TAG style at 10NL

[AKQJ]

I play 10NL and I have problems playing TAG style. I usually play a weak tight style with a lot of limping. I only raise the premium hands and sometimes junk when I am in late position. I win very much with the weak tight style and I have a very low variance too. But when I try to play TAG I'm only a breakeven/marginal winner. I don't need to play TAG at this limit but on the higher limits I can't play anymore this weak tight style, that's why I try to play TAG from 10NL.
The tables are loose passive. Even if I only raise AA,KK and QQ, I still get callers and I stack the donks very often. I think AA-QQ are my biggest winners. When I try to raise more hands preflop, very often they call my preflop raise then my c-bet (or raise my cbet, or they make a donkbet and call my raise). Is it normal to win more money with a weak tight style than with a TAG style at this limit?

[kb coolman]

Depends on the players, I guess. Personally, I say you need to play whatever style you can play confidently and that wins at table you're playing. If I'm stitting with a bunch of LAGs, TAG is the way to go. I don't see many pots, but a lot of the ones I do are for stacks. On a real nitty table, I'll open up my hand range a little cause you can limp into a ton of flops, and stardard 4xBB raises steal the blinds a lot.

Earlier today, I sat a $10NL with a LAG who was running hot and had at $40 stack. Another TAG and I whittled away hit entire stack over about the next hour and finally felted him. I left the table with about $25, and I don't think I won a singe dime that didn't come from that guy's stack.

Well, do raise hands for value that are not pocket pairs. If you raise AK it's because you want to put more money in the pot in preparation for flopping good and getting money from people who will call with worse.

You might want to start checking behind if you miss flops with AK. If the cbet is not profitable, then don't make one. If they fold on ace-high flops, then bet ace-high flops when you don't have AK. If they don't fold ace-high flops, then you're making money with AK.

[Chopper]

yes, but it is becoming increasingly harder. the games are stiffening as they should.

start opening your range by stealing blinds a bit and cbetting flops against villains you can fold off. build some confidence and start screwing with the other weak/tights at the table. you will start to see where you can take a more universal approach with the exact same range.

[sarbox68]

You will have to exorcise your weak-tighties at some point in your development. Playing only super-premium hands and giving up to any real aggression will still allow you to make money at the really low micros as you've found... 'cause people value bet crap, call down with crap and don't really bluff much with anything but crap.

This will change -- so you got a choice to make. Grow some balls at this level (where mistakes cost you at most $10 usually...) or wait until you're a losing player at a higher limit where mistakes will cost you more. $10NL is the cheap place to school -- but IMHO the first level where you've got enough rational players where it's not just flipping for beer money.

My suggestion is to focus on changing the weak before you think about changing the tight. Keeping your starting hands positionally premium will make sure you're showing up to the fight with something nice, and will mean you're better equipped to put some meat behind your punches through multiple streets.

If too many hands are staying multi-way with your betsizing, make your bets bigger. Make sure you stay focused on what plays better HU vs. multi-way and think about how your bet sizing can set you up the best.

Don't open limp. Please. If the hands not good enought to raise first in the pot, it's not good enough to play.

Remember - you're not just raising pre-flop 'cause you have the nuts. You're also doing it to build a bigger pot that sets up larger bets on subsequent streets. And you're doing it so that everyone else sitting at the table can't go "Oh.... dude's betting... must have Aces......"

As you get more comfortable raising more and consistently making 2/3 - potsize post-flop bets, then you can add a few hands to move from ultra-nit to just nit and then maybe even get to tight! (I'm stil working on that one myself....)

Pay attention on the cbets. Pick up on the calling stations and don't bluff them. They're likely to take your ass to showdown so you want something to show when you get down. If they weak-tightie like you, steal their blinds or pre-flop limps with position.

As iopq said, (he's the dude with the loaf of bread on his head...) learn to check and fold AK. It looks really sweet, but when it whiffs you really only got two overs.

Hopefully there something helpful in that. GL!

[Robb]

I win very much with the weak tight style and I have a very low variance too. But when I try to play TAG I'm only a breakeven/marginal winner. I don't need to play TAG at this limit but on the higher limits I can't play anymore this weak tight style, that's why I try to play TAG from 10NL.

Is it normal to win more money with a weak tight style than with a TAG style at this limit?

I don't think you can play (winning) 10nl 6max much more agro than I did, though some play a bit tighter (I run about 21/16/4), and I beat it for 9+ ptBB/100 over my last 20k at that level. The beauty of TAGG is how simple it is. You just add a small dose of weak-tight in spots like AK catching air, a pair of 2's with an 876 FD board, etc. Other than that, just value town the donks and stations, and see how many streets they'll call with junk. If it's less than 3, agro > > > > > weak-tight.