The Zone Poker Paradox

Just thought I'd open a topic on zone poker. Bovada's Zone poker is anonymous and you constantly change tables. This takes table image almost completely out of the picture.

So here's the paradox.

With no table image there's almost no reason to bluff.

Because of this, there's good incentive to bluff for the lvl2 thinker.

I find players tend to either make ridiculous bluffs or super value bets.

And with no table image it's almost impossible to tell what level someone is thinking on.

Just thought I'd bring it up to hear some people's thoughts on it. Mind you, I'm not talking about how I approach the game, just the game in general.

I've played 5NL up to 25NL on Zone. bluffing is still a huge part of the game, and without it you cannot maximize your win rate at those levels. From my experience:

5NL: loose passive player pool; most players play face up.

10NL: a little more aggressive than 5nl and more bluffing; face up for the most part.

25NL: considerably tighter ranges than 5NL and 10NL; much tougher to beat than the previous levels.


Keep in mind I pretty much crushed 5NL and 10NL but do not have a positive bb/100 at 25NL over about 50k hands. I'm still not convinced it is beatable at this point. The game seems too tight. But I also haven't played it in awhile so things could have changed.

Kind of an aside but:

25NL, value value value. People do not totally get relative value for the most part on 25NL. Value bet your merged range on the river, people will call with middle pair, top pair, etc. Some bluffing is doable - but not much, but for the most part, super value sized.

Draw on the board: pot sized bet. Doesn't complete on the turn: 2/3rd to 3/4th of the pot size.

zone is impossible to beat if you play tight and aggressive. If you want to be successful you have to develop the ability to play a highly coordinated LAG style.

This means

1. position
2. light 3 bets
3. understanding when to barrel based on board texture, your equity, and your opponents hand range.

Also, you have to make super thin calls and be able to fold QQ preflop at the same time. In an anonymous fast fold game your "radar" or "feel" is still very important.

The only thing I play is zone, and I used to play 25nl but now I play 100nl or 200nl if it runs on the weekends.

Another thing I can say is that you will notice different games have tendencies that you need to figure out how to exploit. You want examples?

min raises to (.50) on bovada in EP are often pocket pairs and occasionally suited connectors. Ax hands are more inclined to pot to (.85) or go with a standard 3x (.75)

For some reason, like I said, 25nl players are just starting to figure out basic principles so they open buttons wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy to wide. Like, so wide that this tendency alone has probably increased my hourly by 1 BB at that level. If it folds to the button and villain opens your 3betting range should be through the roof.

Get a feel for the game and morph with it. Evolve. But most of all, just don't suck at poker. we can help you but the only thing that will make you really good is practice, practice, practice - followed by genuine evaluation.