Matthew's Valentine's day Article.

[woodyman4916]

After reading Matthew's article, I can't help but agree. I have been coming to the same conclusion myself over the past months. My question is: How loose? Watching Matthew play online a couple of times, my opinion is that he is damn maniacal. Maybe that is the best strategy for someone with his skills, or maybe it was because he was playing a large field tournament. The question remains, roughly how loose do you want to be. As a tight limit player this is the hardest adjustment I have had to make. Although I have opened up my game I am wondering how much further I should go before EV starts to go down. I realize this is subjective. But are we talking about playing 40% of the hands early or say 25% on average?

[poker_Elmo]

Great article Matthew.

Woody - I think how loose you play could vary, and certain is dictated by your own personal style. In Toro's recent tourney win, I think he was pretty tight, at least through the first 80 or so hands that I watched. He ran a bit better than average with the cards given he played 350 hands (I think he had KK several times, and AA at least once), but the key is he loosened up when appropriate.

I think different players can have different successful styles. Rizen seems like a very tight player. He picks spots to pick up pots with light cards, but he plays tight and plays well and makes lots of money.

I don't know that you need to play super loose, but you must be willing to gamble often in a tourney. (e.g. you see a cheap flop with JTs and the flop is AT4 and you get a flush draw - this is a good spot to try to get all in, even if you know your opponent has AK).

You also must try to read for weakness in your opponents. If you spot it, you must also follow through on your read with bets to win the pot. It will backfire sometimes, but as long as the move is +EV, the fact that is is a high variance play isn't a bad thing in a tourney.

[mchilger]

Woody, this is hard to define. I think most importantly, as Elmo says, you need to find a style that works for you and that you are comfortable with. However, if you currently have a tight tournament strategy, you should probably start working on loosening up.

In my case, my game has been a work-in-progress since the 2004 WSOP. I played with Greg Raymer that year on at least a couple of days of the tourney for at least 8 or 9 hours. I was able to witness first-hand a player on his way to WSOP glory. I learned a lot in that tournament. Combine that with what I was seeing on TV and reading about the top players, I made a conscious decision to change my game.

Back then, I played what I call a "TJ Cloutier" style or old-style type of game. Basically, you are always looking to put your money in with the best hand to give you your edge - Only call with really really good hands. Now I like calling with 86s .

How have I adjusted my game? First, I started to raise a few more hands from late position until I got comfortable with that. Then maybe a few from middle. So now I am raising hands like 98s. Then I added a few more. 65s or J9s. Then a few more like T9o or 87o. Then a few more, etcetera. Early last year in Borgata on the 2nd day I raised from middle position with T3s on the very first hand of the day (SB with short-stack goes allin and I am forced to call with odds- flop is T33!).

The point is that this was a very gradual process for me. I needed to get comfortable playing post-flop. I needed to learn how to win pots with any two cards. I needed to get comfortable playing more and more hands. In New Orleans last year Gavin Smith raised every single hand that wasn't raised before him. I haven't reached that point yet, except for maybe bubble play. I doubt I would ever reach a point of playing as loose as Gus. Again, individual style and comfort level is important.

Having said all of this, I do pick my spots. Sometimes I can be very tight - waiting for a table change, or change of players, etcetera. It all depends on the particulars of a table but I do have now a lot more gears in my game then in the past.

Matthew

[taz115]

Thanks for the added info PE and Matthew. This is something I have to work on as I probably play close to what you desicribe as TJ style. I do alright, but I'm probably cashing in a higher % of MTTs but going deep in a smaller % as a result.

[toronexti]

I just read this article and I had the same question as woody. Mainly what's loose and what's tight? I think the presumption that playing loose in cash games is not as good as playing tight is at least partially wrong. The top players are usually LAGs or SLAA and do great - the 'good' players are at the upper extremes of TAG and the 'winning' players are towards the middle or bottom of the TAG range.

In tournaments, on the other hand, I see it more as knowing when to be loose or tight. As you mentioned Rizen seems to play a tightish game as do a lot of the other top tourney players. The difference I think isn't in playing a 'looser' strategy, the difference is in understanding what table dynamics allow you to loosen up to where it seems you're a maniac - and to take full advantage of it when possible. Upon reviewing my play at the end of the sunday mil I realized I still have to work on understanding FT dynamics (as I missed a lot of key spots there). But in general I think playing a tightish game that looks for small +ev spots to increase the variance is better than playing a loose game where you have a semi-unknown ev on any particular hand.

[mchilger]

Toro, I'm reading Harrington II right now (a little behind on my reading) and he would agree with you. He plays solid, while every now and then making plays which might look maniacal (reraising with 62o).

Always trying to get your money in preflop with the best hand will not work too well in tourneys as your variance is too small.

On the other spectrum are players like Negreanu , Gavin Smith, Lindgren, and Hansen - it is hard to argue with their success.

One needs to be comfortable with their style but if loose (Negreanu) is on the left of the spectrum and tight is on the right (TJ style), you need to at least be in the middle (Harrington). Anything to the right might work well in low-limit cash games, but won't get you too far in tournaments.

One other comment, a mediocre loose player will probably have a lot more success than a mediocre tight player in tournaments, although I suspect this is the reverse in cash games. But as you say, the very top players know how to adjust their game to react to table conditions but this article was really looking at overall styles for typical players.

Matthew

[toronexti]

[mchilger]

I agree that tight players will make the money more often, but you rarely see a tight amatuer win a major tournament, whereas you see plenty of the loose amateurs winning them - Moneymaker and Gold being the most famous, but you also see winners of the WPT who are generally loose players.

I should also define "loose". I am not talking about making negative expectation draws or stuff like that. I am referring to one's preference to seeing a lot of flops. I don't think it is a matter of suckouts. It is simply a matter of seeing a lot of flops cheaply to give themselves a chance to get "lucky" - flopping straights, two pair, sets, etcetera.

Matthew