Hmm...

I haven't made a post in a long time, sorry about that. I've been somewhat busy with all these tournaments and travel arrangements gone awry.

WCOOP has sucked for me so far. A lot. I don't know if it's running bad or just being impatient, but I've gotten colddecked a few times and haven't made it deep in very many of them. I've skipped the last few and gotten on a bad sleep schedule. Not very fun.

I should be typing this up from Aruba, but problems arose trying to order my plane ticket and I was unable to attend. Hopefully my friend Dani (supernova9 on pokerstars) takes it down.

I'm feeling really really good about my overall game recently. My carpal tunnel post received a lot of good comments and shortly after that I finally broke my $20k cash mark in a tournament. I got 2nd in the paradise 150k for about $21k. Tough but short headsup match against mig.com and he tried to double me up by slowplaying top set, but he fills up very good on the river. =P

I'm going to WPT Fallsview in late october. If anyone else is going or has room perhaps in their hotel room there, let me know. I'm going to be playing the big events down there and probably get in their medium sized NL games. This is actually going to be my first time out of the country (unless you count Hawaii).

That's pretty much it. I'll try to chime in later this week, maybe if I'm deep in the WCOOP main event. Take it easy.

2+2 carpal tunnel post.

Sorry for no posts recently. I've just basically forgotten. Things are going well. Here's my carpal tunnel (2500th) post from 2+2. Enjoy.

When I first started thinking about writing this post, I was going to write it about the development of myself as a player and how I get through these ridiculous streaks of impatience in my game. I realized that a post like that would be more useful for entertainment and not exactly something that could be used to help the forum. I thought I would give back a little bit with something I have been theorizing recently. So without further ado, here is something that I think that many forum regulars and, indeed, most poker players have misconceptions about: Your style of play.

Keep in mind that this post will have new information near the end. If you are bored, skip to after I describe the main styles of play. I hope I will not disappoint.

There are three styles of play that are used by many of the players of this forum, some of which are playing a style which is different from what they are aiming for. Some are in a transitional period from one to the other, which is a very good thing rather than a bad thing because it helps you learn. Some people are stuck in one way of playing and almost refuse to change because they are almost notorious for it or refuse to accept the fact that they could be playing sub-optimally. I understand that a lot of the people reading this section will know what the styles of play are, but some may not. These are my particular definitions.

1. Weak-tight. This is a style of play which is despised by most player and, indeed, some will take offense to being called weak-tight. Many people who play weak-tight are often people who either play non-professionally or started playing poker before the current era of incredibly aggressive play. Players in this group play very few starting hands and they don’t play them aggressively enough. They are not very good at extracting value and they aren’t good at picking spots to pick up pots because they are afraid of losing chips. These players do very well on loose-aggressive tables throughout the tournament, but their style of play is very dependent on the cards they get dealt because they are often not very good at playing after the flop.

2. Loose-aggressive. For a long time, I thought this was the optimal strategy in online tournaments. It is true that when you run well while playing loose-aggressive, it is a thing to behold. You can crush the table if they are playing at all meek, and when you get the chiplead you can typically control a table completely. The problem comes from the fact that this style of play does very badly on a loose table deep in the tournament because the number of chips you have dwindles greatly for each pot that you lose, and almost all the pots you play will be contested. The variance of this style is very great since you are going to be taking a lot of small edges.

3. Tight-aggressive. A very underrated style of play. I think one thing that people misconstrue about being tight-aggressive is how tight you are and how aggressive you are. Confused? What I mean is that a tight-aggressive player is by far the most dynamic player of all. Online tournaments typically require tight play at the beginning and aggressive play at the end. A TAG player is unlike the other two simply because he knows when it is correct to change. He is dynamic. He looks for situations rather than cards and he never considers himself a ‘tight player’ or ‘loose player’ because he’s looking for the optimal decision at the time. If you use Poker Tracker on a truly tight-aggressive player, your stats should be essentially meaningless. He’s unpredictable and he is dangerous.

So, I’ve gone through something which a lot of you probably already know. The reason I chose this subject to write about is because I think there are a few misconceptions about the style of play that you ‘choose.’ I’ve watched many good MTT players fall back on their style, and I’ve found that one thing is true above all others:

Your style of play is dependent on how many hands you play and in what manner you play them, not the other way around.

Just because you have a reputation for playing a certain way does not mean you should carry it out. If you are a notoriously loose-aggressive player but you are on a table where it just won’t work, not switching your strategy mid-flow is not only neglect, it’s stupidity. This isn’t some video game where you pick a class at the beginning and you pick up different abilities on the way. A truly great poker player knows how to play all the gears and doesn’t put himself in the grouping of a style because he knows that any given hand can be played differently. Within the span of a few orbits it may be correct to go from rock to maniac and back again simply because the table dynamics change.

Last night I was playing in a $100 rebuy on Pokerstars. I had about 30 big blinds at the 300/600 level. There were about 50-60 people left. This is a time where I typically like to play tight but still see flops when I can and try to stack any idiots left in. I get dealt 54hh in early position and before I can stop myself, I’m raising. Now, honestly, what is the benefit of raising in this situation? Many people who know me honestly think this is a pretty standard raise for me. But why? Let’s run down the benefits of playing this hand.

1) Suited.
2) I can steal the blinds.
3) I can flop a miracle out of position against someone with a better hand than me AND I can do it with a small stack when it is almost impossible to get away from a flop that I hit at all.
4) Suited in HEARTS.

Well, besides the benefit of them being red cards, the other two points I could do with any two cards. In this situation, if I were to look to see I had 72o, I would fold immediately. What is the difference of playing 72o from playing 54hh here? Nothing! Most of the times I win this hand it comes from getting my opponent to fold. That isn’t something I need a hand to do. The reason I decided to play this hand is I have in my mind that I am a loose player. I did not consider the EV of the situation at all. This is a terrible frame of mind to have. Every decision you make should be independent how you perceive your game in general. That’s why I believe that preflop play deep in tournaments is almost never ‘standard.’ Do you believe it is the optimal play? Then do it. Do not make excuses. That is how you become dynamic: Considering all the options and making the correct one at the time while avoiding falling into a rut of making the same play many times simply because you remember a situation before when you did it. Making a play based on something other than the EV of the play is usually called ‘metagame,’ and it’s something you do not often need to use when the pool of players is as large as it is.

The point that I am trying to make is do not fall into the trap of deciding how you’re going to play and then playing that way. Instead judge every hand independently and trust your instincts. After a while of playing poker, your instincts are much more keen than you think they are. But they won’t improve unless you use them.

Your friendly neighborhood gobbo.