Zone poker 25NL strategies?

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I've been playing a lot of 25NL Zone on Bovada lately and often get decimated. I'm down a ton of BIs on Zone (although live cash and online MTT I'm doing quite fine).

Sometimes it's just me not letting go of TPTK and getting value set mined (which usually is not for stacks) but a lot of times I'm getting strange villians who see pot sized bets as "great" to chase their outs. I recently started playing 1/2 live and see the same spewy gambling and discovered sometimes you have to bet 1.5-2x pot sometimes to keep people off their draws.

So in Zone a recent example: get dealt AA, raise it up 3x, get 3bet by someone, I'll re-raise, they call. Flop comes. I'm first to act, K on board, villian bets 1/3 pot. I double it, he calls. Turn is a blank. He checks, possible draws, I bet 2x pot putting him nearly all in, he calls. River is K. I put him in for his last few bucks, he shows K7 for trips. He was the preflop aggressor and showed aggression during the hand. I don't get it. I mean I get it, he saw he paired his K but what a beat.

I'll get AKs on button and get someone shoving all in with JJ or QQ and lose. I'll play flop or fold with sets cheap trying to mine, sit out the hand and watch someone play for stacks because their 7 in their 74 hand paired the board and win.

Anyways I'm getting better at making people pay for draws on 25NL zone but they're happy to pay which seems to be making me lose at an accelerated race when they hit their draws.

Any tips on how to tighten up more on Zone and get value on good hands without letting maniac drawers in cheap? I know this isn't specific hand examples, but more so looking to improve my basic strategy in 25NL Zone. I've played 5NL zone and it was a cakewalk. 10NL is rarely running. I am rolled over 50BI for 25NL so ok with experimenting with different styles.
 
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IPlay

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Them calling PSB with draws should make you money unless you are paying them off when the draw does hit.

Also, what do you mean tips on how to tighten up? Just play less hands?

Post some hands in the HA forums and see what advice you get.
 
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Them calling PSB with draws should make you money unless you are paying them off when the draw does hit.

Also, what do you mean tips on how to tighten up? Just play less hands?

Post some hands in the HA forums and see what advice you get.
.

Thanks. I don't think I'm paying them off more then I'm folding on their completed draws but I'm definitely going to pay attention to these spots more and see if there's spots where I'm paying off when I should be folding more .

I thought about them calling PSB and I realized one leak on Zone is I'm sometimes giving up on turn to easily. In the K7 example I looked back over the hand and realized I actually only bet about 1/3 pot on turn not getting stacks in which I should have which gave him a bad but cheap draw to hit a K or 7 Which he completes and then I had to call the small remaining bit of his stack.

I'll def look out for hands to post for analysis for zone but I am now more aware I'm giving up cheap cards on turn and river. Yeah there's spots where I'm losing to some maniac with 74 who hits his 2 pair after 3 betting my AA pre but there's also spots I need to keep the aggression up on turn when I'm sure the villian is drawing or behind . I pull the trigger live no problem so need to pay attention more online to these spots .
 
TimovieMan

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Sometimes it's just me not letting go of TPTK and getting value set mined (which usually is not for stacks) but a lot of times I'm getting strange villians who see pot sized bets as "great" to chase their outs. I recently started playing 1/2 live and see the same spewy gambling and discovered sometimes you have to bet 1.5-2x pot sometimes to keep people off their draws.
Why do you want your opponents to fold to large bets with a draw???????????
 
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Why do you want your opponents to fold to large bets with a draw???????????


I think my one leak is letting turns and rivers show up too cheaply sometimes rather than consistently betting hard enough to get some to fold and win pot and others to donk draw and miss. In 6 max Zone the pace is so quick that it feels like it's happening more than it actually is.
 
LD1977

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People will chase so make them pay. Long term with normal luck it will even out in cash games. Problem is waiting for that.
 
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I havent been to 25NL Zone for a while. But it's pretty much value bet more and bluff less. They chase all sorts of crap, and they will probably not fold top pair no kicker to a three-barrel (been there done that).
 
IPlay

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I havent been to 25NL Zone for a while. But it's pretty much value bet more and bluff less. They chase all sorts of crap, and they will probably not fold top pair no kicker to a three-barrel (been there done that).

I can confirm this, most the time you can fire 3 barrels for value with an overpair and feel pretty good about it. Not many want to believe you in this pool.
 
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People will chase so make them pay. Long term with normal luck it will even out in cash games. Problem is waiting for that.

I agree.

I havent been to 25NL Zone for a while. But it's pretty much value bet more and bluff less. They chase all sorts of crap, and they will probably not fold top pair no kicker to a three-barrel (been there done that).

Yeah I've put Zone aside for now to focus on FR cash and some MTTs. I tend to do better in both of those as opposed to Zone and 6 max. I think I'd want to get a bigger roll going before dabbling in Zone again just so I can try different strategies that are more aggressive in Zone with less worry about the higher variance wrecking me.

I can confirm this, most the time you can fire 3 barrels for value with an overpair and feel pretty good about it. Not many want to believe you in this pool.

I'd love to find these players in Zone.
 
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Yeah, get a bigger roll and some more experience before going to Zone. It can be really swingy, especially moreso if you are a slightly winning player/BE. It's pretty easy to tilt there too.

The player pool in Zone is stronger/more aggro than 6-max, which is stronger and more aggro than full-ring. But you should do well at 25NL Zone if you can beat 25NL 6-max for a decent winrate.
 
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I have recently been killing 25nl zone on ignition - I don't really want to discuss my personal strategy but I'd like to discuss the player pool tendencies..

I am seeing a lot of players that get sticky with a 3rd or 2nd pair and I usually check turn with most of my range oop and villain barrels with marginal holdings and then wil snap check river so i try to get a smallish value bet on the river - if they pot it or shove then I usually will fold over pairs and tptk hands.

I am wondering what other people experience with players barreling or bluffs in zone?

I am in the habit of folding to large bet sizes after flat calling a 3 bet pre even with over pairs because I just don't see zone players making a ton of huge bluffs.
 
KingCurtis

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I have recently been killing 25nl zone on ignition - I don't really want to discuss my personal strategy but I'd like to discuss the player pool tendencies..

I am seeing a lot of players that get sticky with a 3rd or 2nd pair and I usually check turn with most of my range oop and villain barrels with marginal holdings and then wil snap check river so i try to get a smallish value bet on the river - if they pot it or shove then I usually will fold over pairs and tptk hands.

I am wondering what other people experience with players barreling or bluffs in zone?

I am in the habit of folding to large bet sizes after flat calling a 3 bet pre even with over pairs because I just don't see zone players making a ton of huge bluffs.

Do we have any regs in the forum who play 25nl zone still?
 
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