damn it AJ.

I don't need every body reraising light on me.

Mcshove is right, this will only hurt us, but the whole point of this forum is to teach and share knowledge, and if people were concerned about sharing knowledge when I first strated posting I would me a much worse player than I am today.

Hey guys,

I was drunk and my posts were out of line last night.
My apologies to the forum, and in particular, AJ and Karak.

For everyone who thinks that a post like this will give too much away and will cost them a lot of money, it really won't. Although it is a really good post, the concepts brought up are not revolutionary. All the thinking mhnl players basically know this stuff, but don't do it because putting it into practice is a whole not tougher than knowing it. That is why poker is a such a great game.

Completely agree. I knew all this stuff in the back of my mind but it didn't really click until I got owned at 5/10 and now I'm trying to work it into my game at 3/6. Great post AJ.

good post AJ.

the whole catch behind all this is WHY OP is not as good a player as the people he talked to. I mean, think about: he now knows all of these ideas so why can't he use them as well as they can? the answer is HAND READING. and you can't really teach that just by making a 'deep' post on a message board. and that's why there is no harm is sharing strategic info on a forum. even if i talked strategy with one person all day and all night, when i played against them i would still feel that it is possible to have an advantage because of the way I mix up my play to be unreadable and the way i can read their play.

I dunno man, a lot of the replies you made seemed totally well-thought out and rationally expressed. You only seem to be 'apologizing' now because your opinions were met with total outrage from everyone.

This is very true. Like I said, it can be very hard to change certain things once they have been a routine for so long. On the other hand, being worried about me giving too much away is a bit ridiculous for a number of reasons. The relative number of people who are going to be reading this post is very small compared to that of the actual player pool at midstakes. An even smaller % is going to be getting something new out of what I said or adjusting their game in any way that may negatively affect your current situation, assuming you even play with any of those people on a regular basis, and you should be able to find a slew of good tables regardless. If you are worried that its going to negatively affect you when the player pool condenses at higher stakes, the fact is that those players you are worried about are already going to have the knowledge of everything that was brought up, and much more. Either way, its fairly selfish, as this forum is here to teach. From the right perspective, these things are very basic. You still need to play and put in the time and effort yourself, and build off of these basics and deal the situations they bring up.

I was a bit off on my stats on the top Party players and figured I would clarify (although another friend is still insisting that one of the following should be 27/22). They are more along the lines of: 24/13, 23/18, 20/16, 47/29 (which I did get right ). I don't think this changes anything that was said, though. As far as other games, one of the "BOW"'s is 27/19 and his biggest competitor runs close to that as well, as far as stats a friend had on UB. Thanks to Gregg for getting back to me with the Party stats, though.

TWP, for me personally a better word would probably be experience, or lack thereof, which obviously ties into hand reading. These players have been doing what they do for a much longer time, over a gigantic number of hands. I haven't even begun doing some of the things they do. Experience develops that better hand reading, makes you accustomed to the various situations that your plays put you in and teaches you how to deal with them profitably, and everything else that ties in. Of course some people may play and play and never address certain leaks or learn to deal with certain situations, but I think for me personally the lack of experience is key.

All that being said, glad people enjoyed the post. Hope it served its purpose.

cut mcshove a break, drunk people like arguing

uhm so i guess what i was going to say has been said but...

for people who can apply this stuff, this post is a just a reminder. for people who don't understand it or can't apply it correctly, it's going to make the games better. imagine a whole table full of BAD lags? I'm salivating.

This is true, although obviously not my intention. People incorrectly applying the information, and/or putting themselves into situations that they do not know how to deal with properly and subsequently making big mistakes is going to cost them money. Experience and analyzing your play properly is the cure.

Great post, have to say ...

another great MSNL post bookmarked for future reference by a mediocre SSNL player who's gonna make it up here soon....

thanks lots.

aj -
obv it wasn't your intention. just trying to calm down the people going crazy about this post.

vn btw. now, are you ever going to actually PLAY poker again?

best post I've ever read here. Thanks alot

AJ, about raising light: Do you find yourself doing this more with good but not great hands like AJ or KQ, or would you rather put in the second raise with hands like 87s or 55? I guess my problem with the first group is that if you get called, you're likely dominated or a coin flip at best. With the second group of hands, you have the chance to hit a big/concealed hand, and they have just as much "bluffing equity" when you miss the flop.

Btw, if you throw in a few examples, this would make a great 2+2 magazine article.

While I agree that a post like this isn't going to change the games or anything, I have a hard time seeing a bunch of weak night semi nits turn into bad chip spewing air pushing lags.

Nice post.

I agree partially. But remember, if a nit had any hand reading skills then he wouldn't be as nitty. This post might give him the idea that he will become a better plyaer JUST by playing crazier. Either way, as someone said earlier, the bad players are still going to play bad. Unless you can read hands well, it doesn't matter how much advice and strategy you read and talk about, youll never progress beyond being a mediocre player.

Except anyone who has read the STT forum for a while knows this is how he feel. Not just drunken arguing. He is probably one of the best regulars of STTF to more or less never post any usefull help to anyone playing above the 11's.

Sam,

There are times when it would could be appropriate to do so with any of those hands.
With KQ and AJ, being dominated isn't nearly as bad as you may think it is when you are have that momentum. You can't only consider absolute hand value in this situation. Lets say you have KQ on the button facing a CO raise and you reraise. Lets say he calls you with AQ or AK. Both of you will be whiffing the flop completely the majority of the time, but you are going to be the one putting pressure on him, forcing him to make a hand, and pushing him off of the best hand. Some players may even opt to pitch these hands against you preflop, given they will be OOP for one. Same thing goes for when he has a small pocket pair trying to crack your perceived "big pair". He whiffs and folds his hand, which was actually good unimproved. You cut his implied odds drastically, and make calling a mistake for him in many of those spots. You are forcing your opponent to make decisions, and when he is forced to make decisions he is given the opportunity to make mistakes.

Talking about the other hands, something like 55 on the small blind facing a button raise is going to have pretty bad implied odds as his raising range is so wide and its going to be pretty rare that he is actually going to have something big when you have something bigger, and on top of that you are going to be playing OOP where its much harder to get paid off when you do hit. You are also going to end up folding the best hand a ton, even if you aren't necessarily check/folding every flop you don't spike a set on. Reraising = you are forcing him to make his hand, you are putting him at a decision and therefor letting him make mistakes, and you create more profitable situations for yourself while bettering your overall situation.

Also, I wanted to comment that "opening up" doesn't mean you have to drastically increase your VPIP and try to play maniac/LAG. Players that have "opened up" are willing to reraise more preflop, spot and make use of a larger amount of profitable situations (which ties into preflop), are capable of taking unconventional lines with hands that other players wouldn't consider, remain deceptive and creative, and do a better job of factoring in all the details when it comes into their decisions, among other things. Players that are going to start reraising light without taking into consideration the important factors, and/or making mistakes in the situations they get themselves into are going to be costing themselves a lot of money.

McShove,

Have you ever read anything on 2+2 that helped you? If not, please stop posting, as it is a waste of time for you to spend time on these forums. If so, please pay everyone who has posted something that helped you.

AJ, great post. Definitely some good food for thought. Thank you.

I wish we could move this whole McShove mess to a different thread because I don't want to take away from the PURE QUALITY of AJ's post. At the same time, I want to express my displeasure at having to share 2+2 with leeches like McShove. There's no other word for it.

I hope that poll gets a 100 votes and that some mod comes and at least changes his title. Spite call this ass.