Playing and switching gears

[Vice_PK]

Ok to start off,

I've been playing poker for about 6-9 months regularly now. I started in small sit-n-go tourneys and more recently i started playing cash games.

In tournaments I am fairly successfull and have a positive bank roll. The problem that I have is that in cash games I am less so.

The way that I play, at least in tournaments is of course depending on the table. Generally I will play agressive at a tight table and somewher e throughout the middle I change gears and play tight once i notice that people have started calling me. Vice versa is true for agressive tables.

However, when I play cash games this is not working for me. In tournaments changing gears is not a big deal as you play in accordance with the blinds. In Ring games, however, I'm finding it a lot harder to switch gears especially when switching from agressive to tight play.

I play at .25/ .50 tables. I have no trouble doubling my initial cash in within 1-2 hours of playing. HOwever when my stack gets bigger, i start playing more like in tournaments and use my big stack ( when i don't need to). Obviously since I'm tagged as a loose agressive player in the beginning, i get called a lot more often, with marginal hands.

I'm wondering if anyone has tips they can give me for regulating my play or tricks on how to keep patient and switching back in gears.

Since I play a lot of tournaments, I also find that I make a lot of correct reads as to what the hand of the person I'm playing against has. Problem is, when i get tagged as a loose player, it's pointless as my reraises are called with the hands that i know they shouldn't be calling tight players with.

Obviously when I have big hands, i get paid off a lot however it's the switching gears that i find incredibly hard.

I know the value of playing tight and started reading a lot of aokrongly's posts I see that my strategy that works in tournaments might not necessarily work in cash games. Could you please give me any tips?

[ChrisTheFish]

Stick to the LAGG style and as you said you WILL get paid on your big hands but.. just learn when your beat and make a fold now and again.. Good luck

[Rondavu]

You should only be lagging when you have too much respect. Otherwise play tight aggressive regardless of your stack size. You'd be amazed how long a bad image lasts. I can make a stone bluff and show once, and get payed off for two hours. It's kinda like that. You're overdoing the lagg part.

You should always apply pressure in high fold equity spots regardless (especially with outs), but slow down on the representation for the most part once people start looking you up. You achieved your goal of stimulating action. Stop beating a dead horse.

[martindcx1e]

Once you get a deep stack there's no reason to change anything if everyone else is playing normal/short stacks. If you're playing against other deep stacks you should be playing lots of implied odds hands, and you should be less willing to get your stack in the middle.

[Vice_PK]

so your suggestion is to keep playing around 30% -40% of the flops keeping my LAGG style?

Anything else? Any online resources that you know of (or links here) that I should read that would help me develop it further?

Thanks a lot guys

[Warpe]

30-40% is a tad loose. Are you playing full-ring or 6-max?

[Vice_PK]

full ring. Only full ring

[benny999]

I think rondavu's post is good, and otherwise just keep getting experience, try posting some hand histories and reading more on here/books/other forums. There are good links in the beginner's digest - http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...oker-36037.htm

One comment - by playing so many hands you will probably pay lots of "learners tax" by getting into many marginal situations and therefore need to play fewer tables...maybe try out tag only to see if you get paid off even without a lag image. Then you can multitable. But at higher stakes palying lag and switching gears becomes way more important though, from what I understand.

[Vice_PK]

You're definitely right about the learner's tax. Although I make very often correct reads, I sometimes still confuse what the situation really is and what I'd like it to be.

Last night is a perfect example.
I had QQ on button. 5 callers prior to myself (almost a family pot)
I raised to 6 times the blind (3$)
BB reraised to 7$ total
everyone folds except me
I called the raise.
Flops comes with 3 non suited low cards.
Make follow up bet of half the pot and say to myself that if i get reraised I will fold as he probably has AA or KK + it was a player who played abit less than 20% of hands.
Sure enough reraise. of total pot size.
I went all-in

sure enough he had the AA
I oviously lost the hand and the hand after flopped the nut straight on the turn in a 5 to 1 pot with no possibilities for a full house yet. I went all in (i think it was about 30$ for 3x the pot). One caller, and On the river the guy flopped a full house from his set and I lost most of what I had left over.

So i had a bit of bad luck on the hand after to redeem myself. But i was very upset at the way i placed QQ. Next time faced with a reraise from a tight player after a post flop bet I will definitely fold.

Thanks for the reference

[martindcx1e]

so your suggestion is to keep playing around 30% -40% of the flops keeping my LAGG style?

I'm just saying that once you get a deep stack and really noone else has one you shouldn't be playing any differently then if you only had 100BB's because that's the most money that will be at stake. If others have 200BB's (or however deep you are) like you then you have to be a bit more cautious because then your whole deep stack will be at risk. So if only 100BB's are at risk then just keep doing what got you your big stack in the first place.

[jyms]

Big stack in tourneys means the end for a smaller stack to play a marginal hand at you. In ring, you are a double up oppertunity for fortune hunters. If they lose, they reload. No one fears the large stack in ring, certainly not a 30%+ VP$P. Play tighter and be aggressive, ring is more about postflop and controlled aggresion, Later in tournies are more about stack sizes and preflop hands (push, fold, steal).

Play like the first hour of a tourney, position, pot odds, implied odds and play like that all the time.