My Strategy

Hello again good people, I would just like to start a thread outlining my basic basic pre-flop strategy. Been playing for cash now a couple months and feel I am now beating the rake (breaking even) I've gained some good pointers from this forum and would like to give something back, I reckon I am in a position now to offer a little advice to a complete novice!

Ok I play 9 handed cash microstakes and generally buy in for around 50-75 big blinds. I feel this is plenty to make the most of the hands that I play without risking too much cash to possibly thoughtless stupidy (I tend to leave the table when I've made a dolllar or two or see threat from another big stack, always seeking easier weaker prey) It gives me the leway to set-mine with low pocket pairs though these are at present the only speculative hands I concern myself with. I have tried suited and gap-suited connectors but I feel I lack the discipline to fold that middle pair when I have SORT-OF hit the flop, in short I get carried a long and leak chips whenever I play them so untill I figure out a winning strategy I will be folding them for now.

I have a strict fold/raise policy with drawing hands preflop as I like to either be in control of the betting or cutting my losses and waiting for the next hand. The exception being pocket pairs where I will occasonally call a raise or a re-raise and atleast see the flop with a made hand. I always open with a 4 big blind raise, no more, no less, whether I am under the gun with rockets, in mid position with JTs or stealing the blinds with a tail wagging K9. Obviously this has its drawbacks. Sometimes I dont get value out of monster hole cards or my raise doesnt cut through the limpers but on the whole it works. Plus I feel I gain by being pretty much unreadable... I hope!
To me, that 6 big blind raise just screams "I am weak and don't want any action and the minimum raise at the cut-off says "I want you to call!" I think good poker is not giving your enemies any more info than is necessary.

Apart from AA and KK which I want to take all the way pre-flop regardless, I divide my starting hands in to three groups, late, mid to late and any position hands. They are as follows.

Late only:
88 K9s T9s A8s Q9s J9s AJ A5s and 77

Mid and late, all of the above plus:
ATs QJs KTs QTs JTs 99 AQ A9s KQ

Any position, all above plus:
QQ AKs JJ AQs KQs AJs KJs TT AK

I will also call mid pairs in ealy position and low pairs in late, calling raises to set-mine if stack sizes permit.

For stealing blinds from the cut-off, the button and occasionally the SB I use the following as a general guide:
Any 2 cards both 9 and up, any ace or any suited King, any suited queen with a 6 or higher. Any suited jack with a 7 or higher, suited 8 with atleast a 9 and any unsuited king with a 7 or higher.

I also play late position only hands from a late-medium positon if no-one has yet shown interest and for that matter, with no callers I loosen up when playing from the hijack.

Lastly when playing from the BB and all action has folded around to the SB, if he merely calls to fill his blind I will exploit his show of weakness and bad position by raising him (you guessed it, 4 big blinds) regardless of what I am holding.

All this results in a VPIP of around 22%, a blind stealing attempt frequency of 40% and pre-flop raise of about 18%.

What do you guys think of my strategy? I consider myself to be a fairly aggressive player but do I need to tighten up. I have not mentioned post-flop play as I doubt I will have room but I know it needs improving. Do you guys see any obvious improvements or areas where I may be going wrong, maybe the fixed raise or hand selection?

Look forward to your thoughts and replies.

Frank.

EDIT: One last thing as I know you guys will doubt the reason in playing from a chart. All of the above is a general guide. I adapt a little to the present situaton depending of how it "feels" and if the table becomes short handed, or with short stacks. If I stuck to it religiously I would be a fair bit tighter but I think that looser and versatile if far better than tight, weak predictable poker? Ok, over to you!

I'll be 100% honest with you Frank, I didn't read your whole post (nothing against you I just get lost in long posts), but skimmed to make sure everything was in line, and I can agree with your strategy for the most part.

But THE most important thing about your post is this...you have taken the time to form a plan and are watching closely what you are doing and paying attention to situational plays. VERY well done for anyone much less for someone that hasn't been playing very long.

Make sure your guidelines are 'fluid'. Be ready to evaluate the holes in your game as you recognize them, and start to take into account table texture and specific players tendencies to exploit their weaknesses.

One thing to remember though is this...MUCH MORE money is won/lost post flop then pre. Many a war has been started over which starting hands mean the most, and yes it is very important. Yet, post flop is where the real game lays.

Good post sir and good luck.

P.S. Great....I went and made a long post as well! :P

Actually based on ur hand selection it shld be easy for u to play like a robot. y not juz buy in 20BB and mass tabling like 8 tables. i'm sure it will grow ur profit by alot since u wun be making hard decision n u haf strict folding rules...

Thats not such a good idea in cash games. Part of the success in cash games comes from watching how your opponents play and then adapting, you can't do that when playing 8 tables.

What......
How did you understand what he was trying to say those abbreviation are terrible.

Hi. Your game plan looks pretty solid. Once you feel comfortable, start adding a little more oomph to position play -- i.e., loosen up slightly in late. I agree with Crudelis -- pay a lot of attention to how your opponents play. You seem to be pretty disciplined and aware considering how short a time you've played. Good for you! Good luck.

Honestly, I'll tell you. There shouldn't be any strict way of playing hands. Your strategy is pretty much playing cards, not people. In poker, it's a game of environment. Better believe it or not, I can sometimes call down some people's all-in bets with pocket 2s whereas I would fold pocket Queens against certain people. None of those are listed in the book. Play the environment, not the cards. Watch Lex Veldhuis and you'll see what I mean. He plays in a way that does not match any of your guide.

I like the strategy mine is similar...however if ur breaking even thats not exactly going to pay the bills u got to mix it up sometimes

Frank...at what stake levels are you playing this strategy? I have been thinking about getting back into holdem a bit and was going to give this a try.

Ae you doing these 4x raises with limpers in front of you or only when you open the pot?

wait how much do you raise for all of these?? thats the most important thing....its important to win big and lose little...you wont win playing like this beacuse people get lucky

Whats wrong with breaking even? Over the last 8370 hands since I started a new database I have lost 1.03 Big bet/100 hands and I am more than happy with this. I reckon I do better than 90% of online poker players and ~I have been playing for cash some 12 weeks with a total loss of $150. I'm in this for the long haul friends and one day I fully intend to "pay the bills".

I play microstakes 1c/2c mainly sometimes 2c/4c and If i can get on late weekends and find the tired and drunk russians I give the 5c/10c a bash but not often.

Pre-flop I ALWAYS raise 4BB and if I don't think my raise will cut through the limpers to give me the number of foes I want going into the flop I wait for the next hand. I think that changing your opening bet size just gives other players info (there is always the optionin the future to have different bet sizes depending on position for example 5BB in early 4BB in mid and 3BB in late but at the moment I feel my post flop play needs more tinkering)

If I get re-raised I generally re-check stack sizes and decide all-in or fold.

Of course people get lucky, I get lucky too sometimes but I figure that if I know I made the right decision its easy to suck it up. LOL I get almost as pissed off if I win through playing a hand badly as I know that in effect and in the long run I have actually lost money. Example... I call to make that flush when I have not got pot odds. I have been lucky in this area of late but luck always runs out and I am sure to lose more than I have won carrying on the same!