LOOSE/TIGHT PLAY OF ONLINE POKER

Everything that you read and everything that everyone will tell you is to play tight...look at your stats...the flops that you saw...how many hands in position...how many hands out of position...BB....SB. Well that's all fine and dandy, but let me say this..."if you never get in a hand YOU WILL BE BLINDED OUT" and "if you sit there all day waiting for that AK...it comes...now as you are suppose to, raise to narrow the field and the more you raise, the narrower the field as you don't want junk hands getting in there flopping two pair...so now you got the field that you want, however you gave up a lot of chips to get it that way and then you place a continuation bet to show strength, giving up more valuable chips...and the sad story is that you never hit for the full table of cards and some donk with junk didn't care about your pre-flop raise, got in any way and beat you with a pair of deuces...because once he hits a pair, he ain't leaving, no matter what you bet...I once had an opponent call over 18,000 worth of chips (his full stack) for the full hand with a Q, Q, J flop, a 9 turn and a 8 river with 3 suited cards, because he had pocket deuces....yes he had me beat...I had AK suited with 4 suits of the opposite suites and was trying to bet him out!...now would you call all those chips, with that board...when all you had was pocket deuces!

The thought that you have waited a long time for strong pockets and so somehow you should be able to take down a pot is a myth...it gets down to the fact that no matter what, you still have to hit and hit better than your opponent.

Getting good pockets and then trying to win the hand...cost a lot of chips...and then in more cases than not...you fail!

now for the same amount of chips...how many late position flops could you have seen with a limp, with not such great of hands...got out easily if it didn't hit...and if it did hit big, it would be a sneaky hand that would make you a lot of chips without the risk of your suited AK or QQ.

Now lets say that you wait all day for your AK...you are viewed as tight...the flop hits a A or a K...you are the first better and no matter how small you bet...all your opponents throw in their cards...was it really worth it!...or you are not suited and you hit your A or K or both and your 45 suited harts opponent hits a flush...very costly again!

When I first started out...I use to play very tight and then a tournament would get to middle or later stages and I was always the small stack with monstrous stacks around me and all the big stack would then pick on me since I was easy non-risky prey...not a nice feeling.

Playing those smaller suited connectors or even gapped connectors can hide some very strong hands, gotten out of easily and cheaply if they don't hit and bring in humongous piles when they do hit, because they can be so hidden away on the table board.

You have to play to win...and you have to justify how you are going to use those chips to see the most amount of flops that you can...because in most cases you are not going to win unless you flop them!

Just look at Gus Hansen...he is a master at it!...don't sit around all day with your thumb up your butt waiting for those great pocket cards...remember AA can be beaten easily and it doesn't come around often!

And when you do look at your stats...remember it's not the amount of hands that you get into...it's the amount of wins that you have with the amount of hands that you got into....If you got into 30% hands, which is high, but win 80% of the 30% then you are doing good...you also have to look at how many chips were won with the 30% hands...it doesn't mean much if you are just taking down small blinds.

lately when I get AA, i am lucky if I get a small blind for it...a game yesterday gave me AA four times in less than 15 hands and I made nothing...and I never went all-in with them....I have had many times AA in the big blind, everyone throws in and when it comes to the small blind he doesn't even call the half bet...are you going to wait around all day for that shit!

Sigh, people really don't understand tight play do they? What you just described is tight play in early position on a 10 person table. Playing like that in all positions or on smaller tables is just plain dumb. I suspect people take things too literally, someone says play tight so that's what they do. What was meant was something rather more complex than the simple phrase indicates.

I don't want to say exactly how I play but I'll give you a clue. UTG my minimum hands would be QJs or ATo. On the button and I'm right down to 54s and things like 96s. But most people would say I was a tight player!!! That's not what the simple advice play tight sounds like is it? But like I said, ignoring position is crazy and not what is meant by playing tight.

Right on Dog...but many times you are tagged a loose player for the simple fact that you are in more than 16% of the hands...yet are winning a much higher percent than the percent of hands that you are in.

I agree that you don't need to wait for top hands... I have always been a frequent limper in the early stages of tournaments.
When you break this one down I would gess it was a very good read (being able to put you on AK) rather than a donk move. You bet the flop, turn, and river (I'm guessing)... I would have to assume you somehow put him on an underpair if you bluffed on every street including the river on that board.

Right Fink...I knew that he didn't hit, but I did not put him on pockets of any type. However I did put him down as a donk because of his previous and post plays...I just think he was proud of his pocket deuces and was trying to turn them into a set which in turn would turn his hand into a full house deuces full of queens!...but my God that is a lot of chips to call pre-flop, flop, turn and river...now one can look at me and say yea and you bet a lot when you actually had nothing...but I have to go back and say...you need a much better hand to call with than you need to bet with and I had all kinds of possibilities with high cards, straights, flushes and such!

I have found out that both ways work. Some tournaments you can wait for the good cards and the cards will do all the work for you. Other tournaments you have to play crap and bluff your way to a good result. Tight/aggressive and loose/aggressive are both winning ways. It's just depends what style suits you most.

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That's Poker