On preflop:

I see a lot of discussion on preflop and stats. People make 15k, 20k, and 30k hand checkups all the time, hoping that someone can help them improve their game purely by stats. Preflop stats are especially a popular subject. I would like to touch on this.

I'm not sure who said it, but the quote, "preflop is a preference" is very good advice. I've seen players with a wide variety of stats who have done very well. Gabe is a great example of a very loose aggressive player who has great success, my friend Lyric is a great example of a TAGG who is also very successful, Cocco_Bill is a great example of a semi-tight passive who does extremely well, and there are a lot of guys inbetween, like myself, who have had success with semi-LAGG stats inbetween.

What a lot of people don't explain is why preflop is a preference, and what preference is suitable for what type of player. This is something i'll explain now.

I run about 24/19, i raise a lot of junk in position and play pretty tight in early position. I also like to cold call CO and sometimes MP raises on the Button with suited K's and Q's, along with sc junk and other things, although this all depends on how well i know the raiser and how loose/tight he is. The reason i play the way i do preflop is because 1. I feel i play well in position 2. I'm not that great OOP 3. i like being aggressive 4. i feel like i read hands very well, which allows me to get thin value and forces me to think hard about many situations. Therefore, i play a lot in position, never open limp, and play tight in early. I also don't cold call very much from the blinds, although again, my blind play depends on who i'm against.

Now some people like to play tighter, like 17/14, or around there. Just like the reasons for playing 24/19, there are also reasons for playing 17/14. The reasons for this i don't know as deeply, but a few reasons may be 1. You don't like playing in marginal situations post flop 2. You like to be the aggressor 3. You feel that people are usually calling stations and will pay you off. These are just a few of many possible reasons for playing around 17/14. A good example of this kind of player is ActionDJ, who i'm pretty sure is a solid 200NL winner.

These are the most common preflop stats. Others like 20/10's and Gabe copy cats (who probably can run as loose as 40% VPIP sometimes) have more obscure reasons for why they play like they do. Gabe is probably very good at seeing people's psychology, how they will react to certain situations. This allows gabe to play tons of hands because as well as determining a range well he knows what people will do with certain parts of this range. 20/10's probably are very good at turn and river play, because they will have to pick off a lot of cont bets, which i'm sure CoccoBill is very very good at.

So next time you think of posting a 20k checkup and ask if your preflop stats are good, you should really consider how well anyone can answer these questions. Sometimes you need to look at yourself and try to determine what you need to do by chatting personally with a close friend or just thinking yourself.

That being said, i'd also like to touch on ISF's ladder theory because i think it has relevance to this post. There are probably certain preflop stats that maximize you EV, i view a 16/13 pretty much the same as a 17/14, and will pay him off the same. Therefore it may be better to play 16/13 instead of 17/14, or maybe tighter than 16/13. Same goes for 24/19 as opposed to 27/22 or something like that. But this is wayyy wayy to complicated and theoretical to even talk about.

In Response to Vi-ZeroSkill:
What you said is exactly the reason why i want to do this. I agree that posts like, "that bet is terrible" is probably more hurtful than helpful. I just sometimes get frustrated with the basic or naive quality of a question or the poster, and make a frustrated response. This is not an excuse, i'll try to just not post at all if i'm frustrated.

With this blog i hope the FTR guys will be able to undertsand these standard concepts better.

I feel like this is a very good start.