ABC Poker, and When to Mix It Up.
I've been around a while, and can say that while I have learned a lot, I cannot purport to being an expert. Every once in a while though I realize something, or pick up some small piece of information, and for as much as I've taken from this community, I feel the need to give every little bit back that I can.
Quite often, we'll see people come into the lounge, and talk about mixing up their play, and trying to play "sub-optimally" in order to extract a few extra bets. They refer to these types of shennanigans as "mixing it up". Just as often, you'll have the seasoned pro's come into the thread and say. Play ABC poker, at these levels you can only out think yourself.
Then comes the inevitable question: Well when should I start to mix it up?
It's not something I can tell you in a definitive term. I can't say, play ABC till $4/8 limit, and go nuts at 5/10 limit. I can't say at 25nl every 1000th play should be advertising and thus, bad. (In fact, both of those two things are grossly incompetent, and I never, ever advocate either) What I can tell you is this:
The moment it's time to make a play on someone, or to mix it up to throw that player off, there won't be a shadow of doubt in your mind. You'll simply know. Yes that's right, I'm giving you the "how do I know you're in love" answer that your Father spoonfed you while you were growing up.
So why is it that you will "know" when it's time to put a play on them? Playing poker at an ABC level things get boring. I'm pretty positive I could play a pair of aces in my sleep these days. You can do one of two things during this stage, you can either A) read the internet, chat, post on FTR, listen to music, or talk on the phone while you play poker or B) study your opponents.
The reason you know it's time to put a move on your opponent is because you've observed your opponent, and figgured out how he'll react to a certain sitation. It's when you KNOW how your opponent is going to react, and not how you THINK he will react is when you've made the breakthrough.
Case in point. Playing several times tonight, on the turn, a really aggressive player sititng to my right got into a horrible raising war on the turn. I figgured each of these times he had a set, or top two, or even a straight, but both times he flipped over a turned draw. Not a good draw either, like bottom split pair and a gutshot. But then on the turn one time, he completed the nut flush draw, and he just check/called and tried to swindle another bet on the river.
That's right, this guy is a horrible player, AND plays his hands backwards on the turn. So there I am with Top set on the turn, I bet, he just calls. What's wierd about this, is that the 3rd flush card hit just now, and he's just calling. He checks to me, and I stop and think about it. I realize that I've seen how this guy plays and now he's trying to trap me for bets with a better hand. So I check. Lunacy, Top set on the turn on a 3-flush board and I'm checking to someone at .25/.50. That's not ABC Poker. ABC Poker is to bet! The river bricks, he bets, I puke/fold. He shows me the Flush. I mixed it up somewhere that every top player here would tell me I'm nuts for, and made the right decision, because I knew what he was doing, and I knew what the outcome was to that decision.
Later that night I got into a raising war with this guy with middle pair on the turn. He Showed down a busted Gutshot with bottom pair and I raked in a healthy pot. He called me retarded because I was willing to cap with a "lousy pair of 8's". I mixed it up and won the hand, and tilted the player, and induced a mentality at the table that "I'm retarded". People will tell you that you can't create a table image at a small stakes table. Those same people should have seen the way the table played me from that point on. So, just so we're clear, what we've done here is A) mixed it up, B) tilted a player and C) created a table image that intimidate opponents. At the .25/.50 level of limit poker.
I'm not saying that every player is a thinking player, capable of being outplayed. Your job at the table is to identify a thinking player, and figgure out what he's thinking, and then jump one level ahead, and profit. You simply can't be ahead of your opponent if you aren't paying attention to how he reacts to certain situations.
So that's my answer. Study your opponents, look for how they handle certain situations, and more importantly, look to see if they handle that same situation next time in a predictable manner. Most players play like a vending machine. You put money in the machine, push the button, and you get a soda. Except they limp from MP, call your isolation raise, peel to the turn, and then fold.... every damn time. This guy exists at every table you and I have ever played at, it's time you figgure out who it is, and fleece him. By mixing it up, and raising with T4o to isolate, and if you get him all to yourself, bet the flop and bet the turn.
