Varying your play low limit online poker.

Some thoughts on varying your play at Low limit online poker.

I played a 5hr 47min session which involved 376 hands today at bet365 $1/$2 limit at one table. During this time I played against 50 other players. During this session I played purely tight aggressive poker, raising and re-raising with big hands, calling suited connectors with the right odds and folding any hand that was rubbish or out of position.

No one seemed to care, my raises got action, I won 6 of my 8 attempts to steal the blinds (all of which were made with legitimate late position first to act raises) each of which was called, by either the small or the big blind.



After thinking about this I decided to have a good look at the session stats in poker tracker.



Of the 50 players at the table:

Breakdown by time:

4 players or 9% played 2hrs or more (2hrs 10mins was the longest) all 4 were multi tabling.

18 players or 36% played between 1 and 2 hours, at least 4 of these were multi tabling.

28 players or 55% played less than 1 hour



Breakdown by hands:

8 players or 18% played over 100 hands (151 was the highest)

18 players or 36% played between 50 and 100 hands.

24 players or 46% played less than 50 hands.



As you can see these players are hardly giving themselves much of a chance to make decisions based on what they observe at the table.

Half of them weren’t at the table long enough to notice much of anything and those that were, were trying to concentrate on 2 or more tables.



Whilst I would never underestimate the need to change it up at times especially against a tight table, I think a session like this shows the newer players that concentrating and working on the basics of tight aggressive play can be done without worrying too much about mixing things up.

Get you’re “A” game worked out first then start tinkering.



Anyway just the thoughts of someone sitting up late watching his cricket team get rolled, do with them as you see fit.



Cheers all,

Rocka.

I personally agree totally! as a general rule no mixing of strategies is necessary in low limit online hold'em ring games main reason is the VAST majority of players are playing just THEIR hands regardless of position, pot size or preflop raises. Develop a solid TA game and adjust your Vp$Ip from the low 20's to the mid teens depending on the tightness or looseness of your table. Actually proper flop evaluation will win you much more money in these games than preflop tightness. overall great post though!

I bet you 20$ that you lost half the site when you mentioned Vp$Ip. Ill even give you 2:1, care to make a poll?

rocka13
I was going to comment in this thread yesterday, but after typing a lengthy response the site ate it and I was too pissed to re-type it. The basic gist of it was saying that you're post was pretty much dead on, and that opponents at that level aren't normally even thinking about anything but their own hand and aren't paying attention to what you're doing so adjusting your play and mixing it up is oftentimes wasted effort on your part. Great post, and keep them coming, we need more in-depth discussion like this.

Well said sir, I had been told this wisdom once before, you put it into perspective in your thread, ever considered writing a book?

why bump a 2 year old thread?

i didnt realise it was so old, i stumbled accross it, and never paid attention to the date, very sorry, but it is a good point all the same

One related point that I think a fair number of players tend to miss. Not being around very long and multi-tabling both contribute to decreasing the importance of table image because, essentially, a lot of opponents at low stakes have little if any image at all of your play.