Hand sheets and lose-aggressive-Play

Hi there,

As a beginner I use hand-sheets to be able to estimate the hand strength in the respective position.

These sheets make perfect sense for me and I use a really tight style...

In the game, but especially in livestreams of professional players, I see deviations: Weaker hands like KQo in early positions or even crazy things.

I realize that one should vary his style of play and that professionals have a sense for their hands... But how does a "loose" style of play work? How can I ensure that my hand, despite the lack of strength, works? Or is it speculated on intimidation or even bluffes?
Mathematically, it is unlikely that these hands win against stronger hands - According to sheets and textbooks (or even logic) only very strong hands should be played against early position-raises (UTG) so - in my opinion - those players have only two possible situations: Facing stronger hands or folding opponents.

What is my fallacy?

Or do they only play like this in in the late-game as they have left the bubble behind?

NL is not about the cards.

tscheniizu said:

Hi there,

As a beginner I use hand-sheets to be able to estimate the hand strength in the respective position.

These sheets make perfect sense for me and I use a really tight style...

In the game, but especially in livestreams of professional players, I see deviations: Weaker hands like KQo in early positions or even crazy things.

I realize that one should vary his style of play and that professionals have a sense for their hands... But how does a "loose" style of play work? How can I ensure that my hand, despite the lack of strength, works? Or is it speculated on intimidation or even bluffes?
Mathematically, it is unlikely that these hands win against stronger hands - According to sheets and textbooks (or even logic) only very strong hands should be played against early position-raises (UTG) so - in my opinion - those players have only two possible situations: Facing stronger hands or folding opponents.

What is my fallacy?

Or do they only play like this in in the late-game as they have left the bubble behind?

Click to expand...

Thank you for posting.

As title suggested NL is not about the cards. If every hand was all-in preflop it would be.
As I can bluff you and I can set mine you and I can play big card crackers I would love to play a person who plays a narrow range in an easy to understand fashion.

Example: You and I have been playing for 3000 hands. I a good NL player have been watching you play as you do using hand strength sheets. I have many notes and have noticed no deviation from your strategy. You have QQ you raise in position I 3 bet you call. I know you call QQ- but 4 bet AA KK AK AQs Board comes AKx are you going for stacks? You check I bet 35% flop 35% turn do you not fold turn? You fold I show 23. Was this a bad play by me? Next time you have QQ I 3 bet you-you shove instead of calling. I call with AA KK Did my 23 play not just get me extra value and make me hard to play?

Again you have QQ you raise I call. What do I have? Flop comes 345 You bet I call.Turn 7 what do you do? Do you call all my bets, turn and river? When I 2x pot on the river is it a bluff? I was willing to raise you with 23. Why would I not have a six? I will 2x pot river with nuts and bluffs what does your hand chart tell you to do?


Position in NL is a stronger weapon than hand strength. I would love if you only ever raised AA KK QQ AK from early positions. I would be playing nothing but big hand crackers and bluffing you with board texture and getting max value from my sets and two pairs. You cannot get max value from me as I know what you have.

If you stay tight I win. If you loosen up I win. Why because I play the players range, the board texture and position relative to my hand strength range.

Hope this helps