General TH Strategy

[Disturbed]

Hello,

Need some advice on my general strategy. This is my first post/thread here so be nice and helpful.

Background: I consider myself still a noob in this game however my learning curve is good and I have a good sense of the game.

Started playing live TH in a casino nearby about 10 days ago and doing about 500-1500 a day on 5/10 tables. Well worth noting the tables are automated - no real cards dealt.

Question: Been reading around alot seeing what different players and ppl think of how TH should be generally played. And i think 90% agree that it needs to be played aggressively. No not maniac aggressive, but good tight aggressive playing where you should by raising/reraising more than calling.

Now my question is this, calling and checking seems to be working extremely well for me versus being aggressive. I dont have 10 years experience here so thats why i am asking if what I am doing is right.

Why do i want to be aggressive? Why dont I slow play every single hand?
No i dont do that all the time, but when i dont slow play and i become aggressive it is only to change my play patterns.

Example: you get KK put in $10 BB flop J or Q and a whole lot of ppl for J or Q in their hand will want to all in you after you reraised them. I know I am taking a risk and they might pair their other card, but i think this pretty much falls under calculated risk. Doest it?

Example 2: you want to be aggressive , you get AK you bet 6X$10 BB after a few players called. Maybe one or 2 players call u. Then the flop 2 6 Q or J or some shit cards. What happens? The usual you bet they reraise, you either stick to your cards and take a massive loss or just lose your intial raise and the hit, which will probably mount up to 10-20 times the blind.

Example 3: you get KK and after some ppl call, you super raise from a later position. You get a guy calling you with AK or AJ. he flops an ace and then you go home.

Why would you do example 2 and 3? Why just no call what ever blind it is or make a small reraise, see the flop and then act? I know AK is too good of a hand to lose to Q7 after flopping a 7, but why would I want to reraise and reraise and reraise to put my stack in a 50/50 position ex AK vs QQ?

[natbk2kicazz]

I totally understand what you are saying. And thank goodness someone out there thinks like me LOL. I haven't been playing for 10 years either, in fact just over 2. I feel like everytime I raise a hand with A K or KQ suited etc, I never hit. Then I take one more stab at the raise post flop and if the call or reraise I'm out and have lost my raise. I just feel a lot of times its better to call to try and see the flop first.

In some situations though I have been beat hard by not being aggressive. Lost a lot of pots because if I would've raised then they would've folded their Q 3 instead of hitting two pair on the flop. Does that make sense?

Positioning is a big factor in raising too. Depends on where your at on the table. I'm not a pro or anything, just giving you my perspective. Hope it helps a little.

Natasha

[ndirish620]

Yes my advice is to see the flop cheat before you go wild putting all your chips in. This will stop the all ins and the bad beats for the most part. No more getting beat by 2 5 when you have A 10 u know.

[Disturbed]

Actually, I went the extra mile and done some research on this issue. So I hope this helps out some ppl as it did... to some extent.


1- you will see an A or a K about 30% of the time when your holding AK.
2- you will see j+ 50% of the time on the table.
3- AA, KK, QQ are not that sensitive to number of players, position, or anything else. They just win most of the time from beginning to end of the flop. And although plenty of players will tell you otherwise, no you do not all-in with KK or AA nor do you raise big. Raise to get enough money in the pot. As you will win with them eventually.
4- AK, of group I and group 2 hands is the most sensitive. even more then AQ and AJ. They are sensitive to number of players to see the pot so yes you need to raise and raise big.

Now my observations:

1- When you first raise with AK, raise again regardless of flop, your opponents will fold most of the time but unfortunately you will get dicked some other times.

2- Do not underestimate AJ suited versus AK. in the past week I have see AK loose to AJ more than 5 out of 10 times.

[jacks_off4me]

is it tournaments Rng's or freerolls you are talking about?

[Disturbed]

cash games, would work for tourneys too although your general strategy should change and you should be raising more often IMO as good hands done come that easy.

[willie beaman]

To make this simple, when betting with monster hands preflop, either fire a follow-up bet on the flop or check-fold if the board doesn't fit. By fit, I'm referring to the board having some resemblice of your hand. Example: Raise it 4x bb with AK clubs and flop 4c, 7s 10d no fit. You can either hope to see turn for free or fire to take down a small pot based off your read from your opponent. Now if flop goes kc 6c 10h, a good drawing board for you, feel comfortable here to check-call, check raise or lead right out. With your opponent possibly holding a king or a drawing hand, I'd probably check-call or check-raise here. At least give your opponent a chance to go after the pot if your fit is good or you hit big like in the 2nd example.

[Arjonius]

At least in part, how desirable it is to be aggressive in cash games depends on your goals and how much variance you can stand. Effective aggression is likely to lead to winning more, but will also increase your variance, so that you'll have more and larger downswings and upswings.

[Disturbed]

I donno what you mean by aggression. I know what you mean i just dont know what level you would name effective aggression, but I played 2 ppl today that almost raised 80% of all the hands they played or folded them.

One of them ended up winning the sitngo.

I was always intreged by that kind of play, just donno if it works or not, or how its done really.

[dak76]

Hi

Interesting thread Disturbed, I'll just had a few considerations for you to think of

* A winning player can make around 10bb/100h, meaning an average 0.1 bb per hand. When you're raising protecting your holecards and isolating players to headsup situations, you're either making them fold PFlop or by cbetting and taking it uncontested opposed to passive play, which means more than 10x the average win per hand, and some extra pots thanks to your top kickers and good cards

* As you know, your table image must be in shape, and positional aware. Then by selecting your opponents you can switch gears in accordance to your table readings. Tighten up and trapping aggro-loose players, and putting pressure and floating the tag ones.

* The higher the flops seen, the higher the variance you're facing. Those who can't BR handle it, usually opt for ShortStackStrategies (SSS), where premium and made hands do their job on the long run, while switching tables and grinding lower limits. What I'm saying is both are valid, it's a profitable TAG game, just like a LAG game can be, either you adapt to get an bigger edge (meaning profit) or you stick to your already (less) profitable A game. You have a whole life to learn poker eheh

* So I guess it's you who have to, as part of your learning curve, put your poker to test. As long as you manage your bankroll, you can try new approaches at specific training sessions, and take some shots at the next level to take a look at what kind of players you're facing and to choose the correct running gear.

* But again have in mind that the poker play you feel confortable with is the one you should have a base on, that's where you're building you're BR foundations.
Like SnG "play to win" vs "play to cash", both are valid, you can't start shoving any two in bubble time if you don't know how to find the +EV spots or MultiTabling just because you read that's how you win. You should play for cash, and slowly assimilate advanced concepts that will increase your hourly winnings. Same thing for cashgames, loosen up when you're post flop game have a real chance, until then play tag and solid and wait for math to do the job.
Because when you're outplayed at some poker level, it goes down from break-even to broke.

Well, I hope any of these make sense, and if some member disagree please discuss it.
Cya