question and discussion on Fergusons strategy remarks

Hey there,

I was watching some of the video´s they have on full tilt (academy) where pro´s talk you through their sessions.

I saw Ferguson saying there he changed his preflop strategy recently. Nowadays, in full ring cash games, he only minraises preflop, from all positions. (instead of before, he used to raise 2bb from utg or blinds, 2.5bb from middle and 3 to 3.5bb from late position)

I, however, am inclined to think minraising or not raising enough preflop can be the worst thing to do in NL holdem. But maybe that´s only true in the micro-stakes I play.

What do you guys think: what could be the advantage of minraising preflop? Why would someone like Ferguson do it?
Could this be a money-making strategy at micro stakes? I don´t think so.

I think your intuition about it not being an optimal strategy at the micros is accurate.
That being said, thinking outside of the box and/or making adjustments based on game dynamics can never be a bad thing imo.

So he's advocating minraising any hand he plays from any position? I'd love to hear his reasoning. Did he just say that and not give you a reason that he's chosen to do that? Ferguson is incredibly smart and incredibly wealthy, but this sounds like a bad idea in general. You would think this would simply get too much action all the time, you'd be giving people odds to call so often. You might as well be going for the family pot limp-fests, not much difference.
I wonder if this could be because at the higher levels people raise, 3bet and even 4bet with so much consistency with a wide range of hands and Chris is just minimizing how much he might have to lay down?

There could be many reasons, but personally, I find spending time analyzing what the top pros are doing to be "entertainment" and not very valuable to my game. Is there any reason to think about optimal raising sizes at 2-10NL? Or would time better be spent making one more "easy" lay down on a dry board vs a nit? I suspect the latter.

Off topic rant in 3,2,1: Many of our fellow BCers focus on the wrong things. This may be a prefect example, not trying to offend either. It is great to have a thirst for knowledge, but we must accept that our thirst for THIS type of knowledge is similar to high school girls wondering what type of lip gloss Britney Spears wears. In another words if this something that interest you should go ahead and learn it but don't count it as part of your "study" time for poker.

Rant Over

If it doesn't matter, then why do you raise how much you raise as your standard preflop raise or do you just limp every hand like a fish? When you 3bet, how big do you 3bet? If you posted a hand and someone told you that you 3bet too small or two big, would you care? Would you just blindly listen?
I think understanding the mathmatical reasons behind the best choices is what seperates us from the masses and hopefully seperates THEM from their CHIPS.
While I did comment that the pros play at a level where things might be different enough to make a change like this +EV, I've reconsidered. This came from their Poker Academy. While I don't agree with everything they teach, this material is supposed to be for the common joe. Chris must have a reasoning behind teaching this and I'd just like to know what it is.

Of course is this entertainment. You just can´t use the pro-strategies to amateur low stakes games. That's a one-way ticket to bankrupcy. I just wondered what would be the reason behind this. But i cannot honestly believe he means this! Consider playing a pro game in the bellagio with Ferguson, Hansen, Hellmuth and Gordon, and only minraising!

Have you seen the past few Poker After Darks with Hellmuth? He's got this limping/minraising thing going. It's total crap poker, but he's convinced himself he's so genious it's good.