Tournament strategy: TAG or LAG?

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Athopkinson

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Hi, Sorry if this is a basic question. I used to play in a weekly pub tournament in London until I retired a couple of years ago. I played TAG and found myself regularly coming in the top three players. After retiring I moved away from London and stopped playing. I started playing low stakes tournaments on line a few months ago but am finding TAG ineffective. I'm frequently seeing hands I've folded win or my top pairs beaten. A lot of articles I've read on-line say TAG is the correct play. Others advocate a LAG style. I'd be grateful for peoples' thoughts.
Many thanks
 
Propane Goat

Propane Goat

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LAG play is only a good strategy if you have strong post-flop skills, because you will be in a lot of situations where you hold things like middle or bottom pair or Ace high.

How the board runs out on a hand you folded is irrelevant, you made the decision to fold and once you do, that's the end of it. Going on tilt when you see an 885 flop after you folded 85 in the BB to a min-raise is a mistake, and does not justify getting into pots with rag hands hoping to hit the flop big and get lucky. You will lose much more in the long run than you gain when doing this.

I would recommend posting some hands in the Hand Analysis sections, such as the hands where you're losing on the river with top pair. You could be overvaluing these types of hands, this is a common issue and you have to be able to let these go depending on player reads and action around the table.
 
TheBigFinn

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TAG works in bar poker for two reasons. First they are fast tournaments and seldom go past the turn without some one getting all in after the first hour. Also most players in these games are loose and will pay off with little.

On-line is a completely different game. You often won't get paid as people notice how tight you are playing and won't call bets without really good hands. You will also see 4 times as many hands which allows the competition to be more selective.

I play TAG early and LAG later in tournaments, but have to agree it is mainly about post flop play and hand reading over style once 1/2 of the field is gone
 
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BullWink

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At the beginning and middle of tournament, I still think TAG is the way to go. You have time to wait for a decent hand before committing yourself with lots of chips. Towards the end of the tournament, LAG becomes much more important, so you can steal a few blinds
 
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MaxDamage

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Bob23bk

Bob23bk

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CC has lots of helpful articles, you might get some insight reading through the TAG and LAG pages. I particularly enjoyed the LAG page because it teaches you what to avoid when playing LAG as well as how to exploit a LAG player.
 
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VlNikopro

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Hi, Sorry if this is a basic question. I used to play in a weekly pub tournament in London until I retired a couple of years ago. I played TAG and found myself regularly coming in the top three players. After retiring I moved away from London and stopped playing. I started playing low stakes tournaments on line a few months ago but am finding TAG ineffective. I'm frequently seeing hands I've folded win or my top pairs beaten. A lot of articles I've read on-line say TAG is the correct play. Others advocate a LAG style. I'd be grateful for peoples' thoughts.
Many thanks
online game is changing fast, plenty of books on the theory of games have become irrelevant after a 2-3 year
I think you need to find your game format and improve
 
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bbiase

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I think you have to analyse the field you're going up against. If the field is tight, I think I would play LAG from late position, TAG early position, specially on unopened pots and steal blinds throughout the tournament. Post flop, I don't recomend to c-bet every flop, since your opponents range on a tight field is stronger than yours.

The least thing you want to do against a tight field is to put dead money on the flop with people to act early.

If the field is very loose and passive, I would tighten up my range, but play ultra aggressive post flop, barreling for value.
 
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