Switching gears / ramp it up?

I am a MTT player, I probably play 4 -5 nights a week, usually 2 games per night. Not what you would call a hardcore pro. Not a great player, but, think I am slightly above average and looking to improve. Over the time I have played, I am definitely +$$$$

I am going to try playing more often and more games. I play $2 - $5 Buy in games with occasional $11 games thrown in.

My question is I guess, what is considered Switching Gears? I play very tight early on and have read numerous articles about switching gears / ramp it up.

When I try to switch gears and loosen up, it seems I just donk off my chips.

So, is it widening my range of opening hands, taking advantage of position more.

Just trying to narrow it down to implement it into my game. Any suggestions or definition would be greatly appreciated.

You are right. Switching gears refers to opening up your range and taking advantage of position. You have to do this in tournaments or the blinds and antes will eat you alive. You must pick the right opponents to do this against. Their image and stack size are what you must consider. What you hold is secondary. Hope this helps

I tend to have the same problem, otherwise I keep running on fumes when the bubble approaches and then I'm forced to go all in with cards Sarah Palin would reject.

I started a similar thread about this earlier last week but didn't get any responses.

I was mainly looking to correlate a known and usually accepted structure of hand classification (the sklansky groups) with the number of players at the table as an anchor to attach my playing patterns to, depending on the table and style of players, of course.

I guess what I'm looking for is a clarification, what would be considered "switching gears"

I mean I have tried to widen my range and it seems I just donk off my chips

Does switching gears need to be about the hand range at all? I would say you should vary your style based on opponents tendencies and "switching gears" is then to change what style you are using for given opponents (ie give some people some rope, hit other people over the head with stacks, etc.). The change in style shouldn't be done purely in an attempt to be more aggressive and force a larger share of chips, it should be to take advantage of situations and players.

switching gears is when you change your playing style in the same game.
if you start the tourney by playing tight, and after everyone gets comfortable that your a nit, you start opening up your game by playing more hands at different positions. this will win some hands that a tight player wouldn't win because he only plays "good" cards. as they adjust to your new style and they start playing back at you, you switch again and tighten up. this will cause them to call when you have good cards because you a loose player. the idea is to keep the players that are watching you (and not all are) off balance as to what you might have in any given hand. all of this is dependant upon you watching your opponents and knowing when they make the adjustment to your adjustment so you can adjust again. there is more to this but thats the basics as i see them, gl

natsgrampy said:

When I try to switch gears and loosen up, it seems I just donk off my chips.

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How does this happen? When you say you try to loosen up, what do you do differently? In which positions? When and how do the chip stacks affect whether / how you try to loosen up?

Arjonius said:

How does this happen? When you say you try to loosen up, what do you do differently? In which positions? When and how do the chip stacks affect whether / how you try to loosen up?

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When I loosen up / widen my range, I find I play cards I have no business playing and get pushed off the hand.

I need to learn a correct way to master ramping up, using position, how opponents are playing.

natsgrampy said:

When I loosen up / widen my range, I find I play cards I have no business playing and get pushed off the hand.

I need to learn a correct way to master ramping up, using position, how opponents are playing.

Click to expand...

Ramping up doesn't mean turning into a maniac and playing hands that are way outside your comfort zone. It means choosing the aggressive action when it's one of the reasonable options.

For example, quite a few micro- and small stakes players tend to open-limp because they don't want to fold or raise. So for them, one way to ramp up is to eliminate limping. Either raise or fold. Since they will now raise some hands they would have limped, plus the hands they would have raised anyway, the net effect is increased aggression.

As for being pushed off of hands, that happens. It's NP to open a modest hand and fold to a 3bet, especially from a tight player. What you want to avoid is calling that 3bet with hands that don't flop well since folding to action then costs considerably more.

Switching gears used to be my bread and butter. My intuition served me well, especially around the bubble and cash increases. In all honesty though, the great players are switching gears throughout the entire game because switching gears does not necessarily mean you are widening your range but also your bet sizes, 3-bets, trapping, etc. Keeping those in the tournament off balance.

Try to focus more on individual spots throughout, not just a certain time you should be "switching gears". Because many people do the same, and if everyone else is then you really arent changing anything, especially to your advantage.

Tourneys are tough huh?

Arjonius and KingCurtis, The last 2 posts have been very Eye opening. I have been going about switching gears all wrong, like you said playing like a maniac.

This is the info I need, Thanks for your help! Looking forward to Taking down some tourneys.

Yeah, tourneys ARE tough.

From what i remember about you in the CC tourney games i remember you were one of the most aggressive players pre flop, but postflop you tended to give up a lot to pressure, it made me feel like i could push you off just about anything unless you had it. Like i felt like i could call your button or sb raise, and then pick up the pot later on the flop or turn if you didn't have it.

I also noticed you would generally start "switching gears" in similar blind levels in the tournament. I never picked on that insight because raising against tight players was my bread and butter in those games.

Just a little insight of your play from another player (as wrong or right as it may be)

This turned out to be a great thread and an excellent eye opener, as you said.

I play 0.50$ sngs on FTP. Started out with 10$ and I'm now at 15$ since Christmas. I don't play everyday, more of a weekend thing, one or two tournaments per sessions.

I stopped focusing on hand range and started bullying more based on my players notes near the bubble and this made me a world of good.

I can now sense when other players avoid getting involved in a hand with me because they are scared to bust out of the money.

I take full advantage of this, sometimes with any two cards. I test my own confidence in my play, not in my cards.

Everyone's 'ramp it up' is going to be different, but for me, I pay attention to ppl's play at current time in tourney, along with blind levels and chips stack sizes and become aggressive and put the hard decisions on my opponents. Trying to take advantage of weak players and out playing the chip stackers. When most players get in tough decisions, if they are a good player, they will save their chips. But this the game of poker, so ppl also hit hands.

Jackdaclown said:

When most players get in tough decisions, if they are a good player, they will save their chips. But this the game of poker, so ppl also hit hands.

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I used to play like this and be super tight, but have now learned that aggression is the way to go almost always. There of course is a point where you just have 25% and they are betting over half your stack where you fold and situations similar to that, but I think if you have a draw with 25% or more, and they just go raise pre, cbet flop, cbet turn then reraising is a profitable position (obv player dependent). People just plain hate aggression. It might cost you if you end up with over 25% of your chips in and you are 20% to win or something, but you make up for it the rest of the time when players who are fearful of putting to much in give in to you. So I would say playing close to the percentages and going at it aggressively is the way to go, and good players in general are playing TAG and thus avoiding situations where they have to fold to tough decisions, as they are the aggressor.