Addendum to My Game

One thing that I have changed in my game this week on the road towards aggression is calling an average PF raise with small and mid-sized PP’s. [Aggressive poker is winning poker. This is a fact. A basic misconception believed by some players, is that statement means that aggressive is defined as loose. Aggressive doesn’t have a lot to do with starting hand requirements – OK, maybe a little. Basically it means that when you are involved in a hand you play it strongly.] I am obviously doing this for set value. I was talking with Rake about our current converse styles. He decided that he would tighten up a little until he gets out of his current rush. I decided that it was time for me to add this next weapon to my arsenal. It costs money to make money. In the long term this strategy should make me money in the long run for 2 reasons. Obviously foremost by hitting my set, but also by calling more raises people will consider me less of a rock and put me on a larger range of hands. So hitting my set – I miss it 7 out of 8 hands which sounds counter-intuitive to making money, but hear me out. That 1 time that I hit, if I play it right for the raiser’s holding I likely stack him or at least make a nice chunk of change. Therefore we are talking +EV for the new play. Plus the added bonus of players putting me on a wider range of starting hands, which in turn gets me more calls when I hit and raise that hand and successive hands. (+EV, for those that don’t know, means – Expected Value.) Example: 7 x $2 = $14. 1 x $25 = $25. $25 -$14 = +$11. So Expected Value for 8 hands with this play is $11. Let me break down how I came up with these numbers. Hitting your set is 7 to 1. Average Preflop raise is 4xBB, so at $.50 blinds, we are looking at $2. Then I estimate $25 for the 1 time that I do hit my set and considering in all likelihood what the average over time I would make on the set against a player’s hand, in my best summation. This includes me stacking him, me reraising and him folding on the flop, turn, or river, and the times when he stacks me due to SOS and hitting draws. I could be off quite a bit here in my estimations and it would still be a +EV play. This strategy might be considered basic to some people, but I have always been stingy with putting my money in the middle without pretty good odds of winning the hand. But hey, you must learn to walk before you can run – and I’m currently crawling. LOL.

I would currently consider my current style tight-semi-weak. OK, let me back up for a sec. My current game is based around easy decision making, that’s the weak part. I don’t make a lot of plays and my post flop game isn’t strong and I fold often to aggression if I’m not most-likely in the lead. Usually if I’m in a hand I am pretty positive where I stand throughout the hand, especially on the flop. This is accomplished by my starting hand requirements and how I go to the flop. If I likely have the best of it I pounce and don’t allow draws in cheaply. I make them make mistakes that ultimately pay off in the long term. The weak part can be broken down into a few parts: PF raising hands, and not CBing and otherwise betting without strong holds for folding equity often enough. I have loosened a little in these areas.

My current strategy is a proven money maker. (At least for me.) It is also a safe way to play. But it is also quite predictable to knowledgeable players which I will be up against if I continue to climb up stakes. My reasons for wanting to change my current lucrative style are because I want to grow as a player, maximize my profits, and because I want to go up in stakes. Adding the calling of raises with PP’s is only the beginning to my aggression goals. Growing or evolving as a player is essential for moving above the $200 NL game, and even will make the $100 and $200 NL more lucrative. I am wasting profits by sitting back and only playing safe. I should be the aggressor more often in the hands that I play. So I need to become less predictable, thus making me less easy to exploit. Plus playing all these different hands to the flop, I will have to strengthen my postflop game. My overall poker skill level will grow and I will become more diverse. Yah Me!

These are my future goals with aggression in my game. I believe them to work and have read that they work, but I want to go slowly. I believe in adding a new aspect only once I see and learn what my current change has contributed to my game or taken away from my game. Here they are.

1 – calling raises with PP’s for set value and table image.
2 – raising PF with TT and AQ.
3 – raising PF with PP’s.
4 – Ultimately adding position to my game.
5 – Limp less often and mostly go into a hand by being the aggressor with a PF raise.

I have recently added strong CB’s to my game and even firing a second shell on the turn when I think my opponent will drop. Watching how often players are folding to this aggression leads me to want to do it with a larger range of hands. So here’s where I want to be. Raising PF with a wider range of hands. I’ve noticed how many times I raise with the Big 5 and everyone folds - half the time or close. By adding in more PF raising hands I get 2 things: More chances to win the blinds and by playing more hands, loosening up my table image, thereby getting more calls with my premium hands. So basically win-win. And when they call my PF raise they will fold on the flop to my Continuation Bet at least half the time. (They will miss their hand 2/3 of the time, but will have an over-pr or overs to the board sometimes that they also just won’t fold. Majority of the time they fold un-hit overs though. So I estimate that they fold slightly over half the time, maybe 60%.) This makes these addenda to my game +EV. (Hopefully.) That is why I move slowly so I can watch the full effects on my game and make adjustments where deemed necessary. If it doesn’t do what I thought it would it least I know exactly what I changed. If I add lots of things I don’t know what has done what. This way I can easily go back to the drawing board.

So I am starting with my calling of average PF raises with small to mid PP’s. This still leads to very safe postflop decisions because either I hit my set or I don’t. So basically I just need to verify if I am making money by calling raises with losing hand the majority of the time. We shall see.