Do you practice switching gears?

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edcwy

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Like with everything, with practice comes experience. Some of us are naturally or predisposed to play like a nit, some are predisposed to play like a maniac. IMO, I thing the artistry comes to play when these playing characteristics become fluid.

It seems to me the easiest observable triggers to mindfully switch from a nit to maniac and back again is stack size, followed by position. But everyone can see the stack size, and thus everyone has a chance to correlate the subsequent play.

But when your in that middle just right zone, now it gets interesting. I find it's the interesting spot, the opportunity to play as a nit/maniac - call it schizophrenic. In one hand, a nit would often raise pre-flop AA-77, AQ-AK and never think about raising 56s or the like, but a for a maniac at the limits, almost every hand is game for a raise.

So do you practice switching gears, more or less to learn to become more efficient/successful? For the experience's sake with the objective of expanding your range, improving reads, and thus to create uncertainty in your table image?
 
rari458

rari458

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Getting beaten off a river card always makes me switch gears :p

But seriously, this is a very interesting topic that I look forward to hearing about. I personally play much more like a nit when at live games compared to online. And switch to a more "maniac" style once in the money (when in a tournament). I only play freerolls online so going up a few positions by being a nit doesn't really influence the payouts that much.
 
AMTF1988

AMTF1988

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I get to the point where I realise I need to play smarter, I tend to get careless when I have a larger stack, until it gets cut down from my own error
 
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Dani_California

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Maniac style is not for me. I have tried it and failed many times so I just gave up. That's why I'm not switching gears that dramatically. However, I try to mix up my game and play the same hands differently. With a set or a straight for example, I sometimes just check and/or call, sometimes make a reraise right away and play it super aggressively. I want to keep my opponents guessing. I usually play quite tight so well-designed bluff works like a charm at the right time.
 
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Chemist

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I do it naturally because I am naturally inconsistant.
 
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