This thread discusses the Content article: Guest Video - tubasteve $200NL - 12/21/07

Steve is back and mixing it up once again by playing loose-aggressive at a $200NL 6-max table on FTP. Steve is looking to improve his video making skills so please add your comments here! (let him have it!:woohoo:)

I loved this video as he builds a loose image which puts him in some tight spots that make for interesting hands.

Hi ChicagoTroy,

Upon reflection, I do think it was probably a little too loose of a spot. My opponent\'s checkraise flop % was fairly low, which I didn\'t take into account in the video. Regarding the number of tables he is playing, if he is a solid regular (which I perceived him to be) then he will definitely be looking to take a stand at some point.

FTP 1/2 is full of good TAGs that multitable quite well. Another reason I chose to take a stand is to protect myself from getting bluffed later in the session and in later sessions versus that player. I don\'t mind stacking off to a regular even when there are fish at the table since I can just reload and keep playing the fish. It might seem silly, but there are more metagame considerations even at 1/2 NL than most players might think.

Any other questions about the video? :)

-Steve

Ok, I\'ll try to tackle these as best I can without taking an hour. :)

1) Yes, since I was in the 6th grade. I\'m a college senior now so that\'s over 10 years.

2) I know, I\'m working on it.

3) I can definitely do that in the future. I agree that it would be very useful. Generally I try to make notes on plays I\'m not involved in but I think during the course of these vids I\'ve been too busy trying to discuss other points. There is definitely some dead time that I can try to use better.

4) Minraising means a lot of different things depending on the opponent. Often it is more important to pay attention to the frequency at which an opponent minraises rather than the fact that they are just doing it. When I minraise, it is generally with the intentions of tricking my opponent into reraising me, but I will also use it against unimaginative players that will often fold. Also, like in limit we can sometimes minraise the turn in order to get a free showdown, especially if our opponent is bad and won\'t pick up on our strategy.

5) You pretty much nailed it. If I decide to \"stack off\", it means I\'m either a) willing or b) eager to get all my money in at some point during the hand.

6) I use a lot of stats besides VPIP and PFR (the two you mentioned) when I am at the tables. Generally after a few rounds at the table you should be able to tell if a player is decent or not regardless of his stats. Like they say in Rounders, if you can\'t spot the fish in your first half hour at the table, you are the fish. ;) To answer your last question, you are correct that a 35/12 or 50/20 could be more difficult to play against than an 18/15, but generally they will still be more profitable to play since they have more glaring weaknesses and more holes in their games to exploit.

7) Don\'t get trapped into the mantras you might read in crappy NL books you find in the stores. Stealing the blinds and small pots is CRUCIAL to improving your winrate in NLHE. When we make a big bet, we have to think about what we want to accomplish, and what we expect our opponent to do. If villain is tight and unimaginative, then we might make a big bet as a bluff. If he is a thinking player, we might make a big bet trying to get paid off, tricking him into thinking we are bluffing. It really just depends, like anything else in poker. It also depends what you mean by a big bet; as a general rule of thumb unless you are trying to induce some weird behavior out of an opponent, all of your bets should bet at least 1/2 pot, and generally between 2/3 and 3/4 pot. And to answer your last question, you shouldn\'t be thinking about poker in terms of \"usually\" and specific strategies. Just try to identify profitable situations, and you will win lots of money. Of course there is a standard line for most situations, but when you\'re at the tables you shouldn\'t just do something because it is standard. You should do it because it will make you money. :)

Feel free to fire away with the rest of your questions; DC is payin\' me the big bucks to answer them!

another comment: I think you need to raise a little more when iso\'ing tumadre with the other LP fish in the BB. Nikigotballs is CC\'ing your raise in the BB a lot, but if you raised to 10 or 11 pf I think you would get the pot HU with position more often.

And I think you need to c-bet a little bit larger amounts. I think a 4/5s type c-bet tends to get played back at a little less, and the investment creates greater fold equity in situations where you typically have to fold if you get played back at on the flop. Basically it is worth putting in an extra 2-5 dollars on your c-bet if it gives you a 10-20% better chance to win the pot. Also when you do flop a hand and can stand the heat you\'ll create a bigger pot and be more likely to get it in as a big favorite if they try to make a play with a draw.

I just think that you need make slightly largers bets and raises when trying to play LAGGY since you are provoking players to play back at you with your loose play.

FWIW I understand that you ran fairly bad in this video, and I haven\'t seen any bad play other than the 88 hand which was kinda bad, but obviously not horrible.

but against a LP that is peeling a ton and playing back at us I just don\'t think we have a big enough postflop edge to be iso-raising with J6s.

I\'m fine with iso-raising LPs that limp-call pf and then play fit or fold every flop with an even wider range, but this guy was a little more active postflop. Plus we had two LPs in the blinds that were likely to CC which means we could easily end up playing J6s in a 3-way pot where a c-bet costs us at least $15 and we basically have a crap hand.

I play pretty LAGGY (usually around 26/20 pf) and I would pitch this right away. I guess I could definitely be wrong about this, but I just feel like we are going to be able to find a lot better spots to pick on this guy than the J6.

when I\'m 4-tabling I actually find myself playing with very similar preflop numbers. I think if you are paying attention and you have a table of players that will fold, playing somewhere between 40/35 and 30/20 is optimal. There are just so many dead money spots, most multi-tabling TAGs faily to adjust to your pf range quickly enough, and you can easily make up for losing some money with loose pf raises and c-bets when you get paid off (which will happen).

I was 4-tabling NL400 last night on FTP and was playing about 33/27 for almost 400 hands and had a very nice win. I find that I\'ve had to scale back to around 26/19 or so when I am playing more than 4 tables, or when I realize that I\'ve played several thousand hands with some of the regs and they\'ve begun to adjust. If you don\'t scale it back some the decent regs really start to 3-bet you super light whenever they have position.

But obviously if you are paying attention you can just shift gears again and stay ahead of them. I think playing superLAG and playing 4 tables gives you a definite edge in the games on FTP since there are so many TAG regs that grind at all of the tables. But I only have about 30k hands of experience, so my opinion definitely might change if I hit a big downswing or something :p

Regarding c-bet size, I am pretty sure you are wrong as I have discussed this topic very heavily with many players in the past, and with my former coach BalugaWhale. Most of the time you c-bet you will have missed, so by keeping the bet size smaller you lose less money when you get played back at and your c-bet has to win the post a smaller % of the time. When you make the smaller c-bet and then have a hand you want to continue with on the turn, you then can make a larger turn bet to make up for the value you missed on the flop, allowing you to still easily get AI with your monster hands by the river.

I know I am going to feel stupid when I find out the answer, but where do you go to download this video? I have not been able to find it anywhere!