tenbob
Legend
Silver Level
More specifically N/L ring games.
This is a term i've seen thrown around the forum, some posters love throwing in one line replies such as “Was this play part of a meta game consideration” etc.
So for those of you that don’t know, meta game specifically is applied to complex strategy games such as, but not limited to chess, poker, business concepts, even war (That’s basing games as a very wide definition) . The basic meaning of meta game is applying a concept unrelated to the game, as regards to poker, its about the tells, your image, how other players relate and interact with you, not in this hand, maybe not this session, but for the life time of the game.
Ok, before you all start flaming and throwing around definitions, this is how I see meta-game as applied to poker. It’s not about what you do now, but how what you do now will affect your winnings in the future.
So how can we look into this and apply it, the reality of it is for a low-limit online poker player is rarely. For this concept to work in the real world we need to be playing against the same players all the time which rarely happens. So when I see a $50NL Ring player spouting about some Meta game crap, it irks me. BUT, bear in mind that a site like pokerstars is a like a money conveyer belt, the money I won playing $10NL is now being lost at $100NL to players that will undoubted lose it at $1,000NL. Obviously based on this tree there is more players with less money at the lower limits and less players with more money at the higher limits. Hence as you climb this tree, you start to meet the regulars “regs” of any certain limit.
Now whilst you may disagree, on $100NL even though I have only around 6,000 hands I have many many more hands on these players than I have of ANY $50 NL player (Dakota-xx being the exception), here and upwards is where meta-game considerations should be taken more seriously.
Let’s take an example, my table image is a TAG, easily pushed off hands without a great hand, but they know I have no fear of putting my chips in the middle with it. This drastically cuts my action, so against a reg I re-raise pre-flop with 72o, and try to reach showdown as cheaply as possible, this isn’t to win the hand, but to encourage action on later sessions. NOT a recommended strategy by the way, more realistic is to occasionally raise you small pairs/suited connectors from EP, hoping that if you DO hit a nice flop you can stack a player who played an overpair horribly slow. These are the things I make notes of myself, so I’m doing this hoping the rest of the regs are frantically noting themselves for future reference.
Now all the low limit players may be disappointed in reading this post, but you all have the chance of using Meta play. Every player for example on cardschat that play the bi-weekly money added game has an image held by the other players. Withir it’s a terrible image or a rock tight image, you need to attempt to find out what it is, and attempt to scupper you own regular opponents, the same goes for the players that regularly meet up for some low limit ring games.
Two examples, based on my own experience.
Tenbob just decides to post on Cardschat that hes just home from the pub after 16 pints of Guinness and is going to play $25NL. From experience I KNOW the action I will get is unreal; people simply think im playing like a maniac, all my hands will get paid off. Not saying that I’ve ever done this, but it’s true.
Tenbob decides to raise UTG in a Friday donkament, it’s the final table. I have K2o, the table folds, some players even fold hands like AQ. How do I know this, well its in one of Dorkus’s commentary videos, I can’t remember the exact wording but it was “Tenbob has just made a big declaration of strength by raising UTG, you need a big hand to play here”.
For everyone that’s not playing $1,000 NL against the same players every day, what can you do ?? You need to take stock, how do the players you play against on a regular basis view you ? If your looked on as a rock, can you use this image to steal more, why not play a session like a maniac then revert to your old style ? Its personal self evaluation of your own game, and looking how to maximise some stuff.
Rant end.
~TB
Crosspost- Tenbobs Poker Blog
This is a term i've seen thrown around the forum, some posters love throwing in one line replies such as “Was this play part of a meta game consideration” etc.
So for those of you that don’t know, meta game specifically is applied to complex strategy games such as, but not limited to chess, poker, business concepts, even war (That’s basing games as a very wide definition) . The basic meaning of meta game is applying a concept unrelated to the game, as regards to poker, its about the tells, your image, how other players relate and interact with you, not in this hand, maybe not this session, but for the life time of the game.
Ok, before you all start flaming and throwing around definitions, this is how I see meta-game as applied to poker. It’s not about what you do now, but how what you do now will affect your winnings in the future.
So how can we look into this and apply it, the reality of it is for a low-limit online poker player is rarely. For this concept to work in the real world we need to be playing against the same players all the time which rarely happens. So when I see a $50NL Ring player spouting about some Meta game crap, it irks me. BUT, bear in mind that a site like pokerstars is a like a money conveyer belt, the money I won playing $10NL is now being lost at $100NL to players that will undoubted lose it at $1,000NL. Obviously based on this tree there is more players with less money at the lower limits and less players with more money at the higher limits. Hence as you climb this tree, you start to meet the regulars “regs” of any certain limit.
Now whilst you may disagree, on $100NL even though I have only around 6,000 hands I have many many more hands on these players than I have of ANY $50 NL player (Dakota-xx being the exception), here and upwards is where meta-game considerations should be taken more seriously.
Let’s take an example, my table image is a TAG, easily pushed off hands without a great hand, but they know I have no fear of putting my chips in the middle with it. This drastically cuts my action, so against a reg I re-raise pre-flop with 72o, and try to reach showdown as cheaply as possible, this isn’t to win the hand, but to encourage action on later sessions. NOT a recommended strategy by the way, more realistic is to occasionally raise you small pairs/suited connectors from EP, hoping that if you DO hit a nice flop you can stack a player who played an overpair horribly slow. These are the things I make notes of myself, so I’m doing this hoping the rest of the regs are frantically noting themselves for future reference.
Now all the low limit players may be disappointed in reading this post, but you all have the chance of using Meta play. Every player for example on cardschat that play the bi-weekly money added game has an image held by the other players. Withir it’s a terrible image or a rock tight image, you need to attempt to find out what it is, and attempt to scupper you own regular opponents, the same goes for the players that regularly meet up for some low limit ring games.
Two examples, based on my own experience.
Tenbob just decides to post on Cardschat that hes just home from the pub after 16 pints of Guinness and is going to play $25NL. From experience I KNOW the action I will get is unreal; people simply think im playing like a maniac, all my hands will get paid off. Not saying that I’ve ever done this, but it’s true.
Tenbob decides to raise UTG in a Friday donkament, it’s the final table. I have K2o, the table folds, some players even fold hands like AQ. How do I know this, well its in one of Dorkus’s commentary videos, I can’t remember the exact wording but it was “Tenbob has just made a big declaration of strength by raising UTG, you need a big hand to play here”.
For everyone that’s not playing $1,000 NL against the same players every day, what can you do ?? You need to take stock, how do the players you play against on a regular basis view you ? If your looked on as a rock, can you use this image to steal more, why not play a session like a maniac then revert to your old style ? Its personal self evaluation of your own game, and looking how to maximise some stuff.
Rant end.
~TB
Crosspost- Tenbobs Poker Blog
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