warning, this is long.
*inspired by the "what kind of player are you" thread*

well, i finally get it now. i understand why ive been running bad online lateley, and i will give you a hint. its not the cards ive been hitting, the site ive been playing on, or the fact that im getting outplayed by better players.

I have a groove. yes, thats right. i can tell when im playing well. i get into this groove, this rythem while playing. everything just feels right. i understand everything. i understand why people are making the moves they are making. i respond. i play my game against them, i figure out how they are playing, and beat them.

recently, ive started playing online ALOT. i probably play at least 2 hours a day. after about 20k hands of 100nl, something is wrong. i am not crushing the games like i should be. im barely even beating them. im running badly, obviously. however, i realised something today. i dont feel the groove online. playing live at the casino, i am 100% focused.

this is the hard part to explain. looking over hand histories, i realised that my biggest losing hands are with hands i shouldnt be in. let me explain. i have just recently learned of a LAG style of play. my friend has been helping me. however, im not ready for it. i was implementing it at the tables, and i am STILL not comfortable with it. and you may not think this is a big deal. it makes the differnce, everyone. if you are not comfortable playing, youre gonna play poorly. when your new style isnt woking, youre mind is going to be confused. "im making the right plays, and not getting rewared" this is going to lead to you playing worse, and not only will you run bad, you will play bad. BAD combo.

"but TA, thats so simple! why are you rambling on about this!"

because its important. its important to understand what you are cabable of, and what is right and what is wrong. its very easy to go down the wrong path and think you are playing right, but are playing badly. thats what i was doing. im playing horrible, and its because i have had a hard time adjusting to a LAG style of play. that, combined with some bad cards, started messin with my head. eventually, it took me about 15k hands of break even play to realise what had happened. i wasnt playing my normal game, the game i KNOW i can win with. MY MIND WAS LITERALLY MAKING EXCUSES IN MY HEAD TO MAKE STUPID BLUFFS THAT I WOULD NEVER MAKE. AND I WAS LISTENING AND DOING THEM!

so what did i do? well, i closed all of my tables i was in. i typed up this giant thread (mostly, for myself) in hopes that maybe by typing this, i will learn that playing completely agressive tilted is not winning poker. it really isnt. its 4:00 am and i was so fucking pissed about another god damn losing session and i dont even care anymore because it all makes sense to me now.

im going to bed. tomorrow i will wake up, and for all that i know, im completely even and on a clean slate. im going to jump to a more lag style when im ready. for now, i will play my standard game (hence my name). i will grind out a profit at 100nl wether the damn website likes it or not.

I've had some issues with getting trapped a lot lately and people staying in with hands thinking they have extra outs when those outs are dead and hitting the live ones, mainly because it's a new age in poker- the database age. This always happens to me where I just have to be mnore conscious in changing my game up to warp my stats a bit that other people have on me.

You're also playing a lot of 6max. and if you're gonna be aggressive, you really have to switch it up more. The great advantage of 6max is that you can never show down a hand in a $100 game and make $25-$30 in a couple of hours being aggressive on a tight table. But there are a lot of calling stations in NL 6max. right now, from what I've noticed and I've gone back to playing full-ring online where I had a great month last month and I just need to do some reverse trapping.

I now have the short-term luxury of turning good players into calling stations/pay-off wizards. I finally realized that the last couple of night at the casino when I've been fairly conservative, yet still getting paid off because my reputation, which was once making my opponents make the mistake of calling or folding when they should've raised is now making them raise when they should fold.

I played a little bit this afternoon and did all right winning 1 big pot and a couple of above average pots against good players with hands that made me say, "What the hell was this guy thinking?" It's simple. He thinks I have shit and he's overbetting me out of the pot when I'm not going anywhere.

I am an action junkie, though and I'm used to taking a lot of flops, but I've finally installed a mechanism in my tournament game that's halted my re-raising before and on the flop. I do a lot of PF and flop calling in live games because the game I play is so lively that the pots are so huge and the turn/river play is so weak. Not a big difference online, just less loose limping because of the lack of antes. I did it today and I really felt very comfortable, though I was playing less hands.

I'm playing a couple of lo-stakes PLO games on Party and some $1k heads up NLHE on Prima and it's gone well. So, I'd suggest slowing down and using that energy in micro's for fun. Micros and HU and great places for me to let that loose in ways that work.

But in the database age, varying your play online is soooo much more magnified than live and I'll bet that's the issue lately. If you're getting people making "bad calls" even though they have the best hand, start using it against them. Playing an extra table or two help this a lot as well. I've been playing 2 or 3 at a time, but this afternoon, I was playing 4. Definitely slowed me down in each game in an effective manner.

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A few thoughts....

Trying a new style u have to expect a learning curve and should play poorly at first.

That being said i don't think much of the style (well to a degree).

I make more money of lags than any style except stations. Ive never seen it used really effectively at stakes below 1/2 and i think that is for 2 reasons.

The first is pretty obvious, u need leverage and there is none at low stakes where the bets are measured in pocket change and everyone is a station/donk.

The 2nd is why i say 'well to a degree'...it is the most difficult style to master but when it is, its a fast money maker. As such until someone is skilled enough for mid stakes they just dont have the skill to even attemp the style nor make money at it and will usually just pay off the skilled players at the table.

I suggest u use it at 6 seat tables where there is less chance of anyone hitting flop making that 1st flop bet more effective, though i also suggest u hold off on the stlye for the above reasons.

(my 2c)


(sorry for the nittish suggestion lol...added after alex's post)

I will say that the learning curve is usually expensive. I lost a few thousands learning limit in 6max because I had to open up my game and prior to I sucked at limit Hold 'em. So being even after a couple of weeks or a month attempting to expand your arsenal playing $100 games 20 hours a week is like being up $250/wk., actually.

I'm recommending to take a step forward in versatility and play your table more accordingly stage-by-stage because 6max. tables have severe personality disorders and the people who win makes the right adustments at the right times by being observant. I'm not saying to step back and be a nit.

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then you are playing bad lags, or low stakes games where everybody sucks.

It really depends on what you mean by loose. I mean loose is someone playing 60% of their hands to some people and 30% to others.

They call Gus, Antonio, and Daniel loose, not in comparison to bad players but in comparison to good players.

I agree that you will not find a "good" loose aggressive player in any low or mid stakes games, and you will find even less online (this style requires a people/hand reading skill that is more compatible with live play)

As far as the original topic goes: I agree that the "correct" style depends on the individuals skills. of the main styles -TA, LA, LP, TP- only TA is profitable. However if we expand TA to include Semi tight or aggressive, or LA to include the same we are introduced to blends of styles that can be profitable, but only for certain people with certain skills. This is even more true when you include pre and post-flop play.

I've always said that perhaps 5% of players are winners. This may seem low, and I'm not implying 95% of players are bad. My estimation is, 75% of players are just downright bad and 25% get it. So why do only 5% win? Because, of that 25% that are capable of winning only a small percentage are doing the smaller things it takes -record keeping, note taking, continued education, blah blah blah-. If you don't think 25% "get it" poll your next few tables and see how many have read books or poker mags, or browse the net for info. You'll be surprised just how many do.

Additionally of that small percentage trying to win, some are just playing a style of game that doesn't suit their skills. Or, are playing Hold' em when they should be playing Stud or limit instead of No Limit.

Just because you "get it" doesn't mean you will ever win playing poker. You need the skills to play. Despite what the WSOP tells you, not anyone can pick up the game and win.

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Thank you John McCain for picking a woman who represents the worst-case scenario: A cute wild buffoon who is proud to be dumb.

that, and the fact that online is like 100x harder then live... also, 100NL is one of the hardest limits to beat, as most of the players there know what they are doing.. there basically players like me and you...
at 200NL and up, u start getting looser players and alot of gamblers as well who should really be playing blackjack then poker. basically u get the wealthy business men, and doctors etc, who just play for fun at the 200NL+ level. well at the 10max games anyways.

this is why i dont plan on playing NL100... im just gonna grind nl50 till i have a br larger enough to play NL200, then go from there