Sunny> loosening up

[jeffnc]

I play in a local live $5/$5/$500 game that includes some good, tight players, maybe 1 good loose player, and several weaker loose players.

I'm known in this game as being very tight. The comments I hear surprise me, because although I'm tight, I'm not nearly as tight as they think I am. I never show my cards (and a lot of them do) so it's always assumed I have aces In fact I have quite a variety of things, but I don't seem to be able to capitalize on my extra-tight image (beyond the normal profitability of having good hands against weaker players.)

I'm not complaining - it's amazing how much action I get sometimes. When I raise preflop they usually put me on AA or KK (which is pretty silly) but they don't care - they want to bust me even if they have to put in 25% of their stack trying to flop a set.

I have a several problems playing this way - I'll mention 2.

1) When I raise in EP, it's like playing with my cards face up unless I open up my range. So let's say I throw in the occasional raise with 65s. I just don't hit something often enough to really surprise someone to win any big pots to make this deception worthwhile. On the other hand I get decent action when I do have a hand. I occasionally pick up smallish pots by bluffing and nobody has anything, but with the multiway action it's usually better to just get paid off when I do. I know this isn't really how someone such as yourself would play though. Bottom line: I'm making good money, but have this nagging feeling I'm leaving some money on the table.

2) I have trouble playing against players who violate the "big pot/big hand" principle. Let's say there's a laggy player who plays like 50/30. When he raises, he's raising to $30, and then he's making a bet of $75 on the flop with a $90 pot with middle pair or a draw. What I've been doing is sitting to his right and avoiding heads up play with him. I limp, he raises, I wait to see how many customers I get with my little pair or suited connectors, and then call if I want. In other words I have relative position, and life is good. But what opportunities am I missing here by not playing more forcefully against him, and being willing to push the issue and play heads up with him?

[Sunny Mehta]

Hi Jeff,

As for your first point, I'd say don't worry too much about it right now. The way to beat a game like this is to make hands and get paid, and it sounds like you're doing that. If they're giving you action no matter how tight you play, well heck, keep playing tight. Doesn't sound like this is the type of game where you need to practice a lot of range balancing, deception, etc.

Keep in mind though, when you play against really loose opponents you can usually adjust/downgrade your standards a little as to what constitutes a "good" hand. Particularly the borderline big card hands like AQ,AJ,KQ become more valuable than they might in other games.

So, to your second point, if the dude to your left is really raising to $30 almost every time you limp, instead of limping to see if you wanna call with your small pairs etc, you should limp with strong hands (and I'm including AQ and maybe AJ in that - think good hot and cold hands), and then if he raises and a bunch of people call, you can pop it back over the top and pick up a bunch of dead money. It's a great move, and eventually he might get fed up and call with you some dominated hand.

-S

[jeffnc]

OK, so I limp with AK, he raises to $35, gets 2 or 3 callers, and I make it $125. He calls, maybe 1 other person calls, maybe not. I whiff the flop. Now what?

[Sunny Mehta]

if he makes it 35 and gets two or three callers, i'd pop it to more like 175 or 200. and if i did that, i'd rarely ever fold postflop. Usually i'd jam any flop (almost like a stop&go in a tourney) - sometimes i might bet smaller (or check) on a flop that hit me hard, and very occasionally i might check/fold a really bad spot (e.g., i have AdKd and flop comes 9s8s7s and pot is five-handed).