bluff dont exist anymore, as long as u get to the river by making +ev checks bets calls and raises, these hands do not create river liability. bluffcatchers create river liability).

raising math is more complicated, but still u gotta make fold odds = the odds im getting on a bluff.

first i'd like to get u somewhat up to speed here on what is generally considered good poker strategy(this evolves over time).

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...08/?highlight=

im not always lurking here but u can pm me after u digest that.

gl, welcome.

Your question is too broad. Try a poker book/course if you really want to improve.

I agree that you should have a baseline postflop strategy memorized (deviate as needed), and that you should at least have a plan for whatever street your on. In other words, you pick a line rather than a single action like bet-folding or check-raising or bet-calling, etc.

Learning to think in ranges helps tremendously. I used to play on a site called RangeVsRange.com which is essentially just hold'em played with ranges instead of hole cards. It forces you to think about your strategy holistically, and holes in your strategy like being too capped become immediately apparent.

You need to develop a keen sense for how strong a hand you need for the money you're risking. Weaker players are a lot less price sensitive than stronger players. Strong players evaluate the price and implied odds much more precisely than a novice.

Once you've got a solid baseline, you can work on exploitative aspects of your game.