P
pat3392
Visionary
Silver Level
At the moment I am having difficulties beating the local live games. The majority of players play very straight forward, rarely bluff, chase when they really shouldn't be chasing( they really overestimate draws, don't understand pot odds and the term "on average," and like to limp a lot, with all sorts of crap, rarely raise pre-flop, call very lightly, and don't go into push-fold mode; basically loose passive players. I have been playing really tight against them so I know when I am up against them that I have the best kicker if I hit top pair(most of the time anyway). This wasn't working as I was constantly blinding off, so I decided to start raising a lot when I play; I raise 3BB plus 1 for every caller, which is huge to these players because they usually only min raise or 3 bet at most; people suspect I'm bluffing though when I do this (at least I think so) but they don't really want to risk it too often since I don't play many hands; it's dependent on the player really. However, I'm still blinding off, since they are turbo tourneys. They call too much to make bluffing profitable, most of the time anyway. Under good circumstances it works, but these don't seem to present themselves too often, although I think I'm being a little selective and should take a few more risks.
So, I've been thinking there is two different approaches to be able to beat these guys:
Stick to my style, perhaps loosen a little more(just a tad) and once I have mastered push-fold mode I should do well, just starting to understand the mechanics behind push fold mode, hopefully will figure out all the math in a few days However, the problem with this is since I play with these players regularly, they are more likely to call me with weakish hands( the other night a player called me for 9 blinds with A9 since he seen me go all in with rag a previous game, he was the small blind I was on the button, he had about 20 blinds though, no other limpers/raises) Because of this, I will have to be careful with what I go all in with, so I'm skeptical of this approach as I believe I will still blind off.
The second approach is to loosen up a lot, as in play hands like K10 in middle-early position, not too early though, like UTG 3 onwards. Basically start playing more marginal hands. Not sure if I should call them or raise. If you did decide to play K10 in middle position, would you call or raise if you and your opponents were reasonably stacked(20-25 blinds) and there was only 1-2 callers.
Oh, and one more thing. I have been calling small pockets if I don't believe I will be further raised, and I/opponent(s) have 15 blinds or more. However, I'm starting to think this may be the wrong way of going about it; should I raise these hands, essentially turning them into a semi-bluff. What about medium pockets?
Wow, long post. This has been on my mind for the last few days now. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
So, I've been thinking there is two different approaches to be able to beat these guys:
Stick to my style, perhaps loosen a little more(just a tad) and once I have mastered push-fold mode I should do well, just starting to understand the mechanics behind push fold mode, hopefully will figure out all the math in a few days However, the problem with this is since I play with these players regularly, they are more likely to call me with weakish hands( the other night a player called me for 9 blinds with A9 since he seen me go all in with rag a previous game, he was the small blind I was on the button, he had about 20 blinds though, no other limpers/raises) Because of this, I will have to be careful with what I go all in with, so I'm skeptical of this approach as I believe I will still blind off.
The second approach is to loosen up a lot, as in play hands like K10 in middle-early position, not too early though, like UTG 3 onwards. Basically start playing more marginal hands. Not sure if I should call them or raise. If you did decide to play K10 in middle position, would you call or raise if you and your opponents were reasonably stacked(20-25 blinds) and there was only 1-2 callers.
Oh, and one more thing. I have been calling small pockets if I don't believe I will be further raised, and I/opponent(s) have 15 blinds or more. However, I'm starting to think this may be the wrong way of going about it; should I raise these hands, essentially turning them into a semi-bluff. What about medium pockets?
Wow, long post. This has been on my mind for the last few days now. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!