am i setting myself up?

warning: long post, so bear with me, and thanks to anyone who gets through the whole thing.

ive been playing NL for a little over a year now. just a little backround, i play in a $30-$50 buy-in tournament style home game every wednesday and sometimes saturdays, usually 8 players. every few weeks i head down to foxwoods and play on the NL tables they got there, $1/$2 blinds, $100 max buy-in. usually go with $200, see what heppens.

if i entered a pot i raised only with AA, KK, QQ or AKs or AQs, limped in with pocket jacks down to twos, and also AQ, AJ, AT, any suited ace, KQ, KJ, KT but would fold those hands to a reasonable raise and if i respected the raiser or was out of position. at the home game this led to me getting in the money about 1/4 of the time and at the woods either breakin even, being a little below or being up a bit. rarely did i try to steal blinds and on the flop and after it i stayed away from draws only if i had two overs and it was cheap to play. if i had no piece of the flp i never bluffed, and even if i had middle pair i would check and see what happened, usually leading me to check/fold. i won the majority of showdowns but i also saw that many times i folded the winning hand. this led to me trying out a new strategy...

now, i play basically the same hands, but also more connecters and suited connecters and one gap suited connecters. ive also been raising any pot that i enter, varying the size of my raises to keep others off guard. examples, raising 6xBB with a 89s and then ten hands later raising 3xBB with KK, then coming over the top on the reraise. most of the time i fold if i think im beat, but sometimes ill still call a raise with the 89s to see a flop, with my thinking being that ive got an idea as to what the other player(s) have just by them reraising me. hands on the button dont have to be as good, and ive been stealing more blinds and antes. if i dont hit a good draw on the flop, 2 pair, or a set, with a suited connector or other weak hand i get away from the hand if its getting expensive. if i get any piece of the flop im firing out, my two mottos now being: If you are in a pot with me, get your chips ready and No Free Cards. ive taken alot of pots with the other guy foldin and me havin the worst hand, but ive gotten caught more at showdowns with middle pair or a busted draw.

ive been in the money the past 6 home games, where top three get paid, and this past weekend at the woods i went there with 200 and left with 380. even though its working, im a little worried. i fear that im just on a rush and i dont want to put my whole game on this new style. my buddies keep getting on me that it wont work forever. i kinda think im getting so good at the home game maybe not cause of the style, but because we've been playing together for over a year and we all know each other. also, was i just hot at the woods and lucky, you know? i keep thinking, if it aint broke dont fix it, but i also fear being that reckless guy who starts burning out and getting caught stealing more and more.

i know the best thing to do is adapt your style, be a chameleon and keep people on edge. anyone else experiment this drastically with their strategy, and if so, did you stick with it as much when things went sour as when they were running good? thanks alot guys.

Yes, I recently went through a similiar phase you did. I pretty much adapted my game to stop calling raises all together pre flop. I figure if you raise the pot before hand and you raise the flop (No matter what cards come out) Then it sends alarms through the other players heads about what you could possibly have. Therefore everypot I play I try to be the aggressor as much as possible. of course there's an occasional limp from spots from the button with a suited two gapper.

What has it done for me? Won me a lot more money playing at home games and online. I always want to be the one putting pressure on other peoples chips, however now when I play with a group of friends, about 4 of them have my game pegged. Watching me play online in tournaments for hours, and then trying to pull a re-raise on them in a home game doesn't work to well. So now I have to find a new strategy to beat them, but other then them it works fine.

Thats the thing with this game, you constantly have to change up your play, especially important when you end up playing with the same group of people on a daily or weekly basis. I played with the same group of guys 3 times a week for over a year in cash games, and found that I would do better when I altered my play a bit. You don't want to be known as the "Rock" in a home game, because then only the select few morons will get involved with you in any pot you enter. You have to be willing to mix things up a bit, play a bit looser, but play tighter post-flop.

As far as playing in the B+M arena, its more important to play a solid game and be patient. There will be a constant flow of new players coming into the game bringing new money with them. Patience is the key in a B+M. If you play a solid game, some schmuck who just watched the travel channel will be more than happy to give you his money eventually.

Yeah, aggression is truly the key in NL. Sounds like you guys have come to this correct realization...

Welcome to the board Chef, and good reply.

Like he said, in games where you play the same people alot, you need to switch gears alot. At the casino, just find the fish who wants to give you their money and play solid against them.