Is balance important in poker

xOneCoolHandx

xOneCoolHandx

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If by balance we mean "mixing it up a bit" in terms of of all the poker decisions points you mention, then yes I think it is important and it is a part of my game that I have been working on and constantly have to remind / force myself to incorporate into my play. It definitely does not come natural to me.

I think the challenge is to Not To Stretch it Too Far, So Frequently, that your play just becomes Stupid and it becomes Counter Productive. As long as you can do it with purpose and in moderation and with some desired outcome in mind, I think it Can Be A Very Good Thing and perhaps Even A Necessary Component Of A Winning Play! Of course, there will be times when it seems to have achieved the desired objective, and I Smile With Satisfaction at the End of The Hand! And, inevitably there are times when it does not work out and I Say To MySelf, What An Idiot! Why did I play that hand like that!

It seems to me that varying your "decision / action" range up a bit is also important when you tend to play frequently against the same people. Just when they think they have you figured out, you toss them a Change-Up, lol! Sometimes the change-up if successful will go unnoticed, as I do not often voluntarily show my cards. Other times when unsuccessful, your "Change-Up" may ultimately be exposed. I used to try to avoid this situation at all costs, as I found this to be embarrassing, and did not want to be viewed as an idiot. As I have gained a bit more confidence in my game, I actually take much less offense to being Criticized at the Table when one of these "failures" is exposed. Obviously it was not the intended outcome, but at least I take some satisfaction in knowing that they noticed, and perhaps the next time, my cards will be different and a better outcome will be achieved.

Also, even if you are playing against unfamiliar opponents, each action you make tends to generate a certain general perception from your opponents, so even this can be very valuable and work to your advantage within a game.

I guess my current thinking is that Adding Balance To Your Game Can Be A Big Positive, but the Trick is Deploying it in Moderation both in Terms of Frequency and Variability and Having A Purpose In Mind, When You elect To Do It! This is coming from a recreational player that is still stuck on Page 7 of my Poker Bible, "Poker For Dummies", but give me some time to work through the content, as I just bought it approximately 15 years ago, lol!

Anyway, please give me some feedback where my thoughts may be off base!

Great Seeing You Back At The Tables and In The Forum, Mark!

Teddy


Actually, I think you are right on the money Teddy and your play does show it. You have solid ranges in the various positions that you tighten or loosen according to your stack size.

I do believe that that vast improvement in your game has been the direct result of those 6 and a third pages you read in the Poker Bible...and of course, reading, re-reading and living all of the teachings of a wise old master from CC (who shall not be named ;)).

I believe that balance becomes more important in two instances: 1. When you are playing with a lot of the same people regularly (like the CC family) and the higher you go up in stakes. But, by the same token. While I start off pretty well balanced, I become more and more imbalanced against opponents that I have spotted some leak or weakness in their game (i.e. they c-bet 1 BB and fold to a raise when they are weak and c-bet 1/2 pot when they have something reasonable).

Most people don't understand that GTO is just the groundwork of an exploitative strategy. If you are truly playing optimal poker, then you are analyzing your opponents and figuring out their strengths and weaknesses so that you can play optimally against them. I think I am going to write on this some more in another thread.

Hope to see you soon my friend (I haven't called anyone luckbox in awhile :p;):D )
 
BetterThanAvgButNotByMuch

BetterThanAvgButNotByMuch

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You folks are giving your opponents way too much credit. They're more focused on their own hands rather than someone else's hand.

The only reason they'll pay attention to opponents is maybe when they're in a tourn and that's not to play flops and know where they are in a hand by giving an educated guess on their opponents holding but so they know who to steal blinds from.

In a cash game or at least at $1/2 live when I played, they wouldn't care unless you play like one hand for like an hour and why did they care?

Because when they got a hand they didn't get action, lol again, not because they were trying to put folks on hands.

You need a simple, well disciplined, straightforward "old school" game to deal with beginners/rec players without ANY BLUFFS.

Not mixing it up with mediocre hands that a lot of folks don't have the knowledge to play on a flop whose only strategy is c-betting and betting and betting again like TV pokier hoping for a fold when they can't read the texture of a flop and they don't know what to look out for danger.

That's playing directly into those beginners favor.

Unless you know for sure without a doubt that your opponent has made an adjustment to you playing strong hands THEN you can make an adjustment and only against that one and not the rest of a table.

And even then you don't get crazy with that one opponent.
 
Baldy86

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well obviously you want to be good in all aspects instead of being very good in 1-2 but bad in the others . just my opinion
 
MattRyder

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Mixing it up is great, but unless you’re playing very, very tight or very, very loose, what’s the likelihood anyone will notice one way or the other?

You’re going to go after the hands that you think you can win against the players that you think you can win against. Unless you’re really deep, to do anything else is kind of poker suicide. If circumstances allow you to “mix it up” - great!
 
mariuspoker1

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Being balanced is important indeed but if cards does not roll in your favour importance of being balanced drops a lot. So as a conclusion being balanced is a litlle bit overrated.
 
pavel1111111

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of course the balance matters, you are practically a different person, especially if you have a big balance ... everything goes smoothly :); there is no question of playing a stressed poker ... my opinion is that it is a pleasure to play poker when you have a big balance :)... the problem is when you withdraw and start again and your game doesn't work out:)
 
Gritz18

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This is kind of a continuation from a facebook discussion. Do you think balance is important in a poker game? Personally, I feel it is very important to have a balanced range (depending on stack size and position) when you are taking any action at the poker table. If you are balanced then you are going to make it hard on your opponents to figure you out. The is with opening ranges, continuing ranges, bluffing ranges and every other decision point. Some people think that being balanced is overrated. So, I bring it to the the people to decide. Is being balanced important or overrated?



Balance is fundamental in poker, the hard part is getting it into the minds of other players.:D
 
19aleks57

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I think my balance at the poker table is luck, a little skill and a little patience.
 
maxivega

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I think it depends how your stack of chips is, you can play with ease.
 
ChubbySin

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This is kind of a continuation from a facebook discussion. Do you think balance is important in a poker game? Personally, I feel it is very important to have a balanced range (depending on stack size and position) when you are taking any action at the poker table. If you are balanced then you are going to make it hard on your opponents to figure you out. The is with opening ranges, continuing ranges, bluffing ranges and every other decision point. Some people think that being balanced is overrated. So, I bring it to the the people to decide. Is being balanced important or overrated?

Balance is important in life, you don't want to suffer a burnout.
 
Claudiunm

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This is kind of a continuation from a facebook discussion. Do you think balance is important in a poker game? Personally, I feel it is very important to have a balanced range (depending on stack size and position) when you are taking any action at the poker table. If you are balanced then you are going to make it hard on your opponents to figure you out. The is with opening ranges, continuing ranges, bluffing ranges and every other decision point. Some people think that being balanced is overrated. So, I bring it to the the people to decide. Is being balanced important or overrated?

I think it's essential to balance Range x Position x Stack. Most of the time I play freerolls, I play without the quality 'time/environment' needed to strike this balance and I end up compromising myself. Usually when I have the opportunity to balance I get results. In paid games I only enter when I have this quality time. Which is very rare because I'm already too tired from the day to day so I tend to prefer sleeping than playing. Next month I'll be on vacation and I intend to dedicate more to the game and try to achieve a more expressive result.
 
willjosp

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Hellobalance in general is very important in all areas of life in poker is not the exception there are many factors that influence not to get out of control in terms of spending money among other things not to make poker a dependency:D
 
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