Please comment my strategy...

[RVladimiro]

Here's my baseline strategy, the one I intend to take to the money tables starting tonight. Keep in mind I'll be playing .01/.02 tables and $1 SNGs.

What I'm defining is my baseline. I take notes of the players usual raising hands and habits so everything is usualy adjusted to the table and players but this is what I'm thinking early on to keep me disciplined.

Early position

Even with play-money I only play TT+ and AK AQ. I always c-bet in early position, usually half-pot. If there's a draw, I'll bet even more. If I get a re-raise I take my time to look at the table and go from there. Very rarely I get to showdown from early position. Usually someone folds. I play it like this because I want to run the betting when in early position.

Mid position

If there's a raise before me I act like in early position, if not I'll raise with blackjack hands and up. This is where I struggle more. If nothing scares me in the flop, I'm taking control of the betting, if it does scare me, I'm usualy not so confident of where I am. Maybe I have to make a habit of just c-betting in mid position.

Late position

Pretty much like mid position but without getting scared. I have everyone speaking first so I can sit back and fold or apply pressure. I raise from late position if I there's no previous raise and I have two cards with value above 8. If there's limping in all around the table I'll join with very speculative hands like suited Ax or connectors, Q7 and J6 (thank you Little Green Book!).

Blinds

I don't think I can even explain how I play from the blinds. Depends on who is the first bettor, if there's raises and re-raises, if someone is trying to steal me often. I tend to pressure the other blind (again depending on what's going on).

Other stuff

One thing that is absolutely vital to me is table image. Everytime I felt that things didn't work out for me was when no one really took my bets seriously. So I usually prefer to not play, see others playing and wait for a big hand to make my presence noted and then start pressuring. It's like I start nitty and then go tight-aggressive.

If I'm on a drawing hand I'll either get it cheap (or free) or I'll fold. If the table offers a drawing hand and I feel I'm ahead, I'll try to force them out.

If I feel I'm ahead I go for the pot. If I feel I'm way ahead I'll do my best to have the other players betting, sometimes I put low bets to draw them in other times I'll let them take the lead and act like I'm not sure of the current hand. I can't really say I have some sort of techiniques for this, it just happens during one or two hands per hour (which I think it helps because my behavior is somewhat changed). I don't think I always do it the same way, sometimes I use scare cards to slowdown, other times I take more time than usual to do something.

When I'm not really sure, I check the turn and see what other players are doing (I believe I read this from Rob Rounder). It's dangerous but more than often I'll have them folding in the river. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this part though.

When the table shifts, I get really tight until I get a grip of what's going on. Then adjust and resume. I usually adjust a lot of my starting hands to the number of players sitting. The less, the wider is my range.

Oh well this post helped me quite a lot because I wrote what I only have in my mind. What do you all think? What mistakes are obvious? What ranges are incorrect?

And thank you for reading all this.

 

[Worak]

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Early position

Even with play-money I only play TT+ and AK AQ. I always c-bet in early position, usually half-pot. If there's a draw, I'll bet even more. If I get a re-raise I take my time to look at the table and go from there. Very rarely I get to showdown from early position. Usually someone folds. I play it like this because I want to run the betting when in early position.

snip
Blinds

I don't think I can even explain how I play from the blinds. Depends on who is the first bettor, if there's raises and re-raises, if someone is trying to steal me often. I tend to pressure the other blind (again depending on what's going on).

Other stuff
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If I'm on a drawing hand I'll either get it cheap (or free) or I'll fold. If the table offers a drawing hand and I feel I'm ahead, I'll try to force them out.
snip

I'm not a cash game player but rather play STTs and MTTs - so my comments are to be taken with a grain of salt.

EP:

I like the fact that you are pretty tight in EP - although I question the "always c-betting" part. If you c-bet 100% a villain that has half a clue will float you ~100%.

Blinds:
3 betting light against frequent stealers may work - but usually it's better to just stay unphazed and fold most of the mediocre stuff.

If you steal from the SB frequently you will likely get resteals from the BB more often than not. You're always oop postflop.

 

[RVladimiro]

Thank you for the comments.

My reasoning for EP is that I play it so rarely that when I do it I'm showing I'm the guy that will take the pot. Villain has to hit a major flop to re-raise me. Even if he calls me, he will be behind in most scenarios. But thanks for pointing it out, I'll keep an eye in this strategy.

I don't steal from the blinds frequently. I tend to pressure the other blind depending on what happened around the table. I (absolutely) never steal just for stealing, I need to have some confidence in my pocket cards.

 

[jbbb]

Don't like limping with Q7 or other trash hands. Even on the button they'll cause you more problems than they're worth and there are rarely enough limpers to justify playing them. If you flop a queen, you gonna bet? What about if someone bets before you? It causes a lot of post flop problems so i just muck these hands. I'm all for playing like JTo for cheap on the button or even raising for initative as they can actually flop a hand.

 

[RVladimiro]

Q7 and J6 are mentioned (if I'm not mistaken) in the Little Green Book. The idea behind it is to limp with it on very late positions and check the flop since it can create hidden straights. I'll share my results with it later on.

 

[acky100]

The little green book is a good book, but im pretty sure parts of it dont apply for micro limits if thats what you're playing, dont bother playing trash like Q7 or J6, i guarantee you you will not do good playing shit like this. And definitely dont use the little green books advice for cash games if you have been.

C-betting all the time from EP is the worst thing you could do also, you should probably be c betting more when you're In position i.e. late position as you will have more of an idea whether a certain flop hit your opponent, read some articles on c-betting, reasons for betting, and position if i were you this will give you a good grounding for cash games, im not a stt or mtt player so cant help you there, i just know you shouldnt be limping with trash hands - good luck

Post some hands in the HA part of the forum when you arent sure if you played right or not and you'll get some good advice and see what you're doing wrong

 

[seanDCFC]

Q7 and J6 are mentioned (if I'm not mistaken) in the Little Green Book. The idea behind it is to limp with it on very late positions and check the flop since it can create hidden straights. I'll share my results with it later on.

Avoid this, if your a beginning player this will only give yourself difficult decisions post-flop and you need to try to make decisions as straight forward as possible.

 

[OzExorcist]

Why are you going to play ring games and SnGs? Pick just one and stick to it IMO.

Plus I don't want to burst your bubble but at the stakes you're talking about playing most players won't be paying any attention whatsoever to your carefully crafted table image. Just play your hands straightforward.

 

[jbbb]

Why are you going to play ring games and SnGs? Pick just one and stick to it IMO.

Plus I don't want to burst your bubble but at the stakes you're talking about playing most players won't be paying any attention whatsoever to your carefully crafted table image. Just play your hands straightforward.

Yeah table image isn't a massive consideration unless your in a hand against a reg who probably has PT or HEM.
I think a mixture of both is healthy at developing different skills.
SNG's is good for bubble considerations and push/fold ranges whereas cash games help a lot in post flop play so mixing them up is fine, especially at the lower limits.

 

[OzExorcist]

SNG's is good for bubble considerations and push/fold ranges whereas cash games help a lot in post flop play so mixing them up is fine, especially at the lower limits.

So basically... playing SnGs helps you get better at playing SnGs while playing cash games helps you get better at cash games since there are no bubble considerations in cash games and you're pretty much never faced with deep stack postflop decisions in SnGs. Playing one doesn't really help you that much with the other.

I'm just saying anyone starting out should focus their time on one format so they can be better focused and learn quicker. Not really much point being mediocre at both.

 

[jbbb]

So basically... playing SnGs helps you get better at playing SnGs while playing cash games helps you get better at cash games since there are no bubble considerations in cash games and you're pretty much never faced with deep stack postflop decisions in SnGs. Playing one doesn't really help you that much with the other.

I'm just saying anyone starting out should focus their time on one format so they can be better focused and learn quicker. Not really much point being mediocre at both.

Well i've found playing cash games has helped in the early stages of tournies for reading hands in like 10/20 to 25/50 blinds. Before studying cash games i didn't know about WA/WB, pot control or lots of other stuff. Maybe I could have found it out in SNG's but it came a lot quicker playing cash as it comes up a lot more often.

 

[RVladimiro]

Thank you very much for your feedback. I see it's general that I should stick to ABC poker and I will certainly do that.

Regarding SNG vs ring, I felt really confortable on play-money SNG but I certainly felt unconfortable on $1 SNG today. Something to think about for sure.

 

[jbbb]

Thank you very much for your feedback. I see it's general that I should stick to ABC poker and I will certainly do that.

Regarding SNG vs ring, I felt really confortable on play-money SNG but I certainly felt unconfortable on $1 SNG today. Something to think about for sure.

You'll be crushing $1's in no time. Add me on skype man we can chat about opening ranges coz it sounds like you might be opening a bit loose in MP and you can sweat me if ya want.

 

[Poker Orifice]

As Oz has suggested above, stick to one or the other (SNG or Ring) don't play both.

 

[RVladimiro]

Need your opinion...

As Oz has suggested above, stick to one or the other (SNG or Ring) don't play both.

This puts me in a tight spot. I can understand this advice (that I'll mostly likely take) but my problem here is a ratio between time and fun.

I enjoy playing quite a lot regardless of ring or sng. I have a extra dose of fun with sng because of the competitive aspect of it though. My plan was to play rings when I had sometime and everytime I had some hours to play, hit sngs.

I can hit a ring at anytime and if needed, leave it. On the other hand I get an extra kick from sngs. Since I believe it is important that I actually play as much as I can, would it be more benefitial to my game to stick with rings then? And if I had some hours to spare keep with rings?

 

[OzExorcist]

Obviously you can do whatever you want - all I was saying is that trying to learn two games at once is a lot harder than just learning one and in some cases what you learn in one can be detrimental to the other game. You don't want to play a deep-stacked cash game like the mid-to-late stages of a SnG and vice versa, for example.

 

[Makwa]

Why are you going to play ring games and SnGs? Pick just one and stick to it IMO.

Plus I don't want to burst your bubble but at the stakes you're talking about playing most players won't be paying any attention whatsoever to your carefully crafted table image. Just play your hands straightforward.

So basically... playing SnGs helps you get better at playing SnGs while playing cash games helps you get better at cash games since there are no bubble considerations in cash games and you're pretty much never faced with deep stack postflop decisions in SnGs. Playing one doesn't really help you that much with the other.

I'm just saying anyone starting out should focus their time on one format so they can be better focused and learn quicker. Not really much point being mediocre at both.

yea verily I say,,,

 

[LizzyJ]

Thank you for the comments.


I don't steal from the blinds frequently. I tend to pressure the other blind depending on what happened around the table. I (absolutely) never steal just for stealing, I need to have some confidence in my pocket cards.

Not stealing is a major leak in your game. In single table SnG's, stealing is absolutely vital, especially during the bubble and when you are ITM.