Posted Fri Feb 23, 2007 10:23 am GMT by Felting
Another post in Advanced theory made me think this would be a good topic here.
Playing tight give you some edge. Playing scared hands away some edge.
For me playing tight means folding hands like Ax offsuit and K9 out of positon for example. Playing scared is folding a pocket pair with positon when you have a maniac raise and 3 callers in a low limit game.
Couple of examples of playing tight after the flop to me is not chasing a Gutshot or laying down two overs when the flop comes 8 7 6 suited. Playing scared after the flop would be things like laying down 2 pair to a single bet cause you fear a set or laying down a straight to a single bet cause of a 3 flush on the board on the river.
What are your thoughts on tight vs. Scared?
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Posted Fri Feb 23, 2007 12:33 pm GMT by tame_deuces
What a time for my subject study to shine!
Playing weak is just basic survival instincts. You don't KNOW, so you take the safest solution presented to you. In life its mostly a brilliant solution, and probably saved the lives of our forefathers on many occasions.
In our times there are many times where this adaption directly struggles against what we would have to call statistical knowledge and is irrational, but its not an easy thing to overcome.
However in poker, the most profitable is always going by what is the most probable. Some players look down at a table with their aces and look for hands they can beat, some look down and look for hands that beat them.
Good hold'em players look down and see how much money is in the pot, how much money the other guy has behind, how much money you have behind, figure out some plausible hands and do the math.
Even good hold'em players have to vary of being 'gunshy' though. Right after taking a big bad beat or stumbling into a set the perception is probably a little off, so an extra couple of second to assess a situation probably helps.
Posted Fri Feb 23, 2007 2:13 pm GMT by Felting
well put tame_deuces.
After reading your post i think it comes down to the evolution from beginner to average to good player.
In the beginning most of us either saw Poker on TV, stumbled acrossed it at the casino on the way to the bathroom, or got to see Rounders. So we figured it looks easy enough and sat down at our first table.
Then most of us walked away from that first table(or logged off) with nothing but the lent in our pockets left. This is where I think most players diverge down one of two paths. Either they view poker like every other game in the casino and become donators or, as the case of probably most forum members here, have that drive to compete so they started looking into how to win.
From there most players probably learned starting hand strategy and how to read the board.
After that came the next big split in the road and the hurdle that probably separates the good players from the average. Odds. As deuces talked about, it's those odds that tell us its correct to do something that is going to get us beat most the time cause the few times we win make up for the loses and a little extra. I think most players that play the game for any length of time understand odds, but it's only the one's that can use this understanding to overcome instinct that have a shot at being winning players.
For example in my original post I said playing tight was not chasing the gut shot. What I probably should said was something like not chasing the gut shot heads up in limit getting 3:1 from the pot.
Now lets say for instance you've got AKo and everyone limps, you raise and everyone calls. The flop comes J 10 3 rainbow. now the small blind bets out and 3 players call. Then of course you chase that Q, since it's a draw to the nuts with very good odds.
After that comes reading other players tells. Playing position, making well timed bluffs and what I've heard over and over again is probably the most important to becoming a top player - having the discipline to play your best game every hand.
Did I miss anything?
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