My poker understanding seems to be improving all the time, and I was just thinking about the stigma surrounding passive play. Its a fact in NLHE that the majority of the time the EV of betting or raising is better than that of checking or calling due to the effect of folding equity. But this does not mean that calling is a bad play. I played two games tonight where my overall aggression frequency was less than a third. I was playing like a total calling station. During the match I knew that I was playing like it but since villain was bluffing alot and also not giving me much value when I raised, it was the most exploitive way to play. One mistake I think low stakes players make is that they read somewhere that you HAVE to be aggressive; you HAVE to be loose/tight; you HAVE to play style A or style B. This is a fallacy. The only time you have to play one way is if youre opponent plays optimally and you must also play optimally to maximise expectation. Exploit!!. Calling stations dont actually do that terribly typically in holdem games. This is because theyre not making the bigger error of folding too much. They usually lose money by not knowing how to get the best value from their made hands. Their money comes from opponents who dont cut out their bluffs. The reason the lags have made so much money for so long is because players fold too much.
What Im trying to get at is this:
Do not play one dimensionally.
Welcome
Hello all, welcome to my online poker blog.
I've been playing on and off for a decade after being introduced by a friend.
I played regularly for a few years during the poker boom and had a decent record at the micros, particularly Rush and Zoom No Limit Hold'em games (here's one of my graphs).
Around 2012 I began a new career which involved immersing myself completely in study in my spare time, so I had little to no time for poker. However recently this burden has eased and so I have been gradually dipping back in.
I'm an amateur player who still hopes to some day beat the rake.
I've been playing on and off for a decade after being introduced by a friend.
I played regularly for a few years during the poker boom and had a decent record at the micros, particularly Rush and Zoom No Limit Hold'em games (here's one of my graphs).
Around 2012 I began a new career which involved immersing myself completely in study in my spare time, so I had little to no time for poker. However recently this burden has eased and so I have been gradually dipping back in.
I'm an amateur player who still hopes to some day beat the rake.
hi simon,
ReplyDeletei thk my cash game crumbled because i cudnt get away from the idea that i HAD to be super-aggressive . it became an affliction that i just cudnt get away from and when i was called down by the donks it just turned into an even more aggressive super tilt.
as for the HU , you're right , adapt and play which ever way will get the guys chips . HU has got to be the most fascinating/challenging form of poker . i love it but unfortunately the variance has followed me over. my K9 against 98 all in on the 9 high flop . 8 river . then tilted off couple more buyins b4 i came to my senses. regards , adam
sorry to hear the bad variance has followed into the HU games mate. And I have the HU bug completely now. I think in most fields people tend to begin to specialise in certain areas once their knowledge grows. This is where my head is at now. I just love the binary aspect of it, and the endless post flop play which has really helped my game overall. Hope your luck picks up soon. Si
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